CONSTIPATION
The first bowel movement after birth is known as meconium and is a dark brownish-green color, and of a semi-solid consistency. During the first two or three days the bowels move from four to six times daily. On the third day the character of the stools begin to change and by the fourth day the feces has become normal.
The normal stool of a normal nursing infant is about the color of the yolk of an egg, and may be slightly green. The average amount is about two ounces daily. The stools should never be watery, but of a butter-like consistency. During the first few weeks the infant’s bowels will move on an average of four times daily. After about six weeks the average will be two a day. The stool changes in character as soon as the child is placed upon a mixed diet. It then becomes more like that of an adult but remains softer.
Constipation is one of the most common incoördinations of infancy and childhood. There are many factors to be considered and many things that contribute to the condition. In older children habit plays no small part in aggravating constipation. For this reason the child should be very carefully trained early in life to obey the first call on Nature in this respect.
Normally the infant should have two bowel movements a day, although some have more while others may have only one. Frequent movements do not, however, mean that the child is not constipated or costive. With two or three dry hard stools per day the child would be costive. Constipation is the result of a lack of motor function in the muscular walls of the intestines while costiveness is the result of a lack of secretion due to interference with transmission of secretory mental impulses. The two conditions are often associated. When there is a lack of motor function in the muscular walls the fecal matter will not be forced out of the intestinal tract fast enough and much of the moisture will be absorbed, thus leaving the fecal matter dry and hard. This is not a true costiveness and should not be mistaken for such.
In costiveness there may be colicky pains which may be increased, and may at times be quite severe, when the hard dry fecal matter is passed. The general health of the child may be seemingly normal. In severe cases hemorrhoids and even hernia may be developed from the constant straining.