Women and baby poop.

This post has nothing to do with politics or religion, but I thought of this while reading a blog that was scat related.

I can remember sitting in Lamaze class with the wife (I did not marry until I was a bit older than most) and the instructor mentioning approximately how many diapers WE would be changing in a year. I was thinking to myself, the real question is how many diapers would the WIFE be changing in a year as it was not going to be my job. How wrong I was on that one.

Stating the obvious, women go through some mental changes while, and after, being pregnant. One of the changes I noticed in my wife, besides the strong maternal instincts, was her ability to analyze baby poop. Now, although men do not mind getting their hands dirty, I never especially enjoyed changing a diaper.......especially after a blow out. Also, I don't care if it is your kid, baby poop still stinks; at times to the point of nausea. Long and the short of it was that when I had to change a diaper, I just changed it. I did not examine the poop.

I have to wonder if my wife knew I didn't like dealing with baby poop and just did this to pull my chain, but fairly frequently I would get a "hey honey, come check this out" only to get there and see her holding an open poopy diaper and expecting me to share her knowledge of what I was looking at. Apparently, there is quite a bit you can learn about your baby's health by analyzing it's poop.

For instance, a dark stool may indicate one issue, while a green stool has an entirely different meaning. Of course, there were the multi-colored stools with various chunks of undigested food in them. More than once I had one shoved up in my face to "check out". This baby stool analysis is definitely a chick thing.

There is, however, an issue that may be of interest to someone with a physics background. That is, how does 12 ounces of formula translate into 2 pounds of crap. I would have assumed that some of the liquid would be used by the little tike's body for energy and nutrition, but my kid always seemed to produce considerably more waste than the actual amount of food he ingested.

Ah, the joys of parenting.