3.4.1. Stool Characteristics
±, watery
Daily stool frequency varied strongly among individuals but did not differ between FF groups at any visit (While mean daily stool frequency in BF also decreased from V1 to V4, trending towards the levels of FF infants, it was higher at all visits compared to FF (4.0 ± 1.0 (range: 1.7–6.3) stools per day at V1 to 2.2 ± 0.6 (range: 1.3–4.3) stools per day at V4) (Although stool amount varied over time, no difference was observed between FF groups at any visit (Regarding stool consistency, no differences were observed between FF groups at any visit (Soft stool was also the predominant consistency in BF at all visits (ranging from 43.9 ± 22.6% of stools at V2 to 76.5 ± 19.8% at V4), followed by watery stool (ranging from 14.7 ± 15.9% of stools at V4 to 34.7 ± 22.0% at V2). In a descriptive comparison, BF had a higher prevalence of watery stools than FF and lower prevalence of formed and hard stools throughout the study period.Stool colour was largely comparable between FF groups, except for green stools, which were more common in eHF than CF (ranging from 7.6 ± 18.9% at V4 to 21.5 ± 26.4% at V2 in eHF and 4.3 ± 12.0% at V4 to 15.9 ± 19.9% at V2 in CF). This difference in stool colour was not significant in the PPS at any visit but reached significance at V3 only in the FAS (V3: eHF 16.9 ± 25.8% vs. CF 10.8 ± 16.1% stools with green colour over 3 days, Also in BF, the majority (>75%) of stools were yellow throughout the study period (V1: 84.9 ± 17.7%; V4: 83.9 ± 20.9%). Each of the other colours was observed in less than 12% of the stools reported at each visit (