[mama de dos]

I'm stumped and I hope some wise person here will be able to help me! My barely 2y.o. ds has been having gritty poops for about 2 weeks now. Everything else w/him seems to be normal, but his poops are gritty. (here comes TMI!)

:

It's finer than sand, but similarly gritty, looks a little like pepper from a shaker, not the grinder, and the gritty stuff is mixed all in the poop. The rest of the poop itself is normal. He's otherwise healthy, no new foods, no big illnesses, no eating sand!

I did call his ped's office and talked to the dr on call. He was totally unhelpful and didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about or what could be causing it.

He seemed totally unconcerned. *I* however, am not totally unconcerned. I'm not freaking out, it just doesn't seem right. He's never had this before, and neither has his older (4 y.o) brother. He's still nursing, though not that often, usually 4 times a day or so. He's vegetarian and eats very little dairy.

OK, now that I've given all the pertinent (all some not so pertinent!) info, does anyone have any ideas? Anyone seen anything like this in their child??

Please make me feel better! Thanks so much!!

 

[princess buttercup]

I can't be much help in what might cause it. But my DD (2.5) has this too.

 

[USAmma]

This is a wild guess- but is he allergic to anything? Maybe something is causing small fissues in his intestines. My friend has a food allergic baby and she gets drops of blood and coffee ground looking stuff that is old blood whenever my friend eats something that baby is allergic to.

One of my friend's dds eats sand all the time. I know you said he doesn't but maybe he is eating something similar?? Her dd turned out to be anemic and when the anemia is under control she stops doing it.

Darshani

 

[MamaAllNatural]

When my ds ate sand at the park a few times it definately came out the other end.

Any chance it could really be sand?

 

[Meiri]

Have he been eating CheeriO's or other oat cereal by any chance? or some other food that might similarly break down?

When DS went nuts for O's as a toddler, his diapers looked like he'd been eating sand, but we knew he had no access to any.

 

[Ione]

Or pears? Pears'll give my DD gritty poop every time, that pretty much matches your description, perhaps a bit closer to brown than black.

(I'm 99.9% sure that she is not allergic to them).

 

[mama de dos]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I feel better hearing that other people's kids have had this. He does eat a lot of oatmeal, but he always has and has never had gritty poop from it. He also eats pears, but again, it's not a new food for him and the gritty poop is new.

:

I'm certain he hasn't eaten sand b/c we haven't been anywhere lately where they have sand. DS1 was sick when the gritty poop started so we hadn't been to the park and it's been too cold lately to go. The grit is much finer than sand, too.

I don't think he's allergic to anything, and we haven't had any new foods. He hasn't tolerated dairy well for his whole life, so he eats only small amounts of it, but I'm quite certain he's not truly allergic, just intolerant (like his daddy). The coffee ground thing occurred to me when it first happened, b/c I've heard that blood can appear that way in poop, but it doesn't really look or feel like coffee- it's finer and not as black.

I just changed another gritty poop...... It had gone away for a while, and now it's back again! Aargh. I just want to know for sure that it's not something to be concerned about and whether there's anything triggering it. Sigh. Maybe it's just one of the many mysteries of motherhood! :LOL

Does anyone else have any insight????

Thanks again for your input and for tolerating all the graphic descriptions of someone else's poop.

 

[USAmma]

Could you take a sample in for the ped to check for parasites? It's probably not that, but good to rule it out. How frustrating for you! Hope you find out what it is soon.

Darshani

 

[Meiri]

I think taking a sample for the ped to see what's going on is a good idea with or without the parasite possibility. He/she may well have seen whatever this is before.