THE POOP STORY

A week ago, I started my little girl on solids as she is now six months; pumpkin. Pumpkins come highly recommended by both grandmothers and Google! It was a tense 3 days as I waited for her to poop – yes, that poop! If you are a mother, you will know what I am talking about, no?

You learn to study poop. Poop (one would think I have written enough ‘poops’ but no…) stops being some disgusting smelly mass. It becomes your tool of diagnosis. You know the health of your baby just by the look and smell of her poop.

Sometimes ago, my husband caught me closely studying baby’s soiled diaper and by the look he gave me, I could only guess what was running through his mind; the words ‘poop’ and ‘fetish’ come to mind, but I digress.

So yes, poop! For breast feeding babies, there are only two colors allowed for their poop; yellow (varies as mustard and orange) and green (yup!). The poop is meant to be loose, throw in a few pellets and your baby is fine. As for the smell, well, I simply could not describe it, but it certainly does not smell like some expensive designer perfume, that I can assure you.

It is a stinky journey, I tell you!

So, before I tell about my baby’s first solid food bottom product (I could just have written poop), let me take you on a short poop journey; first poop after birth is, to say the least, scary; it is tarry black. It even has a name, meconium! Thank goodness it is a one off.

Then you start with the yellow (or mustard, or orange, if you are into specifics). Sometimes it is multi colored. Yellow is proffered by both medics and mothers, as it means the baby is getting enough hind milk. For those without a clue, this means you have to breastfeed on one breast until it is empty, meaning it looks and feels like a sock! Green poop means baby is drinking too much foremilk (as opposed to hind-milk, of course) and missing on the more nutritious bottom layer that is the hind-milk. Green poop is no cause for alarm however.

I am beginning to think adults are the same, but there is no one willing to study their poop (eew!) in detail, but it reminds me of my friend who once had an appointment with the lab man. Problem was, she had had one too many bottles of Guinness the previous night – result? BLACK! Not good!

Now, the poop colors you do not want to see on your baby’s diaper are chalky white (means there is no bile to digest the food), tarry black, unless it is the first poop (indicates blood in the digestive tract) or bright red (for obvious reasons). Luckily, my baby has not had the bad poop!