Thursday, July 8, 2010

Oh, poo

I have a dilemma.

At the moment, my entire house smells like an odd combination of strawberries, vomited PediaSure and poo.  I can't seem to escape it, no matter which room I go in to and I'm blamimg Little O.

According to our insurance plan, we are allowed to order two flavours of PediaSure a month.  (The mind boggles as to why they think a child will be content only eating two different things a month, but that's besides the point.)  This month we have strawberry and chocolate, as well as some vanilla and banana cans left over from last month.  We tried Little O out on the strawberry stuff and he LOVES it!  Normally he couldn't give a toss when we offer him a drink, but now he's begun to lean forward and move his mouth towards his cup, asking for more.  It's quite something, and we're doing our best to encourage it.

The vomiting still hasn't ebbed, which I predicted would happen.  So now we have layers of stains on the living room carpet where he gets fed (I know, I know.  I should be feeding him at the dining table like a 'proper' family, but when feeds take an hour you need to have SOMETHING to do that doesn't involve using your hands, and I'm afraid putting the telly on is a simple solution).  These stains were once very white (Neocate), then cream (PediaSure), and now they're turning pink (strawberry PediaSure).  It's quite revolting, but I'm afraid cleaning the carpets every day is just not going to happen. Which is why the house smells like strawberries and vomit.

The real problem is the poo, though.  Little O is still training his digestive system on how to process longer protein strands, so he's creating dirty diapers several times a day.  But now they're... interesting.  They've changed colour so much during the last month or so that I'm still not sure what to do.  The initial changes were attributed to a possible C. difficile infection, which was treated with antibiotics, and it did improve things a little.  His stomach seemed to hurt less, which was nice, and the frequency of changing him declined a little - we were up to 10 or 12 dirty diapers a day a few weeks ago, and now it's more like three or four.  But I'm still not convinced that there isn't something wrong with his tummy.

His poo is currently pink.  Yup, pink.  Obviously I'm thinking the pink strawberry PediaSure is responsible for this, but I have NEVER SEEN PINK POO BEFORE.  It's freaking me out, to be honest.  I mean, when he was on certain antibiotics his poo was a bit purple, or a bit orange, but never pink!  It's alarming to unwrap a nappy and see that staring you in the face.  Oh, and it's not consistently consistent, either.  In the early mornings it might be almost as solid as a normal toddler's, but by 9am his 'present' is as runny as water.  And they ALWAYS have a really unusual smell.  There just doesn't seem to be any progress.

So what do I do?  I don't know whether to just keep pumping the PediaSure into him and keep my fingers crossed his body will eventually adapt, or whether to bother the GI clinic AGAIN with my concerns.  I hate being that parent and I do my best to solve riddles by myself instead of bothering busy clinics, but until now I've always trusted my instincts and my instincts have always been right.

It's just that right now I'm not sure what my instincts are.  Any thoughts?

Tina.

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