Significant Symptoms and Conditions.—In an artificially fed baby, the normal condition of the bowels is constipation. The stools are formed, alkaline in reaction, rather hard, and usually only one a day.
The stools should have a characteristic color, according to the food taken. Thus:
Sugar or starch will color the movement a dark brown, like vaseline.
Too much fat gives a pale yellow stool, almost white, like putty.
Eiweiss feedings show as a pale yellow, somewhat like the fatty stools, but constipated.
Barley water gives a brown liquid stool.
Starvation stools are thin, slimy, dark brown or green.
The consistency of the movements is also important.
Too much sugar or starch means diarrhœa, with thin, green, acid stools, and much gas and regurgitation, or, sometimes foamy, mucous discharges.
Diarrhœa may also be due to indigestion. Mucus in the stools usually signifies intestinal irritation.