The average child uses over three thousand diapers in one year. Consider that a child has a poop (infant bowel movement) at least once a day and you do not have to do the math, well that is a lot of poop. I can only imagine what it is like if you have multiples. Kate plus eight has gone up just a bit in my book.
My newborn son had the same problems this week as my son did when he was about the same age. Newborns have a problem at first with constipation. I tried everything I could to get my oldest through it. I added Karo Syrup to his bottle, I gave him warm baths, and I took his little legs and made a bicycle motion with them; heck I would have given him Fiber One Cereal if he could have eaten it. I tried everything the pediatrician told me to do to help his little belly. When he finally was able to go, man what a chocolate surprise he left me! Never in my life did I ever believe I would be cheering on poop. Their little smiles after was worth all of the nastiness I had to endure.
I have told anyone that was willing to listen over the past year that I pride myself on how fast I change a diaper. I have become so methodical at it; I smile just thinking about my infant bowel movement skills. I know what you are thinking, he must be nuts.
I literally ordered a small dumpster because I have more dirty diapers than I know what to do with. I ask myself over and over again are these diapers biodegradable? The simple answer to this quite simply is no. Diapers contain so many chemicals that break down so slowly in landfills it is not environmentally friendly. Many websites and environmental groups advocate cloth diapers as an alternative. All in all it is probably the way to go, however it certainly is not practical.
I guess that brings me to why I am pooped. Diapers need to be changed more than I need to look in the mirror and that is a lot (I only look to see how bad the bags under my eyes are). It seems like my boys eat it, and then poop it as quickly as they eat it. It happens almost every three hours with the little one. Three hour sleep sessions do not work for us older folks. Every poop seems to wake up the little guys almost instantaneously. Great, huh?
Supposedly if your baby is breastfed expect a lot of poop, at least in the beginning. Since my boys are bottle fed, that does not apply to me since my ducts are all dried up. Please do not make me explain that joke. Breastfed babies often have a bowel movement after every feeding for the first few weeks; again thank god my ducts are dried up.
If your baby is a formula-fed baby, he will poop a lot in the beginning too, which totally applies to me for obvious reasons. Formula-fed babies do not have as many bowel movements and you can enter your own joke here, but generally, as breastfed babies but you can expect four or five poops a day in the first few weeks the experts say. Where were these experts when I had to add Karo Syrup to my son’s bottle to get him to flow like a river? Picture the chocolate river like the one at Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. When you have that image in your head then you have an idea of what Karo Syrup does.
Every now and then the notorious green poop has shown up in the boy’s diapers. I just take a look at it and I ask myself “how’d that get there?” I am told that there are many different causes for green poop. More than likely, if your baby has green poop, it’s nothing to worry about, but a few of the endless possibilities are milk imbalance, iron fortified formula, and the infamous Irish Leprechaun visits.
No matter how many diapers I change everyday it will never bother me one bit. I have more creams and lotions at my disposal than they have at CVS. Changing diapers is nothing more than bringing out the parenting skills that you have. It stinks, literally; however, it needs to be done.
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