Let's Talk About...

Poop.

When you become a mother, certain topics suddenly become acceptable to talk about - anytime, anywhere. 

For me, poop is one of those things. 

Since September, Preston has been having some, er, digestive issues. What I mean is, he's been averaging at least 6-8 poopy diapers a day. A day.  That's a lot of poop! 

Poor kiddo, he's had some trouble. During these last few months, we've been eliminating things from his diet to see if that may be the reason behind the poop. What makes this endeavor especially difficult for me and Carl is that Preston can't talk to us and tell us, "hey, whenever I drink milk my tummy hurts." Another difficulty (a blessing, really), is that Preston is so good natured, so he doesn't cry or whine when he's uncomfortable. I have no idea how his tummy feels or if he's been uncomfortable or in pain these last few months. 

So. Diet elimination. Round 1: DAIRY. Do you know how hard it is to eliminate dairy from your diet? Freaking hard! We dived right in to the vegan world of "dairy-free" products - rice cheese, almond milk, rice milk, "sour cream" made with cashews, coconut milk "ice cream", treats made with ingredients I've never used before. It was a change that was difficult to get used to for two reasons: 

#1 - finding foods that my 3-year-old will eat can be challenging. I didn't want to completely flip his world upside down, so I wanted to create as many familiar foods as possible for him. This meant instead of macaroni and cheese, we'd have sweet potato macaroni - it was still orange! But, it didn't have any dairy. It was hard to create familiar dishes that he would eat. 

#2 - Eliminating dairy from a diet is EXPENSIVE. Carl and I are both in college, so we don't have a huge grocery budget, so this was a big challenge in our quest to help Preston's tummy issues. 

Another issue we ran into was other people. While I was very careful to not allow him to consume any dairy or anything with dairy hidden in it, other people weren't as careful. At preschool, at therapy, and relatives homes - it was everywhere, and I couldn't be with him at all times to ensure he wasn't eating what he shouldn't be. It's also exhausting to consider what is in every bite that a busy 3-year-old is eating. 

After 8 weeks of a dairy-free diet, we saw some improvement in the frequency of poopy diapers, but he was still having several a day, and the stool had the consistency of thick frosting. This was still concerning to me, so I started exploring other items in his diet that could cause tummy troubles. I talked with Renee, my sister who has Celiac Disease, and I began to think that gluten might be an irritant to his little body. The more we talked about symptoms of a gluten allergy the more it seemed to fit. The excess amounts of poop, the eczema all over his legs and arms, the hyper behavior, the poor sleep. It just made sense. The biggest incident that convinced me that he has a gluten sensitivity was that after 5 days of a gluten-free diet, he had one poopy diaper! ONE. And, it was a normal, not smooshy, stool. Woot! I've never been more excited about poop in my life! 

We have had a blood draw for Preston to have him tested for a gluten allergy, and we are currently awaiting the results of that test. Hopefully, we have found a cause for the abundance of poop and we are on the right track to helping Preston feel better.