Clearing Out The Pipes

I've never claimed to have all of the correct answers when it comes to caring for a baby. In fact, that was the basis for naming my blog Father Doesn't Know Best. Truth be told, over the last several months of fatherhood I have had to learn many lessons the hard way.

One such lesson was that not all baby foods move through a baby's digestive system the same way. Actually, some foods are pretty good at causing a "back up in the pipes".

A few months ago, when we first started our daughter on solid foods, we had great success in getting our daughter to try new foods. Every few days we tried a new food, and every few days she had a new colored poop. (See "What Goes In Must Come Out")

It was fun times.

Then, about two weeks ago, the endless rainbow of color in my daughter's diapers stopped flowing. At first it had only stopped for a day, which at the time was normal, but when she was still "backed up" after two more days I was concerned.

The saddest part of it was that she was still trying desperately to poop. It was apparent when she was trying, because her face would turn bright red and she would make audible pushing noises. Even sadder, on a few occasions she actually vomited because she was pushing so hard. Occasionally she would get out a small, stinky, solid "nugget", but nothing of a size that would have equalled the amount of food that had gone into her.

After some quick Internet research (my favorite parenting resource) I discovered that many of the foods that my daughter had recently learned to enjoy (carrots, bananas, rice) were actually constipators. I felt awful.

Luckily, a steady diet of prunes and prune (or apple) juice diluted in water is the easy fix for constipation. Keeping her hydrated should also help. And, after a few days of supplementing my daughters diet with the sweet brownish slime and prune juice water, her "pipes" started flowing again.

And, flow they did.

After about a week of the prune treatment, we noticed our daughter trying her hardest to push something out again. She was sitting in her high chair at the time (her favorite place to "go", for some reason) and stood her up on the ground. After a few seconds of pushing she screamed loudly, which wasn't uncommon after having a "nugget" stuck between her diaper and her butt, so I took her into her room to change her.

The thing that I found in her diaper made an expletive jump out of my mouth, as I called for my wife to come look.

In my daughter's diaper was a "nugget" (although it was more like a "boulder") that was about the length and width of her calf! I understood why she was crying so loud...if I had passed something that big, comparative to my size, I'd be crying too.

Her poor butt!

The next day, another "boulder" came out in the morning, and two smaller "nuggets" came out in the afternoon. They must have been what was causing the blockage in her "pipes", because the next day after that, the flood gates opened.

The day following the last of the blockages, my daughter had FIVE near-blowout diapers over the course of the day, three the day after that and two more the next day. Her "pipes" had certainly started moving again and must have been disposing of a week's worth of poop!

After a few days, the normal rainbow diapers returned and my daughter seemed much more comfortable. Her preschool even called us to tell us how great of a day she was having, and what a good mood she was in.

Can you blame her?

Thankfully, I've learned my lesson through this process and will be more diligent from now on about the foods that I feed her and keeping her hydrated.

And, giving her some prunes every now and then as a precautionary measure might not hurt either.