The Straight Poop on Poop

All right, so if you're of a more delicate nature, you may just want to skip this entry. On the other hand, if you don't mind a frank discussion of bodily functions, read on brave soldier....

Baby Z has had a mild form of constipation for about 3 months or so. It began as I started to cut back on breastfeeding. Every day was a struggle to get him enough to eat of the loosening kind (prunes, fruits, etc.) and eliminate the binding kind (apples, carrots, some kinds of cereal). I had prune juice in his cereal, Karo syrup in his bottle, mineral oil in his bottle, prunes, pears, peaches and peas (notice the P trend for Poo?). This pretty much kept Baby Z flowing like rush hour traffic-- you'll get there eventually, but it might take longer than you want. At one point we even had to do the glycerin enema, which resulted in a poo the size of....(wait for it)....a tennis ball, I kid you not. (I have pictures to prove it that I won't post for fear I will lose my two readers forever.)

At the same time, I've been looking for a new doctor. I finally decided I was never going to be comfortable talking to my old doctor. As Baby Z is approaching the 1 year mark and I have lots of questions about the vaccines coming at that age and later, I decided it was time to switch. I followed many, many recommendations until finally hitting the jackpot. Baby Z's new doctor is very personable, easy to talk to, understanding, capable and a Mom, too. After spending 5 minutes with her on the phone I felt better about the constipation thing than I did after 2 calls and one visit to my old doctor's office. Mostly it was just enough for her to confirm it was normal for recently weened breastfed babies and that she had the same struggle with her daughter (empathy, doctors, empathy!).

After a meet-the-doctor visit with Dr. P that lasted 15 minutes, we unlocked the secret to Baby Z's bowels. We changed formula. Dr. P said that the Similac Organic worked for her daughter, so we gave it a try. I'm not one for much things organic, and with formula especially, think it is just a reason to charge more. But, the proof is in the pudding (chocolate, of course). I guess the Organic version has pure cane sugar in it that works like a charm. I only give him one bottle of it a day, and it's enough to do the trick. Victory! Let the good poops roll!