Poo question. Sqeamish people need not put themselves through this.

[spidermama]

My four year old does rank smelling poos which are usually too loose and they nearly always float. They have a yellowishness about them.

This can't be right. I've no faith whatsoever in GPs when it comes to digestive matters. I have far more faith in MN.

Can anyone help? Would a Naturopath be good person to ask?

Bumping once. I have to go to bed now (up at 5am) but any ideas would be very welcome.

Floating poos sometimes indicate too much fat in the diet, usually after a high fat meal like fish and chips or a curry or something like that.

Well i dont know if children are teh same but doesnt GMK say that floaters are high in fat content?

According to Gillian McKeith - You are what you eat (Pooh Expert!), poohs should be conker colour, sausage like and should should need to wipe no more than three times - hth

Is this the one with Diabetes spidermama?

I cant remember if you follow a vegan diet. Could it be an intolerance to something?

don't want to jump the gun but these are some of the signs of coeliac disease (gluten allergy). I'd do some research on the net and maybe mention it to the doctor.

I'm not going to help you much but agree it can't be right. Has this been going on for a while?

I too have a problem with GP's as unless it is a common ailment they can't be expected to know everything. But it is still worth a try, or you might ask at a pharmacists or Health Store.

As a child I had an allergy to some foods & had floating unpleasant poos (sorry ) if I ate something I shouldn't.

Good luck in solving the mystery.

[scientist hat on - spent two years testing poo in a hospital microbiology dept]

Yellowness, float/sink index and smelliness of poos aren't a good index to anything being wrong if the child has no other symptoms (abdominal pain, urgent sudden need to poo, unusually frequent poos, vomiting etc).
If the poo is formed enough that you can tell its floating (ie it's not actually liquid) then I wouldn't class the 'looseness' as problematic either.

The one thing I would say (NOT diagnostic, just an observation) is that light coloured floating poos are often very fatty, so maybe he's eating more fat than he can digest and the rest is just passing through.

If he seems ill in any way, consult gp as per normal, but otherwise, everyone's digestive systems work slightly differently, and everyone has different normal flora. Probiotics or live yoghurts may go some way to repopulating his gut with a more normal normal flora.

Wouldn't bother with a naturopath (or anyone else you have to pay) without trying a diet-based change.

hope the q hasn't been comprehensively answered while I was writing a long post...

Hats off MrsB spending two years poking around poo!
(sorry, no wise words to add)

Thanks very much to all and especially Mrs.B. I knew there'd be an expert amongst you.

He doesn't have much fat in his diet which is veggie about two thirds of the time and never processed so I'm not thinking along those lines.

He doesn't have the other symptoms you describe MrsB but he does look kind of pasty quite often. Also, it often is liquid floating, albeit thick liquid.

VVV this isn't the diabetic one. I did wonder about coeliac disease. Wouldn't that be a complete nightmare? To have one diabetic and one coeliac? Argh!

I am wondering if he has any cows milk present in his diet actually Spidermama.

It would be a nightmare....two separate/opposite diets i would think....