Bloody neonatal diaper

As part of the ongoing effort to minimize health care expenses, mothers and newborns are being discharged after shorter hospital stays. Problems that previously would have been noticed in the hospital nursery are now being seen in the emergency department. We report the case of a 1-day-old infant who was brought to our ED with grossly bloody stool. An Apt test was performed to determine whether the blood was of infant or maternal origin. After determining that the blood was the infant's, we transferred the child to a pediatric specialty center, where a diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis was made.