I never realized how much my life would one day revolve around poop. I’m not talking about myself, although to be honest, going #2 after childbirth (in my opinion) is harder than childbirth itself. But that’s a story for another day…

Whether or not our kids have gone poo, the color, shape and size of it, has become a typical topic of conversation in this house. This goes back to my breastfeeding post, why is something that’s supposed to be so natural, so difficult?!

Our first child is blessed with a great digestive system. If for a second I think she’s “bound up”, I give her a pear and BOOM, problem solved. My second, however, is a different story. The poor kid has been STRUGGLING since I’ve introduced foods. I won’t go into all the details of the lengths I have to go through to help this poor guy, but let’s just say, it’s NOT pretty.

When you read about constipation online, it attributes a lot of Americans’ issues to all of the processed foods we eat. That I can understand, but why does organic baby food cause problems?! For months I stayed away from giving him anything binding (i.e. bananas, rice cereal, orange veggies, etc.) but when sticking to just the “P” foods wasn’t even working, I started to look for help elsewhere. One pediatrician swore by apricots. We tried that, and nothing. I even tried giving him apricot nectar in a sippy cup and that didn’t work.  He takes a daily probiotic, and I haven’t noticed any change. We now rely on Miralax and I HATE IT. Why do I have to give my baby a medicine EVERY DAY to help him go the bathroom?! I’m desperate for answers because I can’t imagine having to keep this up for years to come. We are going to consult with a Pediatric GI at the end of the month, and I pray he can give us some answers. I tried going dairy free for a while but I didn’t notice a change. He had no problem going the bathroom when he was solely breastfed (and at the time I was having dairy), so does that mean that can’t be the root of the problem? Since he had no problem going then, does that mean structurally, nothing is wrong?! Could it be gluten? He does love oatmeal so could that be causing it?! Poo is now consuming my mind. I think about this all day, every day, and it’s SO frustrating.

So I ask you, who else has googled “baby poo pictures” to compare what you are seeing to what the internet calls “normal”?! I can’t be the only one right?! I’d LOVE to hear what has worked for you, if you can relate to this struggle. I’m willing to try anything!

**Update – We followed up with his allergist yesterday (who he sees for his eczema) and she doesn’t believe a food allergy would cause constipation. Since his eczema is better and we haven’t noticed any flare ups when giving him dairy, eggs or gluten, she did not think it was necessary to put him through allergy testing. She said typically food allergies present themselves in diarrhea and NOT constipation.