What should my newborn's poop look like?

While your newborn may already resemble you, her stool won’t. Baby poop comes in a wide variety of colors, consistencies, and frequencies. During the first 24 hours of life, stools are usually thick, sticky, and brownish-black in color—meconium. After the first few days and over the course of the first few weeks, the stools of breastfed babies lighten in color from black to brown to green to yellow. They also change consistency from sticky to seedy to cottage cheese-like to even looser. In contrast, formula fed babies often have stools that are thicker in consistency and light brown in color.

A baby’s “poop” of stool will change with age, type of feeding and circumstances.  A baby’s first stool is meconium.  Usually passed within the first 24 hours after birth, meconium is greenish, black and sticky.   Next the infant will pass a transitional stool which is loose and begins as greenish-brown in color and evolves to a dark yellowish-brown color.  This is the transition between the stool or meconium formed during intrauterine life and to stool being formed as the newborn begin feeding on milk. Infants who are breastfeeding often have earlier and more frequent stools because of the natural laxative effect of Colostrum.  The stool of breastfed infants usually appears bright yellow and mushy and some sources describe the stool of breast-fed infant as “sweet-smelling”.  On the other hand, formula fed babies usually have stool that is dark yellowish-brown in color.

The most important aspect of the "poops" appearance is knowing what is your baby's normal pattern and recognizing changes or deviations.