Warning--icky poop Q--A little worried

[vludmilla]

So, I searched for an answer to this question but couldn't find any.

DD is 18 months old and eats quite well. She usually has 2-3 poops a day and they are almost always soft. She eats lots of fruits and veggies with some meat and grains.

I'm wondering if DD is processing her food well enough. She only has two teeth so she mashes everything with her gums and manages quite nicely. Her poops, however, often contain nearly whole food particles (whole peas, tons of long string beans, etcetera) Does this seem like a problem? I'm wondering how she is deriving any nutrition from the food if it looks exactly the same ont he way out as it did on the way in?

Thanks for any advice or thoughts---I'm getting a little concerned.

Also, for the record, DD is VERY small for her age (29 inches and 19 or so pounds). She was a 32-week preemie.

TIA
-Victoria

[rachelh]

Victoria, there is no reason to be worried. This is very very common and expected. 20 month old DD has tons of teeth - like all of them and is average height and weight...and her #2 still sometimes comes out looking whole. Its getting better but when she was 15-18 months, I literally was able to identify everything she had that day when chnaging her diaper.

The only times I have seen this being an issue is when she makes and I dont catch it right away and then it sometimes results in a rash. Apparently the doctor told me that when the food isnt broken down well the babies are more prone to getting a rash.

[vludmilla]

Thanks for responding, Ilana! Good news...

Hey, did you have the mold/mildew problem? Did your management fix it for you? I hope so.
Take care,
-Victoria

[KentuckyRK]

With the amount that she's going and the consistancy it sounds like all is okay. It could be a problem if she was getting consitpated by the foods, but it doesn't sound like that at all. Also, the foods that you mentioned (peas, beans and other food materials) are pretty typically passed at this age and sometimes even later on (the shell of a pea is just like the shell of corn only a little bit softer).

She sounds like she has very healthy poop habits though *wink*

[codex57]

Don't worry about poop questions. These are parents on this board. With the amount of diapers we change, talking about poop isn't gonna faze us.

I wouldn't worry about DD. She's only 18 months and is a premie. Lots of premies take longer than 18 months to "catch" up. Plus, the stuff you mentioned gets passed whole by lots of kids. Heck, I recall passing peas whole as an adult/teen. Like KentuckyRK said, the shell of a pea is just like a slightly softer corn shell.