Prune Juice Anyone?

After Ny-Cee was born and we were still in the hospital, the nurse would come in every few hours and ask if she had a pee-pee diaper or a poopie diaper. I believe this is where my obsession with my child’s evacuation pattern began.

Everyday Lewis and I discussed whether or not she made poopie. Well she went about four (4) days without pooping. As a new mother I grew concerned that the waste was backing up inside my child and damaging her intestinal tract or something. I was ready to rush her to the doctor’s office. Come on people! It is completely unnatural to not make poopie for four (4) days. I am not hysterical.

Well before I contacted the EMS and rushed her to the ER for this minor situation, a friend of ours told me to try prune juice.

Okay, I know what you are thinking. You are secretly praying that the friend provided clear, concise instructions on how to administer the prune juice to my child. (I am the same individual who had no idea what the little red stick was for on the mailbox). Not to worry! She told me to dilute the juice at a ratio of 2 to 1. Two parts water to one part juice. I followed those instructions. While I have never tasted prune juice the stench emitting from the can let me know that Ny-Cee was not going to ingest this calmly.

The bottle ended up being about three (3) ounces—she drank less than one (1). About an hour later she made poopie. Yeah! Why is it that parents get excited when the child makes poopie? Anyway, it was potent but Lewis cleaned her up and we both relaxed and felt a sense of comfort that she was flushed out so to speak.

10 minutes after he cleaned her up she went again. No sweat! Just a little residual that needed to be released. Cleaned her up and relaxed. 15 minutes later she pooped again. This process went on for about an hour. So now I am panicking because at first she couldn’t make poopie and then she couldn’t stop.

Eventually the river dried up and all returned to normal. Except for the fact that now my child has gas like a truck driver. It's pretty fierce. Why is it that we as parents are allowed to conduct these experiments on our children? I had no idea how that prune juice would impact her. Can you image if I had given her the entire bottle—all three (3) ounces? Let’s not focus on that.