By: Barry Steinmetz, M.D., Associate Medical Director, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition Center, Miller Children’s & Women’s Hospital Long Beach | Thousands of children in the United States are living with pediatric digestive and nutritional disorders because gastrointestinal conditions and its symptoms aren’t always recognized and every child’s body is different. When it comes to getting to the “bottom” of the matter, the color of their bowel movement can indicate good or poor gastrointestinal health.
As a parent, it is hard enough to keep your kids healthy, or know when there is something else going on underneath the surface. Your child’s bowel movements can prove to be a helpful, colorful road map to understanding what is going on with their health.
The color of your child’s stool can indicate the current state of their health by giving clues about their diet, their lifestyle or, most importantly, if your child might have a gastrointestinal infection or disease. If your child’s gastrointestinal (GI) tract is not functioning correctly, it presents itself through different bowel movement colors:
- Light brown to dark brown
This indicates that your child’s GI tract appears healthy. - Black
This could indicate that your child is bleeding from the upper part of their GI tract. This also can result from your child eating dark colored foods like black licorice or blueberries, or having an increased iron intake in their diet. Iron supplemetation or use of Peptobismal can also cause black stool. - Red
This could indicate that your child is bleeding from the lower part of their GI tract. This can result from inflammatory bowel disease or your child eating too many red foods like beets or red dyes in foods. - Yellow
This can be the normal stool color in infants. - White or light grey
This could indicate a blockage in the liver preventing bile, the yellow fluid stored in the gallbladder that gives stool the yellow/green/brown color, from getting out of the liver. - Green
This could indicate that your child’s stool is passing through their intestines rapidly (diarrhea), not allowing enough time for complete normal stool change in color from its initial yellow to green to brown. This also can result from viral diarrhea or eating too many green foods like spinach or other green vegetables.
It also is important to note that a one-time color change in your child’s stool may not be significant as it can be reflective of dietary intake or even normal bacterial change in color. Persistent change in stool color can be a clue to your child’s GI health. If the color changes remain persistent you should consult your pediatrician, especially if these changes are accompanied by other symptoms like
abdominal discomfort, loss of appetite, loss of weight, diarrhea and other unusual problems.
If you feel your child is suffering from a pediatric gastrointestinal condition, or would like to learn more, contact the Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition Center at 800-MEMORIAL or visit MillerChildrens.org/GI.