What to Do If Your Baby Eats Poop
Let’s be real, babies explore the world in strange ways, and sometimes that means putting gross things in their mouths. Yes, that includes poop. Whether it’s their own or, yikes, someone else’s, it’s more common than you think, and usually not a medical emergency.
If your baby eats poop, don’t panic. Wipe out their mouth, give them a drink of water, and keep an eye out for symptoms like nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. While the risk of serious illness is low, exposure to bacteria can sometimes cause mild food poisoning symptoms.
If your child shows signs of illness or you’re unsure what to do, call the Missouri Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222. It’s fast, free, and confidential, 24/7, every day of the year.
Transcript with visual descriptions
Visual: Thumbnail with an image of a baby being fed and the video title “What happens if my baby ate poop?” The Missouri Poison Center logo is in the bottom right corner.
Visual: Person 1, wearing a dark blue long-sleeve Henley shirt, stands inside a home next to a white door, looking distressed.
Person 1: Dude, the baby just ate her own poop.
Visual: Person 2, wearing a blue t-shirt over a white long-sleeve shirt, sits at a desk in front of a computer, looking confused.
Person 2: Why?
Person 1: Why? I don’t know. She’s a baby.
Visual: Person 2 is reading from his phone.
Person 2: It says here that most babies will try to eat their own or someone else’s poop at some point.
Person 1: Someone else’s?
Person 2: Yeah, that’s nasty.
Person 1: Well, what do I do, huh?
Person 2: Well, if she’s got food poisoning symptoms from it, it looks like you call the poison center.
Person 1: Yeah, but it’s not food.
Sound: Baby noises.
Person 1: It’s not food!
Person 2: Otherwise, you just wipe her mouth out, give her something to drink, and hope that she’s emotionally scarred enough by the taste of her own excrement that she doesn’t do that again.
Person 1: Oh, yeah. Like that time that I ate the cottage cheese that was a couple weeks past due.
Person 2: Like the time you ate that cottage cheese. Yeah.
Person 1: Yeah, that was gross.
Person 2: You puked for hours.
Person 1: Kind of tasted like poop.
Person 2: How would you know?
Visual: The Missouri Poison Center logo and phone number 1-800-222-1222 are displayed on screen.
AVO: Do you want to know if something’s poison? Leave us a comment below, and we’ll answer it.
