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What Can We Learn from Baby's First Poop?
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Likes: | 4,973 |
Comments: | 378 |
Duration: | 06:18 |
Uploaded: | 2021-09-13 |
Last sync: | 2024-12-03 01:30 |
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Citation formatting is not guaranteed to be accurate. | |
MLA Full: | "What Can We Learn from Baby's First Poop?" YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 13 September 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWL4kNgIMNA. |
MLA Inline: | (SciShow, 2021) |
APA Full: | SciShow. (2021, September 13). What Can We Learn from Baby's First Poop? [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=pWL4kNgIMNA |
APA Inline: | (SciShow, 2021) |
Chicago Full: |
SciShow, "What Can We Learn from Baby's First Poop?", September 13, 2021, YouTube, 06:18, https://youtube.com/watch?v=pWL4kNgIMNA. |
Poop can be pretty gross, but newborn poop is in a league of its own! We can learn a lot from a baby’s first poop, which forms before it's even had its first meal.
Hosted by: Hank Green
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Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-00904-0
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312818303172
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210429112409.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200708105945.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100827082153.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060720013112.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150713143646.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210510133138.htm
Images:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/something-sweet-for-my-sweet-gm958841812-261822590
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Placenta.svg
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/intestines-guts-flora-on-white-background-digestive-tract-with-bacteria-virus-colon-gm1327872371-412107396
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/stream-melt-chocolate-spreads-in-waves-hot-cocoa-background-gm1223839420-359633730
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/pop-art-style-images-of-baby-bottoms-with-varying-skin-color-gm165597282-6524295
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/baby-internal-organs-gm1320239778-406867627
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/afro-american-pregnant-woman-holds-her-belly-gm1247876335-363412995
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/red-blood-cells-and-viruses-in-the-blood-stream-in-an-artery-seamless-loop-3d-render-of-hemoglobin-cells-and-erythrocytes-moving-through-a-vein-human-immune-system-biology-and-health-concept-s7k7en0dsk15korqk
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/woman-rejecting-more-alcohol-from-wine-bottle-in-bar-gm1042617766-279128226
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/specially-trained-in-the-health-of-your-baby-gm1127388841-297120843
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/blue-smoke-on-black-background-cigarette-smoke-smoke-effect-fog-background-abstract-smoke-cloud-in-slow-motion-smoke-in-studio-blue-light-smoke-machine-beewftain2467dm
Hosted by: Hank Green
SciShow is on TikTok! Check us out at https://www.tiktok.com/@scishow
----------
Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever:
Chris Peters, Matt Curls, Kevin Bealer, Jeffrey Mckishen, Jacob, Christopher R Boucher, Nazara, charles george, Christoph Schwanke, Ash, Silas Emrys, Eric Jensen, Adam, Brainard, Piya Shedden, Alex Hackman, James Knight, GrowingViolet, Sam Lutfi, Alisa Sherbow, Jason A Saslow, Dr. Melvin Sanicas, Melida Williams
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
SciShow Tangents Podcast: http://www.scishowtangents.org
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow
----------
Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-00904-0
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1931312818303172
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210429112409.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200708105945.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100827082153.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060720013112.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150713143646.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/05/210510133138.htm
Images:
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/something-sweet-for-my-sweet-gm958841812-261822590
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Placenta.svg
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/intestines-guts-flora-on-white-background-digestive-tract-with-bacteria-virus-colon-gm1327872371-412107396
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/stream-melt-chocolate-spreads-in-waves-hot-cocoa-background-gm1223839420-359633730
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/pop-art-style-images-of-baby-bottoms-with-varying-skin-color-gm165597282-6524295
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/baby-internal-organs-gm1320239778-406867627
https://www.istockphoto.com/vector/afro-american-pregnant-woman-holds-her-belly-gm1247876335-363412995
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/red-blood-cells-and-viruses-in-the-blood-stream-in-an-artery-seamless-loop-3d-render-of-hemoglobin-cells-and-erythrocytes-moving-through-a-vein-human-immune-system-biology-and-health-concept-s7k7en0dsk15korqk
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/woman-rejecting-more-alcohol-from-wine-bottle-in-bar-gm1042617766-279128226
https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/specially-trained-in-the-health-of-your-baby-gm1127388841-297120843
https://www.storyblocks.com/video/stock/blue-smoke-on-black-background-cigarette-smoke-smoke-effect-fog-background-abstract-smoke-cloud-in-slow-motion-smoke-in-studio-blue-light-smoke-machine-beewftain2467dm
[♪ INTRO].
Poop can be pretty gross, but newborn poop is in a league of its own. Especially a baby’s first poop, or meconium, which is like a sticky, greenish-black mass that actually forms before the little one has even had a meal for the first time.
It is unlike any bowel movement that comes after it. Doctors can use it to get insights into what that newborn has been through in the uterus, and it can even act as a red flag for some serious future health issues. Beyond our first few poops, stool is normally composed of about 75% water and 25% solid matter.
About a third of that solid matter is dead gut bacteria, another third is indigestible cellulose from food, and the rest is a varying mixture of fats, proteins, and inorganic substances like minerals that your body didn’t use. It also contains things like dead cells, bile, and stuff your body just needs to get rid of. But newborn poop is a different story because fetuses in utero don’t really eat the way we do.
Instead of getting nutrients from food, the fetus gets nutrients from the placenta, an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy. The nutrients travel from the placenta to the fetus through the umbilical cord’s blood vessels. And it seems like newborns don’t have bacteria in their gut, either.
We have some good evidence of this from a tightly controlled study on the microbiome of meconium published in Nature Microbiology in 2021. Instead of taking samples of meconium in the days after birth, this study took swab samples from babies born by cesarean section. They even lifted the babies’ butts out of the incision to take the sample before pulling the rest of the baby out so that they could avoid bacteria from the environment or birth process establishing itself and possibly skewing the results.
When they analyzed those very carefully taken poop swabs, the researchers found that there were no signs of an established gut microbiome in the meconium at birth. Once it develops, the gut microbiome is full of microbes from bacteria to viruses and fungi, the majority of which are helpful to our bodies. Now, you may be thinking: If there’s no bacteria in the baby’s gut, and there’s no food in the womb, what the heck is the poop doing there?!
Well, meconium is made up of a whole host of materials ingested during development. Stuff like skin cells, amniotic fluid, and various molecules that are products of metabolism, known as metabolites. There's also lanugo in there, which is a kind of fine white hair that babies develop, then shed and then subsequently ingest, in utero.
All these things all add up to one tarry, green-black, sticky poop. And the meconium the baby doesn’t eliminate at first is a source of nutrients for the microbes that will later become established in the gut. Now, you would not necessarily always find this stuff in a baby’s first diaper.
If there are stressors in the womb, like an issue with getting enough oxygen, the fetus may become stressed and pass their meconium before they’re born. It then enters the amniotic fluid, and could make its way into the fetus’ lungs, causing a condition known as Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, or MAS. Doctors will diagnose MAS in newborns exhibiting breathing issues born alongside meconium-green-tinted amniotic fluid, which would otherwise be clear, like water.
As you might imagine, the lungs are not a great place for poop to end up, even if it’s sterile poop. It can clog the baby’s airways, irritate and damage tissue, and prevent the lungs from opening up properly after birth. Babies with MAS might be given supportive treatments, like oxygen, or in more severe cases even put onto a ventilator and given specific treatments to help the lungs open up fully.
But even when babies pass meconium normally, there’s also a lot that doctors and researchers can learn from it that can help those babies further down the line. Since it’s composed of all these elements that the baby has been exposed to in the womb, it can act kind of like a time capsule. And analysis of meconium can tell us what kinds of molecules were passing from parent to baby during gestation.
That means it's a good way to spot things like any drug exposures that may have affected development. For example, in a 2006 study, researchers found that analysis of certain fatty acid ethyl esters, also known as FAEEs, in a baby's first bowel movement could indicate exposure to alcohol. The researchers examined 124 parent/infant pairs.
When asked about alcohol consumption, 93 of the parents said that they had consumed alcohol during the pregnancy, and the remaining 31 had not. Then, researchers searched for chemical compounds in the meconium that correlated with reported levels of alcohol consumption. They identified molecules by breaking them into little pieces and figuring out what the molecular weights of the pieces were, a technique called positive chemical ionization gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.
Their results showed that levels of FAEEs had a strong correlation with levels of alcohol consumption, although the researchers could only identify some of the parents who consumed alcohol based on that measurement. And this wasn't just an interesting finding for its own sake. It also pointed to this compound as potentially harmful to fetal brain development, which may help us gain further insights for treatments in the future.
In fact, doctors are already able to use FAEE levels as an alert for possible future cognitive issues. And it’s not just alcohol's effects we can observe through the first poops. Another study has shown that chemicals from cigarette smoke showed up in meconium.
And the amounts of those chemicals correlated strongly with the extent of the parent’s cigarette exposure or consumption. And we’re able to get all of that information from this little poop time capsule thanks to the fact that it formed before the baby was even born - let alone had their first meal. So, even though it looks super gross, meconium can provide a whole host of scientific information on what the baby has been exposed to in the womb, and even help us to support that baby’s future needs.
Which is a pretty neat trick for just a full gross diaper. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! And thank you so much to all of our patrons for making it possible for us to share free science education videos like this one.
I know when you clicked that button, when you became a patron, you were thinking, “I hope I get a baby poop episode.” If you’d like to learn more about becoming a patron and joining our community, you can check out patreon.com/scishow. [♪OUTRO].
Poop can be pretty gross, but newborn poop is in a league of its own. Especially a baby’s first poop, or meconium, which is like a sticky, greenish-black mass that actually forms before the little one has even had a meal for the first time.
It is unlike any bowel movement that comes after it. Doctors can use it to get insights into what that newborn has been through in the uterus, and it can even act as a red flag for some serious future health issues. Beyond our first few poops, stool is normally composed of about 75% water and 25% solid matter.
About a third of that solid matter is dead gut bacteria, another third is indigestible cellulose from food, and the rest is a varying mixture of fats, proteins, and inorganic substances like minerals that your body didn’t use. It also contains things like dead cells, bile, and stuff your body just needs to get rid of. But newborn poop is a different story because fetuses in utero don’t really eat the way we do.
Instead of getting nutrients from food, the fetus gets nutrients from the placenta, an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy. The nutrients travel from the placenta to the fetus through the umbilical cord’s blood vessels. And it seems like newborns don’t have bacteria in their gut, either.
We have some good evidence of this from a tightly controlled study on the microbiome of meconium published in Nature Microbiology in 2021. Instead of taking samples of meconium in the days after birth, this study took swab samples from babies born by cesarean section. They even lifted the babies’ butts out of the incision to take the sample before pulling the rest of the baby out so that they could avoid bacteria from the environment or birth process establishing itself and possibly skewing the results.
When they analyzed those very carefully taken poop swabs, the researchers found that there were no signs of an established gut microbiome in the meconium at birth. Once it develops, the gut microbiome is full of microbes from bacteria to viruses and fungi, the majority of which are helpful to our bodies. Now, you may be thinking: If there’s no bacteria in the baby’s gut, and there’s no food in the womb, what the heck is the poop doing there?!
Well, meconium is made up of a whole host of materials ingested during development. Stuff like skin cells, amniotic fluid, and various molecules that are products of metabolism, known as metabolites. There's also lanugo in there, which is a kind of fine white hair that babies develop, then shed and then subsequently ingest, in utero.
All these things all add up to one tarry, green-black, sticky poop. And the meconium the baby doesn’t eliminate at first is a source of nutrients for the microbes that will later become established in the gut. Now, you would not necessarily always find this stuff in a baby’s first diaper.
If there are stressors in the womb, like an issue with getting enough oxygen, the fetus may become stressed and pass their meconium before they’re born. It then enters the amniotic fluid, and could make its way into the fetus’ lungs, causing a condition known as Meconium Aspiration Syndrome, or MAS. Doctors will diagnose MAS in newborns exhibiting breathing issues born alongside meconium-green-tinted amniotic fluid, which would otherwise be clear, like water.
As you might imagine, the lungs are not a great place for poop to end up, even if it’s sterile poop. It can clog the baby’s airways, irritate and damage tissue, and prevent the lungs from opening up properly after birth. Babies with MAS might be given supportive treatments, like oxygen, or in more severe cases even put onto a ventilator and given specific treatments to help the lungs open up fully.
But even when babies pass meconium normally, there’s also a lot that doctors and researchers can learn from it that can help those babies further down the line. Since it’s composed of all these elements that the baby has been exposed to in the womb, it can act kind of like a time capsule. And analysis of meconium can tell us what kinds of molecules were passing from parent to baby during gestation.
That means it's a good way to spot things like any drug exposures that may have affected development. For example, in a 2006 study, researchers found that analysis of certain fatty acid ethyl esters, also known as FAEEs, in a baby's first bowel movement could indicate exposure to alcohol. The researchers examined 124 parent/infant pairs.
When asked about alcohol consumption, 93 of the parents said that they had consumed alcohol during the pregnancy, and the remaining 31 had not. Then, researchers searched for chemical compounds in the meconium that correlated with reported levels of alcohol consumption. They identified molecules by breaking them into little pieces and figuring out what the molecular weights of the pieces were, a technique called positive chemical ionization gas chromatography/mass spectrometry.
Their results showed that levels of FAEEs had a strong correlation with levels of alcohol consumption, although the researchers could only identify some of the parents who consumed alcohol based on that measurement. And this wasn't just an interesting finding for its own sake. It also pointed to this compound as potentially harmful to fetal brain development, which may help us gain further insights for treatments in the future.
In fact, doctors are already able to use FAEE levels as an alert for possible future cognitive issues. And it’s not just alcohol's effects we can observe through the first poops. Another study has shown that chemicals from cigarette smoke showed up in meconium.
And the amounts of those chemicals correlated strongly with the extent of the parent’s cigarette exposure or consumption. And we’re able to get all of that information from this little poop time capsule thanks to the fact that it formed before the baby was even born - let alone had their first meal. So, even though it looks super gross, meconium can provide a whole host of scientific information on what the baby has been exposed to in the womb, and even help us to support that baby’s future needs.
Which is a pretty neat trick for just a full gross diaper. Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow! And thank you so much to all of our patrons for making it possible for us to share free science education videos like this one.
I know when you clicked that button, when you became a patron, you were thinking, “I hope I get a baby poop episode.” If you’d like to learn more about becoming a patron and joining our community, you can check out patreon.com/scishow. [♪OUTRO].