[Pinky Tuscadero]

Sounds like fun, eh?
So, here's the scoop! (Eeeew). He's 3 1/2, breastfed for 2 yrs, eats very good TF diet - raw dairy, pastured meats and eggs, few grains (oatmeal makes him poop like crazy), very little processed foods. The thing is, he's still in diapers and he almost never has a solid poop. It's always loose, sometimes semi solid but sometimes disastrously not solid. This isn't new, it's always been like this. I thought it would change as he went through his 3rd year but it doesn't seem to be. He never complains of upset stomach, even when I ask, and is almost never sick otherwise.
What does he need? Ferments?
Thanks for your help with this, oh, so fun thread!

 

[lastrid]

My 2.5 year old DS has the same problem if we're not taking digestive enzymes, but we have other digestive issues, so you might not need to go that far. You could start with a bit of sauerkraut at every meal and see if that helps.

 

[tanyalynn]

For my daughter that was a sign of her gluten intolerance.

Do you have any ferments in your diet? I'd say add those in on a daily basis (milk kefir is great at colonizing the gut, it seems, but we use kimchee which is amazingly tasty), and if that doesn't work, I'd look into the possibility of a food intolerance.

eta: wanted to share the 2 helpful sites that I've gotten for poop issues (continuing thanks to JaneS):
http://www.enzymestuff.com/rtstools.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale

 

[TzippityDoulah]

as much as I KNOW you will hate me for saying this... I would consider backing off the milk for a bit. or limit it some and see if it improves. even if the milk is good for him, sometimes too much of a good thing can overdo a system. some people just can't have too much one type of food or they get very sensitive.

if that doesn't work, anything else he might have issues with? gluten, corn, citrus? etc..

also I say add some ferments / enzymes. this helped a few months ago when the girl was having the same loose stool issue. we added pill enzymes and tons of yogurt to her diet and she is a lot better now.

 

[Rainbow2911]

Are you sure that his poop is actually loose? Is it really runny or just not formed and smooshed in the nappy? Because if it is just smooshed that is pretty normal. An adult poop in a nappy would do the same. If that poop went onto the toilet it would look normal. If it was formed in the nappy that would be a sign of constipation - not to mention very uncomfortable for the little guy.
You might be totally aware of that but I went through a patch of worrying about ds2 over the same thing and his very sensible health visitor pointed this out to me.

You would think I would know this after 3 kids but it is amazing what you forget as soon as they are toilet trained....

Just thought I'd mention it on the off chance it can save you some grey hairs...

 

[Pinky Tuscadero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rainbow2911 Are you sure that his poop is actually loose? Is it really runny or just not formed and smooshed in the nappy? Because if it is just smooshed that is pretty normal. An adult poop in a nappy would do the same. If that poop went onto the toilet it would look normal. If it was formed in the nappy that would be a sign of constipation - not to mention very uncomfortable for the little guy. You might be totally aware of that but I went through a patch of worrying about ds2 over the same thing and his very sensible health visitor pointed this out to me. You would think I would know this after 3 kids but it is amazing what you forget as soon as they are toilet trained.... Just thought I'd mention it on the off chance it can save you some grey hairs...

Heehee! It runs down his leg sometimes. Even when it doesn't, it's way too loose for it to be ok on a regular basis.
We'll cut down on milk and see if we can get some ferments in him.

 

[TzippityDoulah]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinky Tuscadero Heehee! It runs down his leg sometimes. Even when it doesn't, it's way too loose for it to be ok on a regular basis.

yeah, I would say that is certainly loose!

 

[Gwendolyn's babies]

Sounds like my kid was before I took him off of milk. I still give him butter, cheese, but to drink....no milk. The poop problems are gone.

 

[Rainbow2911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinky Tuscadero Heehee! It runs down his leg sometimes. Even when it doesn't, it's way too loose for it to be ok on a regular basis. We'll cut down on milk and see if we can get some ferments in him.

Yikes! Poor little guy. No milk and some good bugs sounds like a good thing to try to me. Hope it helps fast!

 

[crunchy_mama]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez For my daughter that was a sign of her gluten intolerance. Do you have any ferments in your diet? I'd say add those in on a daily basis (milk kefir is great at colonizing the gut, it seems, but we use kimchee which is amazingly tasty), and if that doesn't work, I'd look into the possibility of a food intolerance. eta: wanted to share the 2 helpful sites that I've gotten for poop issues (continuing thanks to JaneS): http://www.enzymestuff.com/rtstools.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale

That was Luke on gluten as well. Second to that I would guess the milk as well.

 

[caedmyn]

My 3 year old gets what I call "mushy poops" (ie slightly less than solid) poops in reaction to almost anything she's intolerant to, or not tolerating well (there's such a large number of foods that I'm not entirely sure she's intolerant to all of them). She finally has normal stools now that I eliminated sorghum & carob from her diet, on top of the dairy, gluten, oats, and eggs that were already out. All the probiotics in the world didn't help until I pulled the sorghum, which was our GF staple grain

 

[Leilalu]

I have actually experienced a similar thing myself from time to time.

What ALWAYS makes it better is kefir. Kefir makes me right as rain within a day. Seriously. When I don't get enough ferments, and we are fighting illnesses that the kids pick up, I am in trouble without my kefir.

 

[NativeMom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez For my daughter that was a sign of her gluten intolerance. Do you have any ferments in your diet? I'd say add those in on a daily basis (milk kefir is great at colonizing the gut, it seems, but we use kimchee which is amazingly tasty), and if that doesn't work, I'd look into the possibility of a food intolerance. eta: wanted to share the 2 helpful sites that I've gotten for poop issues (continuing thanks to JaneS): http://www.enzymestuff.com/rtstools.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale

Same here. DD had very loose stools until we removed gluten, lactose, and others from her diet. She does do well with homemade organic yogurt fermented for 24 hours.

I second the vote for how helpful the sites above are. I have a copy of the bristol scale that I keep with dd's daily medical log where we record food intake, symptoms, and food outgo

.

 

[Climbergirl]

My 18 month old has stools that are somewhat formed (I call these ploppers since they make a plop sounds when I dump into the toilet - we use cloth) but then he has some very unformed stools (these must be sprayed off).

He will also poop 3-4 times a day. Now I am worried that he may have a problem with an intolerance. The pedi said to take away all fruit juice and limit fruit to see if that helped.

Any thoughts? Hope I just did not hijack

 

[tanyalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Climbergirl My 18 month old has stools that are somewhat formed (I call these ploppers since they make a plop sounds when I dump into the toilet - we use cloth) but then he has some very unformed stools (these must be sprayed off). He will also poop 3-4 times a day. Now I am worried that he may have a problem with an intolerance. The pedi said to take away all fruit juice and limit fruit to see if that helped. Any thoughts? Hope I just did not hijack

I would probably start making changes and see what happens, but there are a lot of things that could be involved. If your LO consumes a lot of fruit juice, that could be involved, but I don't think, unless there are food intolerances or food chemical intolerances, that a reasonable amount of juice should cause that. I'd look into probiotic foods, food intolerances, like that. For a better rundown, the Healing the Gut sticky in H&H would have lots (and lots) to read. I think poop should be pretty consistent (not variable like you wrote, I mean), and depending on how much milk from mom the kiddo is getting, should be getting close to adult color and consistency by that age.

 

[Climbergirl]

I'll go check the thread.

He was getting about 4 oz of juice a day and 2 oz container of fruit. He only gets about 6 oz of cow milk a day.

On weekdays: (each container is 2 oz) 1 fruit, 1 veggie, 1 yogurt then a "meal" which is one of those litte Gerber bowls with a lid and then meusli cereal. We were giving him the 4oz of juice but that has stopped.

For dinner, he gets whatever we eat and I am gluten free/ dairy free right now (and have been for over a month).

All night, evening and the majority of weekend is all mama's milk.

I have brought this up to my pedi and my FIL (also a pedi) and they do not seem concerned, even though they do admit it is a lot of poo.

 

[tanyalynn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Climbergirl I have brought this up to my pedi and my FIL (also a pedi) and they do not seem concerned, even though they do admit it is a lot of poo.

IME there's a huge difference between a health problem that's bad enough for conventional medicine to recognize and treat, and health problems that, with detective work and making changes at home, can show subtle and yet pervasive improvements.

Neither of my kids has health problems that would've made any of our doctors raise their eyebrows, but I can see that they're a lot healthier gluten and dairy free, and that I have things I need to work on in order for them to grow up as healthy and happy as they can. In my daily life, it's rare for me to see kids who don't have signs that things look off--not diagnoseable illness/condition off, but warning signs of things to come. And my kids aren't there yet, I'm still working on things and will be for a while I think, it's not that I'm doing great and everyone else is pathetic, far from it, but I think asking questions and exploring potential answers is always worthwhile.

 

[TzippityDoulah]

my daughter has SPD, GERD and a host of other very serious problems including serious developmental regression.... and my peds still weren't all that concerned! they said she'd "grow out of it"!!! and implied I was making a big deal of nothing. (seriously she was so very sick we ended up in the ER!)

follow your gut and what you now to be true about your kids regardless of what a ped says. they aren't always that smart!

 

[Pinky Tuscadero]

I found a container with some old kefir grains in the fridge. After a day or two in fresh milk, they are working perfectly! So, I mixed kefir with blueberries and honey and the aforementioned 3 yr old ate 2 bowls! Woohoo! Finally, something fermented he will eat.
Also, does anyone have a recipe for fermented fruit that they really like? Anything with apples, pears, mangos...?

 

[TzippityDoulah]

easy fermented fruit:

pour kombucha over top of a bunch of sliced apples, pears or other like fruit and let is set for a week... Eva LOVES it when Sean makes them!

I forgot to add!!! (oops) this works best with dried fruits. I should have said that but it slipped my mind when typing. it really is good though.