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Monday, May 30, 2011

the proof is in the poopie

I'm taking the plunge and writing about my child's poop. I'm sorry, but I have to.

As a new mom, I had done a fair amount of reading about all things "newborn". Before becoming a parent, I had spent quite a bit of time with other people's babies so that meant I knew about sleeping, burping, diaper changing, etc. But what I really didn't know much about was nursing. In one of the chapters it talked about how breastfed babies really shouldn't struggle with constipation issues because breastmilk is so easily used and digested. Great! Fast-forward to somewhere around Henry's two-month birthday.
Henry had been a little cranky one night, which was unusual for him. He had also vomited twice. Not spit-up...vomit. We decided I should call the pediatrician and make sure there wasn't a problem. In the morning I took him in and they did the usual rundown. Temp, listening to his heart and lungs, and lightly pressing on his abdomen. Then the doc told me she'd like to take an x-ray of his bowels to make sure there wasn't something blocking the way. The sound of that immediately made me nervous because I wasn't sure that would be safe and/or necessary. She assured me that one x-ray would be only minimal amounts of radiation. Looking back, I wish I would have put the pieces together that he was pooping normally so a blockage was likely not that problem. But...hindsight is 20/20 and I didn't think of that at the time. We did the x-ray and she came back to tell me he had a lot of gas built up in his belly. She then suggested that I pump a little bit, mix in some prune juice, and give him a bottle. Now, again, being the nervous first-timer that I am, I went to Fareway and bought the prune juice...still not really putting the pieces together. But then once I really started to think about it, that didn't make much sense. First of all, I really wasn't sure what the prune juice would do. Secondly, he had never had anything like that before and the sugar content alone would probably be enough to cause more stomach problems than we started with.
I called up my chiropractor cousin and she recommended bringing him in for an adjustment. Henry was adjusted right after birth and several other times prior to this phone call, so I didn't hesitate to take him in. (And someday I'll post about how chiropractic literally saved me during pregnancy and allowed me to continue being mobile and working when the pain would have otherwise left me bed-ridden and miserable.) After being adjusted that day, there was no more vomiting and even his spitting-up nearly ceased.
In more recent weeks, he has been experiencing long spurts where he doesn't poop at all. Like he'll go 7 or 8 days! Twice now I've taken him for an adjustment during one of those periods and he has pooped within 48 hours following the adjustment! Amazing! And it makes me feel so good to achieve these results without x-rays or prune juice.

Now, I am in no way trying to imply that pediatricians are bad or wrong or that they don't have the best interest of my child in mind. Not at all! I actually really like our pediatrician and would recommend her to anyone who is searching. I just think that there are a variety of options out there that parents aren't always aware of or don't always consider when looking at their child's overall health. I'm not an expert and I'm not a doctor. Just a mom who has seen great results come from getting regular chiropractor care for my family.

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