Sunday, February 28, 2010

Problem Solved

I have made an effort on this blog not to talk about poop. Lydia's poop, my poop, Robin's poop... we just don't talk about it. Today, I am making an exception. So if you don't want to read about poop, stop now.

I'll give you a little cushion in case you were subconsciously skimming.

Stop.

Poop talk ahead.

Okay. For the past few weeks, we have been dealing with a little conflict in our household. Lydia has taken to pooping in the bathtub. I had heard about this before, specifically when Lydia was on her poop strike and my friend told me about her friend's son who would only poop once a week, and then only in the bathtub. Lydia poops a lot, but she has pooped in roughly 80% of her baths during the past three weeks.

It is disgusting.

For the record, in our house this means the bath is over. We do not forge ahead as if it didn't happen (yuck!), and we are not ambitious enough (or hygenic, apparently) to drain the tub, scrub it out, and start over. It has been very frustrating.

And disgusting.

I went to my trusty reference: Baby Center. I was pleased to find that we are not alone in this problem. I was also happy to find some normal suggestions--nothing too drastic. Participants in the "My Baby Poops in the Bathtub" forum mostly suggested saving bathtime until after the baby poops or moving it to mid-day rather than right after dinner and watching the baby for signs of an impending floater and quickly placing them on a potty or on the toilet. Our bathtime is pretty set, so we opted for the toilet trick and voila! Not only did we not have to fish poop out of our bathtub, Lydia used the toilet for the first time! Now we have to purchase a training potty so that she starts associating it with pooping. Maybe this little problem will be a headstart to potty training.

Just to balance it out, here's a picture of Lydia *NOT* pooping in the bathtub.

2 comments:

  1. Are you sure this is Lydia?! Why does she look so different?

    Gramma Mree

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  2. I had hoped to never have reason to thank you for this post but, unfortunately, Oliver decided to break his poop-free bath streak this evening. Luckily, I realized what he was about to do and held him over the toilet. No mess. Probably wouldn't have thought about that as an option of not for this post. So, thanks for helping me with something so gross! :)

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