Modern Droppings: On the trail of baby scat

Friday, June 10th: ~11:30am

It's not the most pleasant topic, but one that weighs heavily on every new parent: baby poop. 

I remember an old comedy routine, I think it was by Bill Cosby, on this very topic.  In the first week or two, the parents are enamored with the baby's droppings: showing them off, framing them, etc.  Over time, of course, they become slaves to constant diaper changes and oppressive odors.  While I appreciate the routine, my own experience has been a bit different. 

First off, the initial poops are far from cute.  No one had told me about meconium.  Good lord, what awful stuff.  You're a brand new parent, presented with this beautiful, angelic, defenseless little bundle, and the first thing it produces is a substance with the look, consistency, and smell of putrid death paste.  It gets better quite quickly as the meconium passes, but what an initial shock.  Perhaps this is God's way of setting the stage for what it to come. 

Time went on and we entered the "blowout potential" stage.  Naturally, we've had our share - Sumie experienced Mimi's most destructive BM while at the pediatrician's office - but it really hasn't been that bad.  No real horror stories to share.  Actually, we've had the opposite challenge: constipation. 

The first obvious sign of constipation is that the fertilizer factory seems to shut down.  Two days, three days, maybe even six days will go by without a BM.  With each day that goes by the worry notches up a bit, but, at the same time, there's also a sense of relief.  Each day without a BM is a tiny, tiny reminder of what life was like before the child's appearance; before you scrubbed your hands with antibacterial goop every 30 minutes. 

The next sign comes with "straining."  This is where we were most concerned for Mimi.  Early on, Mimi would not poop for several days and then pass whatever she had stored up.  As she got on toward one year old, though, she started to strain when it came time for her BM.  Sometimes it was difficult to tell, though, if she was actually straining or simply being fussy.  Take a look at the picture below. 

What's the expression?  Is it happy in bright sunlight?  Getting ready to cry?  Wanting milk?  Trying to poop?  This one, actually, is Mimi being happy but starting to get slightly bored because Papa was taking far too long with his camera.  But, it's very close to what Mimi looks like when she starts to strain.  Even the whiny/groaning sound is similar.  It made sense that she'd groan, though, because her stool had become quite impacted, and quite painful to pass.  Poor little girl.  She was producing mutant bunny scat.

To help Mimi, we had two missions to accomplish: 1. Get her regular; 2. Soften her stool.

The dietary changes came first.  Rice was cut out of her diet and, with her getting older, we were able to reduce the amount of formula and breast milk she was taking in, eventually switching over to cow's milk entirely.  Lots of leafy green vegetables were added as well.  This has helped immensely, but didn't fully address the problem.  We also had to introduces prune juice into her diet, which Mimi rejected at first, but now enjoys when it's combined with apple juice and then diluted. 

We're still trying to find the right balance of milk, protein, grains, and juice for Mimi.  It's getting better, but we're still a little concerned because she's just not herself when she's really backed up.  She's such a little trooper, though, and we're very proud of her for dealing so well with our parenting ignorance.  If you have any suggestions for us, please share!