It’s been pointed out to me by some of my closest friends that mothers tend to talk about their baby’s poo far to much. Consider yourself warned, cause hear comes a poo tale. Run, cowards, run…
I’m trying to go wheat free for several days, mostly so I can take the Big Kid down this road with me. I am wondering if Eleanor has something troubling her colon, as I can’t remember the last time she had a solid poo. She doesn’t have diareah, but she almost never has a poo that, how shall I say this, needs effort to expel. Let’s call it loose poo, and be done with it.
Now, I know that doctors out there will tell me one wants one’s child to have a poo that is neither too hard nor too soft, but I think there is a target range that one will find acceptable, some harder than others. But Eleanor always is on the too soft end of the spectrum. That, and she seems to poo A LOT. More than once a day usually. It also seems to come in waves, such as three diaper fillings in 90 minutes.
So, I am thinking she may have a food sensitivity. I already limit her to NATURAL foods: No candy, no caffine, lots of fruits and veggies, quality meats, organic milk, very little corn syrup and no more than one sweet a day. She eats really well. Her skin is clear and her eyes are bright. We go to the park and playground all the time, so she gets good exercise.
And yet…
Her bowels still seem irritated.
The first thing I am going to remove from her diet is wheat. She eats a good bit of it and it’s every day. Taking the wheat out has been pretty easy today. We’ve had fresh watermelon and cheese, and then we went to the store and bought injera bread. What’s that? You don’t know about injera? It’s great stuff, and super good for you. Injera is an Ethiopian / Somalian / Eritrean flat-bread made from teff flour. One cup of the bread has 110% of your daily need for iron. It’s also high in other trace metals and salts that one needs. Beyond that, it’s yummy stuff. It’s very moist and spongy, and tastes like a good sourdough. Elly was hungry in the car, so I gave her half a sheet of the sticky bread and she said, “MMMmmmm! Yummy!” Toddler approved! It’s cheap ($4 for about 2 pounds), natural (ingredients: teff flour, yeast, salt), tasty and fun to eat. Consider it a new staple on my shopping list. Eleanor and I went to Trader Joe’s to pick out some more Wheat Free foods: rice noodle bowls, corn and oat cereals, GF cookies, brownie mix, soups, chips and more. Trader Joe’s does really well with stocking GF foods that are not filled with chemicals or other funky things.
I want to make this little experiment as simple as possible for Elly. If she wants the foods she likes, like noodles and cereal and bread, I want her to have them. BUT, if the wheat is gone, then we will find out if that is what is making her butt squirrely. Hopefully, she won’t miss it and she will have a little more control of herself.
Do you think I am worrying about nothing? Perhaps I am. However, I think a lot about getting her potty trained, and it seems that when it comes to poo she just has very little warning before it comes. Let’s take a few 5 days or so and see if she seems to do a bit better.
One last thought: The first time I ate injera was at an Ethiopian restaurant in Columbus, Ohio, called the Blue Nile. It’s on High Street and is a great place to eat, or at least it was many years ago when I went there. I hadn’t given it much thought since then, but, I was watching a show called Modern Marvels on the History channel, and the subject was bread. They brought up injera and I was fascinated by how nutritious it was. I knew the Middle Eastern market down the street carried it, and the rest is history.
Next up: I’m going to spit in the eye of traditional northwest African cooking and use the injera to make rolled sandwiches. I’m also thinking of making “pancakes” for Elly by cutting the big sheets into small rounds, warming them slightly and putting syrup on top. Call me crazy…
For my guy, it was taking out the milk that made the difference in what was coming out of him. Wheat changed his language, milk changed his poop! Good luck!
crazy.
well you said to…
never mind. I think you are doing a very good thing. Especially the way you are approaching making it painless for your sweet little girl.