Friday, April 30, 2010

Stool Concerns in Kids

Bile is secreted by liver, which is green in color, when it passes down, gradually from small intestine to large intestine, color changes from green to yellow due to other intestinal secretions. But if transit time (time it takes to cross both intestines) is less, it doesn’t get time to change to yellow, and stool passed as green in color. So green stools just means that intestinal motility is increased.

It may or may not be infection.
If it is associated with high grade fever, vomiting or associated with blood or mucus in stool, then
it’s probably due to infection, which needs stool examination, otherwise you can wait it to settle down by itself.

Usually such stools if it was because of infection may follow to persist for some weeks, esp in top feed children, because of secondary lactose intolerance (acidic stools) afterwards. Such problems are not common if child is exclusively breast feed in first six months. For this, you just need to wait for some time to settle down gradually. But if this extent for long period, you need to discuss with your doctor too, which may need repeated stool tests. In most cases, it settles of its own.

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