Constipation Salvation

Juliette has now been eating solid food for a couple of weeks. So far she seems to be pretty pleased with herself, except for the notable occasion just the other night when we didn’t have food ready for her and she was so hungry she took a few spoonfuls but then started screaming because she was so hungry. A rather quick nursing session followed.

Her diet so far has been:

• mashed avocado – she loves it! Couldn’t shovel it in fast enough after the initial tastes.
• cooked mashed carrots – she took one spoonful then made a face and refused any more. I think the smell was too strong.
• applesauce – took her a couple of meals before she started to really eat it. Not nearly as enthused about the applesauce as the avocado.
• mashed fresh banana – took her a few spoonfuls before she liked it. I suspect the texture may have been strange in the beginning.
• blended potato and green beans – the first meal of this resulted in screaming and the nursing session mentioned above. The next meals have gone better, but only really took off once I thinned down the mash to be less pasty.

After the 2nd day of mashed bananas she was getting kind of grumpy and seemed to be unhappy about everything. Every so often she’d lean back, arch her back and arms then scream for no real reason. Finally we guessed (correctly) that she was constipated – after seeing her get bright red in the face and making pushing motions. This huge push resulted in a tiny thumb-sized piece of thick poop in her diaper. Becoming-A-Mom immediately ate a few dried prunes to see if that would pass through her milk into baby Juliette.

A quick check on Google to learn how to be a better parent and Becoming-A-Mom found a webpage that told us the most constipating foods for a baby are:

• applesauce
• mashed bananas

Now feeling quite inadequate and somewhat guilty, we read a bit further and decided we’d give her some fresh blended peaches to relieve her constipation.

Becoming-A-Mom fed Juliette peaches for a couple of meals. Becoming-A-Dad came home and was playing with Juliette when she suddenly tensed up and let loose a series of farts from hell. Once the air cleared and I regained consciousness, I realized her diaper was awfully smelly.

With dread I took her to the changing table and opened her diaper…. to reveal the worst sight a man should never see: about a pound of olive-green multi-textured poo in a diaper that was just short of bursting from the load. There were thick stiff poo lumps mixed in with thin watery poop, all nicely garnished with medium texture feces.

Four baby-wipes later most of the tragedy was cleared away and a new diaper was in place. All was back to normal. Except for the terrible vision that is now forever burned into my mind.

Be thankful I didn’t grab the camera to share it with you.