A practical guide for parents from infancy through adolescence
It might not be the most glamorous topic, but bowel habits tell us a lot about your child’s health. From the color and texture of infant stools to the tricky years of toilet training and school bathrooms, poop evolves with age, and so does what “normal” looks like. This month, we’re breaking it down: color, texture, frequency, constipation, withholding, and what to do. Comfortable bowels mean a more comfortable child.
What’s Normal Depends on Age
Infants (0–12 months): Infant stool patterns are heavily influenced by feeding methods, gut development, and new foods.
Breastfed babies: Stools are typically mustard yellow to seedy light brown, loose, and sometimes watery. Frequency ranges from every feeding to every few days — both can be normal if stools are soft and baby is feeding and gaining weight well. Exclusively breastfed babies often go days in between pooping because they absorb nearly everything they take in.
Formula-fed babies: Stools are typically tan, brown, or greenish, pasty or peanut-butter-like in texture, and usually once a day or every other day.
Solids-fed babies (around 4–6 months): Once solids begin, everything changes: odor, color, consistency, and volume. Stools become bulkier and more formed. Dietary colors show up in diapers, such as orange from carrots, green from peas, or deep purple from beets. As long as stools are soft and baby is not in pain, these changes are normal.
Toddlers & Preschoolers (1–5 years): When solids are the main diet, stool should be brown or dark brown, soft, formed “logs” or “snakes,” and passed without straining or tears. Typical frequency is one to three times per day, or at least every other day in a comfortable, pain-free pattern. The potty-training years often bring the first major battles with poop. Toddlers may resist sitting on the potty, become anxious after one painful bowel movement, hold it rather than interrupt play, or request diapers specifically for pooping. This is an age when constipation patterns begin, and they can follow children for years if not addressed early.
School-Age Kids & Teens: At this stage, stool patterns reflect routine, hydration, stress, sports schedules, and bathroom access. Normal stool is brown, soft, formed like a banana or sausage, and passed once a day or every other day without pain. Diets heavy in processed snacks, cheese, and bread, low fluid intake, or busy schedules often contribute to irregular patterns. Many school-age children and teens also start withholding because of public bathroom anxiety, embarrassment, or a belief that their body simply “doesn’t need to go” at school. That is usually nervous system suppression, not biological reality.
Color, Texture, and Red Flags
Green: Common in infants, especially those who drink iron-fortified formulas, spinach consumption, or viral illnesses. Usually harmless.
Yellow: Common in infants or during rapid transit diarrhea.
Brown: The ideal color in almost every age group.
Black or tarry: May indicate digested blood or iron supplementation. If your child is not taking iron, call your pediatrician.
White or clay-colored: Can indicate bile flow or liver issues if persistent. Call your pediatrician.
Red: Often due to anal fissures or food dyes, but may indicate bleeding. Call if bright red blood persists or if stool is maroon or burgundy.
Texture is just as important as color. Healthy stool holds its shape, does not crumble like dry dirt, and does not ooze like soup. Painful, rock-hard stools, long gaps between bowel movements, or very large stools that clog toilets suggest the colon is holding the stool too long and absorbing too much water. On the opposite side, watery stool outside of the newborn period, especially when accompanied by mucus, fever, or abdominal pain, may signal infection, food intolerance, or inflammatory conditions.
Constipation: What It Really Is
Constipation is not simply “not going every day.” Constipation is hard, dry, or painful stool; stool that is intentionally held; stool so large it stretches the rectum; or accidents and leakage due to overflow. The most common constipation across infancy to adolescence is functional constipation, not caused by disease, but by behavior, diet, and environments.
Age-specific causes
Infants: swallowing changes, formula transitions, introduction of solids.
Toddlers: potty resistance, fear after one painful stool, excessive milk consumption, limited hydration.
Kids and teens: ignoring urges, withholding at school, low-fiber diets, dehydration, busy schedules, anxiety, or stress.
Practical Tools by Age
Infants
Start with non-medication strategies: warm baths, abdominal massage, tummy time, and bicycling legs. For mild constipation once solids begin, small amounts of prune, pear, or apple juice may help. Glycerin suppositories can be used sparingly for rare rescue, but they are not a long-term solution or bowel-training tool.
Babies 6 months and up
Diet changes begin to matter more. Offer pureed fruits such as prunes, pears, peaches, and vegetables with natural fiber. Offer water with meals (no more than 6 oz per day for 6-12 month olds) . Reduce constipating foods like rice cereal, bananas, or large amounts of cheese.
Children and Teens
Behavioral routines are the most effective intervention. Have your child sit on the toilet after meals when the bowel naturally contracts. Make sure feet are supported to relax the pelvic floor. Allow timed sits with a book or quiet activity. Praise effort, not output.
Withholding: The Hidden Driver
Withholding is the most overlooked cause of ongoing constipation. Children hold stool to avoid discomfort, because they are busy, because they dislike bathrooms, or because they are anxious. The cycle is predictable: the child holds stool; the colon retains it longer; water is reabsorbed; the stool becomes harder; bowel movements hurt; the child holds more. Eventually, softer stool leaks around the hard mass and soils underwear. Parents often believe it is diarrhea, but it is actually overflow from constipation.
Potty Training Withholding
Many children will urinate on the potty but insist on diapers for stool. Others strain and insist nothing is there. This is normal. Passing stool requires motor skills, relaxation, and body awareness. The solution is not pressure or punishment. Provide stable foot support, predictable bathroom routines, and celebrate effort rather than results. If constipation or painful stool occurs, soften stool so they can rebuild trust.
School-Age and Teens
Older children often withhold silently. They may avoid school bathrooms due to cleanliness, noise, or embarrassment. They may claim they “never have to go” at school. They do. Their nervous system is suppressing the urge. Create consistent bathroom habits, increase hydration, normalize conversations about bowels, pack water with sports gear, and limit dehydrating drinks like soda or energy beverages.
MiraLAX and Osmotic Laxatives
Polyethylene glycol (MiraLAX) draws water into stool to soften it. It does not stimulate cramps or push stool through the intestines, which is why pediatricians often recommend it. It can be safe for children older than six months when directed by your pediatrician. It works best with hydration and consistency. Parents often treat constipation like a one-dose problem. In reality, once a child is backed up, correcting constipation is a multi-week plan. The stool must soften, the rectum must shrink back to its normal size, the nerves must regain their sensitivity, and the child must relearn trust in their body. Stopping treatment too soon is one of the top reasons constipation comes back.
Fiber, Probiotics, and What Actually Helps
Fiber can help if your child’s baseline intake is low, but it is not a cure-all. If constipation is caused by withholding, stress, bathroom avoidance, or rectal stretching, fiber alone will not fix it. Probiotics may support overall gut health, but they are not primary treatment for functional constipation. Their effect is mild and inconsistent unless a specific gastrointestinal condition is present.
When to Call Your Pediatrician
Call us if pooping hurts, stools resemble pebbles, stools contain bright red blood, withholding lasts weeks or months, teens refuse to use bathrooms, there are long gaps between bowel movements, stools are white, gray, tarry, or black, or if vomiting and abdominal pain occur with lack of stool.
Healthy bowel habits are learned. From your newborn’s first diaper to your teenager navigating school bathrooms, consistency, comfort, and compassion shape lifelong patterns. If your child is struggling, reach out. Sometimes small changes make a big difference, and sometimes we need to work together as a team. Your pediatricians at South Riding Pediatrics and Farrell Pediatrics are here to help your child and your family feel better.
