AI-powered insights for infant gut health

Stool Tracker

At Danone, we believe that better health starts with better understanding. Supporting parents in monitoring their baby’s digestive health is at the core of our mission to deliver personalized nutrition. The Stool Tracker is an AI-powered smartphone application developed by Danone Research to help parents assess their baby’s stool consistency and colour easily and objectively.

Changes in bowel movements is often concern for them, especially during key nutritional transitions such as switching from breastfeeding to formula feeding or introducing complementary foods. The Stool Tracker answers these concerns by providing science-based insights in real-time. Launched first in Asia in 2020, the Stool Tracker quickly expanded, becoming a key feature in Danone’s digital health offering. By integrating this tool into our global digital health initiatives, we aim to empower families with better information about their baby’s digestive well-being, ultimately improving consumer health outcomes.

How the Stool Tracker works

The Stool Tracker uses an AI-powered image recognition algorithm to analyze photos of babies' stools in full diapers. It classifies stool consistency according to the Brussels Infant and Toddler Stool Scale (BITSS), a validated clinical reference. This approach allows for objective assessment, reducing subjectivity often associated with parental evaluation.

A clinical study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition demonstrated that the algorithm correctly classified smartphone images for parents evaluating the same photos unaided. This technology leverages machine learning and image recognition to deliver results with accuracy comparable to healthcare professionals in certain cases, making it a reliable tool for both parents and clinicians.

Benefits for families and healthcare professionals

The Stool Tracker addresses a key concern for many parents: uncertainty about whether their baby’s stool consistency is normal. With an easy-to-use application, parents gain reassurance and actionable insights. This tool encourages proactive conversations with healthcare professionals, offering them detailed data on the baby's digestion, which can be critical in assessing the effectiveness of nutritional interventions.

As emphasized by Professor Yvan Vandenplas, Head of Pediatrics at the University Hospital Brussels and corresponding author of the study, this innovation offers "an objective and scalable solution to identify stool composition in non-toilet-trained children".

For healthcare professionals, the Stool Tracker is an additional data point to support clinical decision-making, especially in contexts where in-person consultations may be limited.

Part of a holistic approach to digestive health

Danone Nutricia Research’s investment in the Stool Tracker aligns with our broader commitment to improving gut health through nutrition and digital health tools. Nutritional interventions, such as formula milks enriched with prebiotics and probiotics, are proven to support a healthy gut microbiome and bring stool consistencies closer to those of breastfed infants.

By combining AI technology with our expertise in next-generation biotics, we are helping parents better understand the impact of nutrition on their baby’s digestion. The Stool Tracker, together with our clinically validated products and ongoing research, embodies our vision for a future where personalized nutrition and digital health innovation go hand in hand.