Babies who breastfeed poo twice as much as babies fed with bottles

Women who are breastfed obviously have twice as many diapers for change than mothers who eat food, according to scientists.

Babies produce much more when they feed on breast milk, according to a new study.

Their average daily incidence is 4.9 poos and 3.2 poos in the first and second month of life.

This compares with 2,3 and 1,5 among babies receiving milk type, according to the journal Acta Paediatrica.

On the other hand, rare stools are three times as likely in the breast than breast-feeding babies – 28% versus 8%.

They also tend to be runnier.

In the study, exclusively breastfeeding infants produced more stools from exclusive infants who received food during the first two months and more fluid stools during the first three.

Participants in the study were born at the Jeanne de Flandre Hospital of the University of Lille, France.

They were monitored for three months, with parents recording the number and consistency of stools once a week and the number of consecutive days without poles at all.

Rear writer Dr. Emilie Moretti, a pediatrician at Arras Hospital in northern France, said: "The habit of the pups is strongly influenced by their diet.

"Breastfed infants spend more stools and wet stools than nursing babies and breastfeeding is thought to prevent constipation."

She said that breast milk contributes to weight gain and regular urine and faecal discharge.

Parents are advised that infants should have at least three soft stools daily during the first four to six weeks of life.

But some may not have bowel movements for several days or even weeks.

Mr Moretti said: "Healthcare providers are usually referred to in this situation as rare faeces or rare bowel movements in breastfed infants despite the absence of discomfort such as hard feces and no crying or distress during the deforestation ".

However, in the early months of life there was surprisingly little research on baby stools.

Thus, her group compared the feces of 53 newborns, 40 of whom were breastfeeding and the others gave the formula only.

Moretti said: "The incidence of stools was significantly higher in infants breastfed exclusively by infants breastfeeding exclusively during the first and second months of life, but not the third month of life.

"The weekly analysis showed that the difference in the incidence of feces between the two dedicated feeding groups decreased during the follow-up period and was not significant from the eighth week of life."

The underlying mechanisms of rare faecal syndrome are unknown. Theories include better digestion of fat in breast milk or a greater number of bacteria in the intestines of sugar-breaking babies.

Mr Moretti said: "Rare feces should be taken into account by healthcare providers in order to avoid unnecessary medical research that can be harmful and costly.

However, careful history and clinical examination of the infant is of the utmost importance so that clinicians can rule out any underlying organic diseases such as Hirschsprung's disease.

This is a rare and serious congenital bowel disorder that makes it difficult for babies to pass the stools. It affects one in 5,000 babies, mostly boys.