[Ilovelife]

Hi. I am new here. I wandered in a couple weeks ago when I came to subscribe to the mag. I'm not very familiar with online forums, but this seems like a great bunch of people, so I decided to join.

I have two questions. My baby girl is 11 months old. She is breastfed and also loves to eat solids. For the past month or so, she often cries/yells when she poops. When I change her, though, the poop is not at all hard. It doesn't seem any different than the times when she does not cry or yell. Is this normal or should I be concerned?

The other thing is that she has a couple very small splinters in her leg/foot. They are splinters from our deck, which hubby is supposed to paint this weekend. Hopefully that will help. But in the meantime, do I need to remove the splinters? They do not bother her & are very small. I don't want her to get an infection or anything, but I also don't want to torture her by pinching, poking, etc. to try to remove the splinters.

Thanks so much for your advice.

 

[Piglet68]

Hi! First, let me say

to our forums!!

I don't have much advice for the pooping thing. Has she got a rash around her anus at all? I wonder if, instead of a constipation type of pain, maybe it's a burning sensation due to a reaction to a particular food. The only other thing I could think of is hemerrhoids. I don't even know if babies get those, but you can usually see them, if you examine the anus closely (sounds fun, don't it?).

As for the splinters, I think if you keep cleaning them with alcohol etc they should be okay. The only real risk I can think of is infection. I can totally understand you not wanting to go through the trauma of getting them out. However, know that what might happen is the skin might develop callous-like over top of them so that they become alot harder to get at later on. I guess I would probably just check them often to see if they might come out on their own, and then decide.

 

[mountain mom]

Welcome to MDC!!

You say that her poops are not hard, but is she at all slow in eliminating? I think adding a little flax oil to her food may help. It lubes the area IYKWIM.

For the splinter I have a great remedy, works for slivers too. At night before bed, coat the area generously with olive oil and then apply a thinly sliced garlic clove on the splinter site. Cover with a bandage and then in the Am remove. The garlic will naturally draw or loosen the splinter.

Hope this helps!

 

[Ilovelife]

Thank you both for your replies. I have checked out my babe, and there doesn't seem to be any rash or other issues on her bum. I think I might go ahead and add a bit of flax oil to her dinner, though. Can't hurt, I'm sure. I hate to see her getting so upset.

As for the splinters, that garlic trick sounds funky! Maybe I will try that tonight with the biggest one, as it is on the top of her foot and looks a little red. The other two are very, very tiny. I hadn't even noticed one of them this morning, but saw it later on. I think I'll just keep an eye on those, as you suggested, Piglet68. If the callus-type things end up forming, how long do they last?

Thank you for the info and the warm welcomes.

 

[Piglet68]

Well, I had a splinter and actually it wasn't so much that a callous formed, just the skin formed over it so that it was sort of permanently embedded in there. You could see it under the surface....but the skin over top was totally healed and "normal" looking. I ended up digging it out one day, but I basically had to go through a few layers of normal skin first, so it sure wasn't easy.

I love the garlic suggestion! I'll have to keep that in mind for DD!