Becoming a mom changes a woman’s life in ways, we cannot even guess beforehand. While we learn the tiniest details of our baby such as how hen she rubs her head and nose with tiny hands, she will fall asleep in just two seconds and how the child looking directly in your eyes, trusts you so completely and your smile can make her so happy. You are the first one to know that the baby is a little dull on one day or unusually fussy. You may notice the subtle changes in baby’s stools and may have to verify with your doctor, time and again, about the problems that commonly occur during the first year of child’s life:

* In the first 6 to 8 weeks, babies have several bowel movements a day, then the digestion slows and the frequency decreases. It is normal.
* When you switch from breastfeeding to formula, which takes longer to digest, bowel habits may slow down. Similarly, starting change on solids may result in a change of bowel movements and you need not worry about it.
* Once a baby outgrows the newborn stage, no bowel movement for three or four days is not much of a problem but you need to see the doctor, if there are no bowel movements for a week, baby is fussy or uncomfortable, has a fever or the baby is vomiting or has a distended belly.
* For baby’s who have stuffy nose and are having a problem with breathing, you can gently squirt 2 or 3 saline drops into each nostril to loosen the mucus and then use a bulb syringe to suction the nose.
* If saline drops don’t help, you may need to see the doctor.

There are various other problems and diseases in a baby that warrant your attention and early intervention in certain cases may help your child to live a better life. In this section, we will discuss some of these problems.