Help! There Are Black Worms in my Baby’s Poo!

We received an e mail earlier this week from Cheow in Singapore who was horrified to find something nasty in her baby’s diaper.

His poo seemed to be full of little black threads. She told us “… they look like worms, but they are not moving. And there are LOTS of them!”

Of course, we are not doctors – and it is ALWAYS important to seek medical advice when you have any concerns about your baby.

However, one thing that immediately sprang to mind when Cheow mentioned black worms were – believe it or not – bananas!

Yes, strange though it may seem, eating bananas can lead to the appearance of black, fibrous threads in baby’s poop and – from personal experience – we agree that they do look alarmingly like worms!

This is a harmless and perfectly normal phenomenon – although the black bits may sometimes look more like specks than threads or worms.

We suggested to Cheow that bananas might be the cause and asked if her little boy (Kang) had eaten any recently.

Well, we received another message from Cheow today, telling us…

Kang loves bananas and recently has been eating them up to twice a day. We took him to see the doctor anyway and she agreed that bananas were the cause – in fact, the staff at the hospital thought it was funny that we thought they were worms! Kang hasn’t had any more bananas since we received your reply… and there are no more ‘worms’ in his diaper!

We’re glad you’ve identified the cause, Cheow – although, of course, it’s fine to continue to include bananas in little Kang’s diet.

NOTE: A parent similarly concerned about these ‘worms’ – which turned out to be banana fibres – kindly sent us a photo to help other parents identify them.
Click here to see a photo of black ‘worms’ in baby poo

After introducing solid foods to baby, there are very noticeable changes in his poop – and they CAN be a little worrying, particularly when you’ve become accustomed to the yellow, almost sweet-smelling poop of the breast fed baby!

Sometimes you may find little bits of undigested food – and some foods may have an extreme effect on the appearance on your baby’s poo – beets, for example, can give it a positively red colour and may even give a pink hue to his pee!

As we mentioned, you should always see your doctor if you are worried – but most of the strange sights you’ll see will be a perfectly normal part of your baby’s transition to solid foods!

Poop talk…

Well, the topics of conversation certainly change when you’re a Mum, don’t they?

But if YOU have ever noticed that a certain food has had an unexpected affect on your baby’s poo, we’d love you to tell us about it by leaving your comments below! That way, other Mums on the verge of introducing a new food to their babies may have a better idea of what they may find in their little one’s diaper as a result!