Colour and spectral reflectance of stools from normal neonatal babies

Abstract: Data is presented on the colour and spectralreflectances of stool samples from healthy young infants(mean age 6 days). The range of spectral reflectances iswell described by a pigment mixture model with threecomponents—a pale component corresponding to par-tially digested milk fats, a yellow component correspond-ing to bilirubin breakdown products, and a darkcomponent corresponding to meconium and bilirubin.Most stools were tan, beige or olive but white, grey andlight grey were also observed. V C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Col Res Appl, 00, 000–000, 2014; Published Online 00 Month 2014 inWiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/col.21919 Key words: spectral measurement; pigment mixtures;stool colour INTRODUCTION Many parents are surprised and fascinated by the stoolcolours of their firstborn. Initially black, as the meconiumwhich is present in the bowel at birth is passed; progres-sively the stools become green and brown, as the meco-nium fraction reduces; until a characteristic mustardyellow colour is reached at roughly 4 days after birth.