toddler poo - what should it be like?

[mooki]

Sorry, its a shitty question but is there something wrong with DD's poo or is it within normal range?

DD (2.2)still in nappies and has paste-y poos, with a trouser destroyer about once a month. Its rare that her poo is in a log or a lump.

When she was little she had a suspected cows' milk protein intolerance for a bit where it was often green and occassionally bloody but that seemed to clear up on its own.

She's definitely getting back teeth atm and traditionally that has set off runnier and smellier poos than usual but should I be looking at her diet too?

[kcartyparty]

Yes. Go see your doc and be referred to a dietician. Your DD should be having some normal shaped poo's.

Had same poo problem with Ds2.

Suspected dairy intol. But never confirmed. Spend nearly a year under tests for blood in stools, constipation, diahorrhea, tooth decay, malnutrion etc. He was very ill.

By the time he was 6 the hosp gave me to the dietician. She was great!! .

His diet is now balanced with a small amount of dairy intake, lots of veg, pasta and fruit.

Don't let the doc talk you out of seeing a dietician.

Did DD ever have allergy/intol tests done?

[moaningminniewhingesagain]

My DD has quite sloppy poos nearly all the time too. She's 2.6.

You can google the bristol stool chart for an idea of the normal variations if you fancy

[mooki]

Thanks. Will go in search of poo. She's well and growing apart from that.

[MamaGoblin]

DS is 20 months and has these pasty poos too, although once he's sat down, it's hard to tell whether it was a log before he squished it! He hardly ever has hard logs (although he does sometimes have small hardish pebbles). Normally it's sort of a wedge, nicely shaped by his bum crack.

(god. what is it about mothers wanting to discuss shit all the time?!

So - should I be worried, too? I think he gets a reasonably good diet, except he won't eat most veg and we make up for it with lots of fruit.

[gemmummy]

have you ever heard of toddler diarohea? My DS has always had soft poos and his nursery commented on it so much that I went to the doctors, stool samples and everything. After close analysis, we have narrowed it down quite well. Grapes always induce explosions so are banned. Citrus is also quite bad, but according to my doctor it can last til they're 5/6. I was given a diet sheet from my GP and I kid you not, it said to feed DS sausahe, nuggets, fish fingers, burgers, all the stuff we call crap. Aopparantly some toddlers just digest the good stuff too fast, hence toddler diarrohea. They need bunging up a bit. Apparantly grapes are really bad for it.

[mooki]

Hmmmm very interesting gemmummy - we're also more keen on fruit here than veg and have got both satsumas and grapes in this week.

[MamaGoblin]

Ok, but is having these looser poos actually hurting them? DS doesn't have diarrhoea (sp?) unless he's obviously unwell, but he does generally have soft or pasty poos. Never has nappy rash, never seems unwell with it. Is his intestinal tract suffering because of his fruity diet? I'm happy to bung him up more if it's medically indicated, but I can't see that soft poos are hurting him.

(BTW, citrus is definitely one thing that makes him explode! So we limit it quite strictly. He's still soft, though.)

[gemmummy]

it never seemed to hurt my ds, having soft poo, apart from following citrus, when his bum did go really sore. I will be honest, after about a week on his 'new diet' we did reintroduce fruit but not as much as before. Nursery have been very good, and are now aware my son has runny poo as a matter of course. He's 2.2 now and as I said, it can take years to grow out of. We now feed him the same as us, and deal with it, because like you I didn't like the thought of just eating crap, it was ok short term. Keep a food diary and correlate it to his/her poos. Thats what we did, and we soon saw a pattern with some stuff, as I said, grapes were terrible, but apples amnd bananas seem to have no affect.

[kcartyparty]

MamaGoblin, your Ds's poo sounds ok. Small hardish pebbly poo is usually a sign they need a bit more fluid. Soft poo that's not got blood on is ok. He sounds fine too me, but just keep fluids up.

Gemummy, I am so surprised your doc said put your child on that CRAP

Whatever was wrong with some good healthy binding foods such as bread. pasta, rice, cous cous and banana!!!

I am glad you didn't stick to that awful diet, especially as the cholestral rate in it all is sooo high. Not too mention that sausages, burgers and other fatty meat products are one of the main causes of bowel cancer later on in life.

I would question why your doc gave you such an unhealthy diet plan!!

Mooki please keep an eye your Dd's poo. If you see anymore blood...go see the doc. It's probably no more than a tear caused by consitpation, but colon polyps cause bleeding too.

[mooki]

kcartyparty - thanks, unfortunately I have no choice but to keep an eye on DD's poo!

We haven't seen any blood since she was 6 months though and we did see a paediatric gastroenterologist at the time.

It's really interesting to read about the fruit thing though - I think a food diary might be the way forward rather than making sweeping changes. At the moment, because of her back teeth coming through she's a bit off her food anyway so I had been letting her get away with eating squeezy fruit pouches and yoghurts quite a bit.