Dark urine

[Robotninja97]

I’ve had my baby grey for about a week, he’s what I’ve guessed to be about three weeks old. I’ve been feeding him Fox valley 20/50 every 3-3.5 hours. He’s been doing super well, until tonight his pee is an orangish color, and his stool was mustardy (but not runny). I have been doing research for hours trying to see any similar situations but I just have decided to put this scenario out there and see what those with more experience have to say. I’ve tried to be so careful with him, so I don’t know what is wrong...and maybe next time he goes it will be normal again? but I’m so nervous it could be a sign of something bad, and being a paranoid mom I wanted to get this out there ASAP

[Javarat]

Dark urine can be dehydration. Test the baby's hydration level by pinching the skin on the back behind the head. It should spring back fairly quickly after release if well hydrated.

Offer it additional warm water between meals as long as it is dehydrated and/or peeing dark. Do not dilute the meals. Urine gets dark when it is trying to pass more than usual toxins.. so we need to give it more fluids to help flush out.

Make sure you stimulate it to pee and poop after every meal. This can take a while. You should be getting a flood of pee. Keep stimulating until you get no more urine, and the anus no longer shows a small hole, but clamps shut.

Poop when using Fox Valley 20/50 should look mustard colored. It starts out black (mother's milk) and then slowly shifts to yellow. It's a good color, and we call it 'golden poop'.

[Robotninja97]

Thank you for the quick response, I didn’t see it till just now! I feel a bit silly as I checked a few times but I guess I’m not savvy with this yet.

Baby is not dehydrated at least judging by a skin test, which I did do yesterday as well after seeing the urine. I forgot to mention that in my original post. I also always patiently wait for him to pee and poop and make sure he has nothing left... so I feel like I’ve done okay there.

I’m still concerned though, as I left the tissue out to look more at it again (just in case I was asked anything about it) , it dried and I’m noticing it looks a pinkish color. Which leads me to worry there is blood in his urine and something is wrong with his kidneys. I had felt better throughout today, as all his pee was clear. I was hoping it wasnt going to return, but just now after feeding it was slightly pinkish orange tinted like the other again. Maybe it’s dehydration and I’m jumping too far to say there’s blood,so I will try the warm water as well. Either way I am still concerned , I’m going to attach a picture of the original tinted urine. The recent one isn’t really photographing as it is a quite lighter version of this. Just want to make sure my little guy is okay

[Robotninja97]

I should also add he’s been acting very normal, the only thing off has been the urine

[Javarat]

The primary cause of orange urine is dehydration.
I would give him extra water between feedings for a while and see if he continues passing dark or orange urine.

Blood in urine would turn it pink, red, or cola colored.. but normally not orange.
Blood normally turns brown or black when it dries out.

Orange urine can indicate a problem with the liver or bile duct, but it is normally then accompanied by light colored stools.
Initial treatment again would be lots and lots of water.. to help the body flush out the toxins.