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Bowel habits of healthy Australian children aged 0‐2 years
Author(s) -
THAM EBA,
NATHAN R,
DAVIDSON GP,
MOORE DJ
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1996.tb00963.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , habit , defecation , demography , psychology , sociology , psychotherapist
Objective : To define the bowel habits of healthy Australian children aged up to 2 years. Methodology : One hundred and forty children were recruited in six age categories with a minimum of 20 children per category. Data on bowel habit was recorded by parents daily for 1 week. Results : Stool frequency decreased with age. Ninety‐five percent of infants 0‐14 days passed more than two stools per day compared with 21% at age 13‐24 months. Breastfed infants passed more frequent and looser stools than children fed infant formula and solids and also showed a wider variation in frequency. Conclusions : Mean stool frequency decreased with age as did the variation. This is a combined effect of age and feed type. These data can be used as a guide to the bowel habit of healthy Australian children.