Delayed passage of meconium

What it means

Failure to pass meconium (the first stool following birth) in the first 48 hours of life.

Failure to pass meconium combined with progressive abdominal distention, refusal to feed and vomiting of bilious intestinal contents are the classic clinical signs of intestinal obstruction in neonates. The first stool is passed within 24 hours of birth in 99 percent of healthy full-term infants and within 48 hours in all healthy full-term infants.

Rare diseases that can present with this1

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category