Oily Or Greasy Stools
If you have poop that appears oily, has a greasy consistency and is difficult to flush, it could be a signal that your body is not able to properly digest fat. The consistency changes could be caused by an infection, nutrients not being digested due to celiac disease or a problem with the pancreas, such as pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis.
What Are The Treatments For Diarrhea
Diarrhea is treated by replacing lost fluids and electrolytes to prevent dehydration. Depending on the cause of the problem, you may need medicines to stop the diarrhea or treat an infection.
Adults with diarrhea should drink water, fruit juices, sports drinks, sodas without caffeine, and salty broths. As your symptoms improve, you can eat soft, bland food.
Children with diarrhea should be given oral rehydration solutions to replace lost fluids and electrolytes.
When To Give Your Doctor The Scoop About Your Poop
Sometimes a bad bathroom experience is just the result of a bad burrito. Sometimes constipation is caused by too much cheese. These things happen even to the best of digestive systems.
But there are times when your symptoms may indicate a bigger problem, and you should talk to a doctor. So, watch out for changes in your bowel habits that last longer than a few days, including:
- Recurrent constipation
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How Can I Feel Better
Your rectal area may become sore because of all the bowel movements that diarrhea brings. You may have itching, burning, or pain when you go to the bathroom.
For relief, take a warm bath or sitz bath. Afterward, pat the area dry with a clean, soft towel. You may also try using a hemorrhoid cream or petroleum jelly on the affected area. If this continues for several days, you should contact your doctor.
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Drink Plenty Of Water

Water helps break down food during digestion, allowing your body to pull out all the helpful nutrients. If youre dehydrated, your body doesnt have enough fluids to make your poop the right consistency, causing constipation. To stay hydrated, make sure you drink regularly throughout the day, especially when youre thirsty.
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Can Antibiotics Cause Diarrhea
Most antibiotics can cause diarrhea. Antibiotics can change the balance of bacteria normally found in the intestines, allowing certain types of bacteria like C. difficile to thrive. When this happens, your colon can become overrun by bad bacteria that causes colitis .
Antibiotic-associated diarrhea can begin any time while youre taking the antibiotic or shortly thereafter. If you experience this side effect, call your healthcare provider to talk about the diarrhea and discuss the best option to relieve this side effect.
Whats The Difference Between Normal Diarrhea And Severe Diarrhea
There are actually several different ways to classify diarrhea. These types of diarrhea include:
- Acute diarrhea: The most common, acute diarrhea is loose watery diarrhea that lasts one to two days. This type doesnt need treatment and it usually goes away after a few days.
- Persistent diarrhea: This type of diarrhea generally persists for several weeks two to four weeks
- Chronic diarrhea: Diarrhea that lasts for more than four weeks or comes and goes regularly over a long period of time is called chronic diarrhea.
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Diarrhea is never fun, but paradoxical diarrhea is a double-whammy. This happens when people have severe constipation and liquid behind the backup gets around the poop and leaks out as diarrhea. You literally can be constipated and put out liquid stool at the same time, Bedford says. Relieving the constipation should help, he saysyou just might need an enema to make it happen.
Is There A Color Of Diarrhea That I Should Be Worried About
The color of your poop can vary. Stool color can be influenced by the color of the food you eat. Usually, this isnt something you need to worry about. But if you ever see red in your stool or have a bowel movement that is black, that could be something more serious. Keep a record of any bowel movements that:
- Are black and tarry.
- Have blood or pus in them.
- Are consistently greasy or oily despite non-fatty meals.
- Are very foul-smelling.
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Symptoms Of Lactose Intolerance:
- Diarrhea may or may not be present.
- The stool often becomes watery, bulky, offensive, and yellowish and may disintegrate in toilet water.
- In children, the stools are bulky, frothy, and watery. Vomiting is common among adolescents with lactose intolerance.
The main treatments are limiting the amount of lactose in your diet and using lactose-free dietary replacement and lactase enzyme supplements.
What Is Poop Made Of
Water makes up about 75 percent of your stool, research has shown. The rest is an often-stinky combination of fiber, dead and live bacteria, other cells, and mucus. Soluble fiber found in foods like beans and nuts is broken down during digestion and forms a gel-like substance that becomes part of your poop.
On the other hand, foods packed with insoluble fiber, such as corn, oat bran, and carrots, are more difficult for your body to digest, which, per the Mayo Clinic, explains why they may emerge in your poop looking relatively unchanged.
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What Is Constipation In Kids
Constipation means that a child is not pooping as frequently as they should or the stools are really, really hard. Sometimes, you’ll even see blood on the toilet paper or on the stools themselves. That’s true constipation.
Going for a day or two even without a bowel movement is not unusual. Usually, kids who are constipated will strain really hard. They’ll be in a lot of pain.
Understanding The Bristol Stool Scale

The Bristol Stool Scale is a useful reference for patients and healthcare professionals to check if the form of poop is healthy looking at size, shape and consistency. In case youre wondering, the chart is named after the hospital at which it was developed The Bristol Royal Infirmary, a teaching hospital in England.
The Bristol Stool Scale depicts 7 types of stool, ranging from the hard and difficult to pass to the liquid form of diarrhea. Your poop is made up of waste products your body needs to remove, which may include undigested food , bacteria and salts.
Type 1 Separate hard lumps, often difficult to pass and sometimes described as resembling nuts in shape and size.Type 2 A lumpy sausage shape that can also be difficult to pass.Type 3 Sausage-shaped, but with several cracks running across the surface.Type 4 A smooth long snake shape, no cracks or lumps.Type 5 A series of soft blobs with well-defined edgesType 6 Mushy consistency with ragged edges, looking more like a pile than clear separate stools.Type 7 Liquid in form, containing no solid pieces.
But what can the Bristol Stool Scale tell you about your health?
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Dangers Of Watery Poop
The only danger that you may face if you are consistently pooping out watery stool is that you will lose vital electrolytes and water. This can cause dehydration, and the severity will vary from person to person. You may also experience mild diarrhea, but you can manage your health by increasing your fluid intake and maintaining a healthy diet and routine.
Why Do You Get Diarrhea With Covid
COVID-19 can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms as the virus affects the digestive tract. A review of 38 studies, covering more than 8,000 people diagnosed with COVID-19, found about 12% experienced diarrhea symptoms. The research suggests an association between more severe COVID-19 cases and diarrhea, with a call for early diagnosis and treatment.
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Treating The Underlying Cause
If you’ve been diagnosed with a specific condition that’s causing your diarrhoea, treating this may help improve your symptoms.
For example:
- irritable bowel syndrome can be treated with changes to your diet and medications read more about managing IBS
- inflammatory bowel disease can be treated with medications that help reduce inflammation in the bowel
- coeliac disease can be treated by excluding foods containing gluten from your diet read more about treating coeliac disease
- bile acid malabsorption can be treated with medication that helps stop bile building up in the digestive system
The Bristol Stool Chart: Types Of Poop And What They Mean
If youre having pooping problems, youre probably not thrilled at the idea of describing your bowel movements in detail when you visit the doctor. The good news is that you may not have to.
Theres a handy poop health chart that doctors often use to describe the type of bowel movements people have. The Bristol stool chart categorizes the shape and texture of bowel movements into seven types.
Chances are youll experience all these poop types at one time or another. But if you continue to have unhealthy poop types like constipation or diarrhea, you should talk to your doctor.
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How Is The Cause Of Diarrhea Diagnosed
To find the cause of diarrhea, your health care provider may:
- Do a physical exam
- Ask about any medicines you are taking
- Test your stool or blood to look for bacteria, parasites, or other signs of disease or infection
- Ask you to stop eating certain foods to see whether your diarrhea goes away
If you have chronic diarrhea, your health care provider may perform other tests to look for signs of disease.
If You Have Yellow Poop Or Green Poop
This could be from fat malabsorption or liver or gallbladder stress. Drink beet kvass, Swedish bitters, or take HCL/Pepsin or other digestive enzymes to help your body break down the fat.
Remember: The color of your stool may change depending on what you eat. For example, if you eat lots of beets, your stool can take on a reddish hue. Likewise, eating tons of leafy greens may account for green poop.
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What Causes Diarrhoea
There are many different causes of diarrhoea, but a bowel infection is a common cause in both adults and children.
Gastroenteritis can be caused by:
- a virus such as norovirus or rotavirus
- bacteria such as campylobacter and Escherichia coli , which are often picked up from contaminated food
- a parasite such as the parasite that causes giardiasis, which is spread in contaminated water
These infections can sometimes be caught during travel abroad, particularly to areas with poor standards of public hygiene. This is known as travellers’ diarrhoea.
Diarrhoea can also be the result of anxiety, a food allergy, medication, or a long-term condition, such as irritable bowel syndrome .
- you’ve lost a lot of weight
- you have passed a large amount of very watery diarrhoea
- it occurs at night and is disturbing your sleep
- you have recently taken antibiotics or been treated in hospital
- you have symptoms of dehydration
- your poo is dark or black this may be a sign of bleeding inside your stomach
You should also contact your GP if you have persistent diarrhoea. Most cases in adults will pass in 2 to 4 days.
What Is Liquid Poop

Liquid poop is another name for diarrhea which is a loose or watery bowel movement. Doctors from the National Institutes of Health say that passing liquid, watery stool is classed as diarrhea if it occurs more than 3 times a day.1
Passing runny poop can be an acute medical condition that only lasts a few days. Or, watery diarrhea can become chronic when it lasts for longer than 4 weeks and your symptoms of loose poop can come and go.
Because passing watery stool means that your body is losing fluid, dehydration can be a complication of diarrhea. If you have bouts of poop that is watery, you should drink fluids containing electrolytes to prevent dehydration.
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The Poop On Poop: Constipation In Kids
A lot of parents worry about their childs bowel movements: Is it normal? Is it not normal? Is the stool too hard or too soft? How many days can a child go between bowel movements? Pediatrician Dr. Cindy Gellner tells you the difference between regular and irregular bowel movements in childrenwhich is more common than you might thinkand how to help your child avoid constipation.
Dr. Cindy Gellner: Today, I’m going to give you the poop on poop. I’m Dr. Cindy Gellner, and that’s today on The Scope.
Announcer: Keep your kids healthy and happy. You are now entering “The Healthy Kids Zone” with Dr. Cindy Gellner on The Scope.
Dr. Cindy Gellner: I get asked about constipation a lot, like, at least several times a day. There are a lot of parents that are really worried about their children’s bowel movements. Are they normal? Are they not normal? Are they too hard? Are they too soft? How many days can you go between a bowel movement?
Why Do I Have Diarrhea With Mucus
All stool contains small amounts of mucus. If you have an infection of the intestines or intestinal irritation, you may find that you have liquid poop with a mucus-like substance.
According to Dr. Minesh Khatri on WebMD, liquid stools with mucus could be due to food poisoning, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammation of the rectum, or ulcerative colitis. If you notice a lot of rectal mucus with watery bowel movements, you should speak to your doctor.20
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Liquid Poop: Common Causes And Treatments For Watery Stool
Jenny Hills, Nutritionist and Medical Writer Health
Watery stools that are the result of a viral or bacterial infection usually last around a week. However, many natural remedies can help to soothe digestive upset and reduce the intensity of your symptoms. Some natural ways of treating liquid poop include consuming ginger, raw plain yogurt, probiotic supplements, and drinking chamomile tea.
Runny poop can also be a symptom of inflammatory bowel disorders or food intolerances. You may also find that you need to rush to the bathroom because of liquid diarrhea if you are taking antibiotics or are under a lot of stress. In any case, there are many ways to remedy the symptoms of passing liquid stool.
Side Effect Of Certain Medications
You may experience episodes of liquid poop if you are taking medication for heartburn or high blood pressure.
Dr. Jay W. Marks on MedicineNet says that some medicines that cause your poop to turn to liquid are:
- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
If you must take a course of antibiotics, you should take probiotic supplements to restore pH levels and fight pathological bacteria. This will reduce the frequency of loose poop caused by medication.
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Symptoms Of Passing Liquid Stool
Usually, pooping liquid stool is accompanied by other symptoms of digestive upset. This is because, gastrointestinal infections, irritation, or inflammation can cause muscles in the gut or abdomen to contract and cause pain.
Dr. John P. Cunha on eMedicineHealth says that passing liquid poop in a bowel movement can also have any of the following symptoms:2
- An urgent need to poop
- Fever and other signs of an infection
- Signs of dehydration like a dry mouth, sunken eyes, or infrequent urination
- Diarrhea along with mucus or bloody diarrhea
Normal Occurrence Of Diarrhea
Diarrhea can be an indication of serious illness especially in young children but in some cases it has a much simpler cause and can be easily cured.
If there are simply frequent loose stools three or more times per day without other symptoms of illness, the most common cause is food or drink.
Overuse of caffeine, beer, or wine has a laxative effect on some individuals. The artificial sweeteners sorbitol and mannitol are known laxatives, as are some herbal supplements and some over-the-counter vitamin and mineral preparations.
Lactose intolerance, or the inability to digest the natural sugar in milk, causes digestive upset and diarrhea.
Diarrhea can cause dehydration and mineral imbalance no matter what the cause, so it is still important to manage it.
The best treatment is to remove some items or supplements from the diet and watch the results. This will show which items are causing the diarrhea.
It’s always wise to use any new supplements in moderation so that if the trouble recurs, the cause will be plain.
Rarity: Common
Top Symptoms: diarrhea, mild diarrhea
Symptoms that always occur with normal occurrence of diarrhea: diarrhea
Symptoms that never occur with normal occurrence of diarrhea: bloody diarrhea, severe diarrhea, worsening diarrhea, being severely ill, ill appearance
Urgency: Self-treatment
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What Are The Symptoms Of Fecal Incontinence
The symptoms of fecal incontinence depend on the type.
- If you have urge fecal incontinence, you will know when you need to pass stool but not be able to control passing stool before reaching a toilet.
- If you have passive fecal incontinence, you will pass stool or mucus from your without knowing it.
Some medical experts include streaks or stains of stool or mucus on your underwearcalled soilingas a symptom of fecal incontinence.
Eat More Fiber Drink More Water & Juices That Begin With P

For older kids you’re also going to want to increase the fiber in their diets and also increase how much water they’re drinking. You may want to cut down on how much milk they’re drinking, too. Milk and cheese and those kinds of products tend to have a constipating effect. The fruits that begin with P–peaches, pears, plums, and prunes–will make you poop. You’ll never forget that again–peaches, pears, plums, and prunes will make you poop.
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