Is it Normal for My Baby's Poop to Be So Watery?

For first time parents everything is a mystery, and everything is of concern. Why is she crying? Why doesn't she sleep? Is she eating enough? The questions are endless.

Well, for the last few days, our baby's poop has been quite watery. So my wife and I have been wondering if it is normal for baby poop to be so watery. It is to the point where it seems she has diarrhea or something.

Sure, I'll admit that since we are first time parents we are probably concerned about lots of things that we don't need to be concerned about. I mean, every time she cries we are worried she might have some sort of baby disease. I am sure we will start to get less stressed as parents as time goes on. But this does concern us because our daughter hasn't been eating as much as she did before. She's somewhat small for her age to begin with, so we want her to feed well. And sometimes she cries right in the middle of her feeding. I wrote about this in my previous article:

Baby acid reflux?

As indicated in my previous article, we thought she might have acid reflux...and to a certain extent we still do think so. But now we are also thinking that maybe she is having digestive problems. Could the watery poop be evidence that her little tummy is having problems?

Well apparently, the answer is probably not. Pediatricians say that it is quite normal for infants to have watery stool. This is because their newborn intestines are not quite developed, so the food is not absorbed very well and much of it is excreted into the stool. Once babies are a few months old, they will be able to absorb food better. At that point their stool will become thicker and probably less frequent. As long as the baby is alert, sleeping well and continuing to gain weight, pediatricians say not to be concerned.

That makes logical sense...but it's still difficult to watch your baby cry, especially during feedings. We are continuing to monitor her weight gain, and she does sleep ok at night. So that alleviates some of our concern. But we still can't help being a little uneasy. Is this just "first time parents" syndrome? Perhaps...I guess we'll have to wait and see...and hope for the best.

If you have any thoughts or comments on this, please share them.