Normal bowel habit during the first 6 weeks in healthy, term infants

Objective The bowel habit in the first few weeks is relevant in the assessment of symptoms which are often nonspecific and may or may not be indicative of underlying pathology. There is very little available data. We therefore undertook a study to investigate the normal bowel habit in healthy, term infants.

Design, setting and sample Infants were assessed by the health visitor at the initial contact (10–14 days) and at the 6-week check. Details of feeding method and bowel habit were collected by simple questionnaire.

Results A total of 238 infants were recruited after 14 exclusions; 87.3% of babies passed meconium within 24 and 99.2% within 48 hours of birth. The majority of infants at 2 weeks passed at least one stool every day (95.3%). At 6 weeks most babies (87.8%) continued to pass a daily stool, although the range widened, with 98.3% passing a stool within the range three or more per day to once every 3 days.

Implications for practice This study suggests in the first 2 weeks of life that most infants have a daily bowel motion. By 6 weeks, although the range has increased, 98.3% will have a bowel motion at least once every 3 days. This means a bowel frequency of less than every 3 days is unusual and requires consideration of underlying pathology.