The Ultimate Guide to Baby Poop Colors

Whether your baby is formula-fed or drinks breast milk, the color of their poop will probably change quite a bit day by day. And although there's a wide range of normal, some stool colors might indicate a health problem. Thankfully, our baby poop guide is here to help.

Keep reading to learn what the color of your baby's bowel movement means and when you might need to visit the pediatrician. We also included a handy infant poop chart for easy reference.

Baby poop color chart for parents

Illustration by Zoe Hansen

Baby and Newborn Poop Chart

Wondering what your baby's poop color says about their overall health? Use this infant poop chart as a quick guide. Remember to ask your pediatrician about any lingering questions, and don't hesitate to seek medical advice if you're worried something is wrong.

Also note that your baby should begin having stools daily by 3 to 4 days old, and they should have at least three to four soiled diapers a day by the first week of life.

Baby Poop Color Meaning
Yellow Poop Normal for breastfed babies
Tan-Yellow Poop Normal for formula-fed babies 
Brown Poop Normal for babies eating solids 
Green Poop Usually normal. Seek medical advice if your baby also has other worrisome symptoms.
Dark Green Poop Usually indicates baby's first poop (meconium)
Red Poop Often due to medicine, dyes, or blood. Seek medical advice. 
Black Poop Might point to internal bleeding if it happens after the meconium stage. Seek medical advice.
White-Gray Poop Might indicate a serious digestive problem. Seek medical advice right away.

Meconium: Dark Greenish-Black Poop

The first time your baby poops, you'll be confronted with a substance that looks like sticky, greenish-black tar. Called meconium, it's a mixture of amniotic fluid, bile, and secretions from the intestinal glands.

Meconium doesn't smell bad, but it's much harder to clean up than regular poop. You can apply a layer of petroleum jelly to your baby's skin as a barrier, or to help remove to sticky mess if it adheres to your baby's skin.

Meconium is passed sometimes within hours, but at least two to four days, after birth. If your baby does not poop in this timeframe, see a health care provider because it could indicate an intestinal blockage.

Occasionally meconium stools will be passed while your baby is still in utero. As meconium passed prior to birth can indicate fetal distress, your birth team will monitor you more closely during labor to ensure your baby is tolerating labor.

Yellow Baby Poop

Within two to four days of birth, your baby will start having transitional poops—a mixture of meconium and breast milk or formula stools. They're dark green or brown and have a sticky consistency (although they're softer than meconium), but they'll turn yellow once your baby starts to drink more milk or formula.

By the end of the first week, healthy baby poop will start to be made up of bile from the liver, which is added to food when it leaves the stomach, along with bacteria and undigested milk components. It will look different for babies who are breastfed or formula-fed.

  • Breastfed Baby Poop: A breastfed baby's poop will be light yellow, watery, and sometimes seedy. It may remind parents of mustard, cottage cheese, or scrambled eggs.
  • Formula-Fed Baby Poop: If your baby drinks formula, their poop will become yellow-brown, green-tan, or brown in their first or second week. This poop is thick and firm, similar to peanut butter or toothpaste. It might also have a yeasty aroma from the fermentation of sugars in formula, similar to the process that makes bread rise, explains infant nutrition specialist Linda Palmer, author of Baby Poop: What Your Pediatrician May Not Tell You.
  • Combination-Fed Baby Poop: Newborns who get a combination of breast milk and formula also produce brown or dark yellow baby poop.

Brown Baby Poop

When your baby starts eating solid food, a range of healthy bacteria populates their intestines, producing browner and smellier poop. Depending on what your baby ate, it can also be red, orange, green, yellow, or blue. These bowel movements may reveal undigested food chunks, which tend to be very smelly.

Green Baby Poop

While green baby poop could be a sign of a bacterial infection, undigested vegetables and iron-rich foods or supplements can also make your baby's poop appear green. In babies who drink breast milk, frothy green baby poop can also signal foremilk-hindmilk imbalance, which is when the baby gets more of the lower-fat and higher-sugar "foremilk" that's first released during a nursing or pumping session. 

Red Baby Poop

Does your baby have red-tinged poop? It's probably specks of undigested blood from a milk protein intolerance, intestinal infection, or rectal fissure resulting from constipation. Red flecks can also appear when a baby swallows blood (if the nursing parent's nipple is cracked or bleeding when breastfeeding) or from dark-red foods and drinks, like beets. It's wise to call the pediatrician for red baby poop, just in case.

Dark Red or Black Baby Poop

Call a health care provider for any dark red or black baby poop after the meconium stage, since it might indicate gastrointestinal bleeding, says Nanci Pittman, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist and assistant professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. A pediatrician should always check blood in a baby's poop.

Gray or White Baby Poop

Dr. Pittman says chalky white or gray baby poop indicates a liver problem, low bile, or nutrient malabsorption. Contact your pediatrician right away.

Vaginal Mucus

Baby girls will have vaginal mucus after birth. It may be streaked with or contain small amounts of blood, akin to a first period. It's caused by a surge in hormones from the mother. You should not be concerned with this.

If the blood does not seem to be with mucus or comes in the stool, you need to report this to your baby's doctor as it may be a problem.

Constipation or Diarrhea

Wondering how to recognize constipation or diarrhea? Here are the telltale signs.

Diarrhea: Baby diarrhea can manifest as yellow, brown, or green baby poop with a loose, watery consistency. Viral or bacterial infections, food intolerances, antibiotics, or parasites can cause it. Babies with diarrhea are at risk of dehydration, so make sure to monitor them closely.

Constipation: Constipated babies tend to make dark brown or black baby poop. Constipation is thick and hard, resembling small pellets, marbles, or logs. It can happen when fluids and fiber aren't absorbed properly—often from a milk-protein allergy or food intolerance.

Key Takeaways

Baby poop comes in many colors, and most variations are normal. It's common for baby poop to be yellow, brown, and green. If you see other colors in your baby's poop—red, white, black (after the meconium stage), or pale yellow—make an appointment with your doctor to rule out health problems. Silver, wine-red, maroon, or raspberry gel-like poop needs urgent medical attention.

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Sources
Parents uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Neonatal intestinal obstruction: A 15 year experience in a tertiary care hospitalJ Clin Diagn Res. 2016.

  2. Diarrhea in babies. American Academy of Pediatrics. 2015.

  3. Diarrhea in babies. American Academy of Pediatrics. 2015.

  4. Introducing your baby to solid foods FAQs. UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital. n.d.

  5. The Many Colors of Baby Poop. American Academy of Pediatrics. 2022.

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