poop

for reference:

By this poop chart, we can discuss stool consistency with a common reference. For the most part, people with IBD seem to struggle with diarrhea, but also many are affected with constipation instead/too. In Isaac's case, as an infant, he went from normal infant breastmilk poop (which is not solid), to a similar consistency of brown soft stool when he started eating solids. At this time with most kids, their stool gets harder and "normal"--Bristol Poo #3 or #4.

But for almost 20 months, that soft stool seemed fine. We talked about it with the doctors, but they didn't seem too concerned. However, last July the diarrhea began to worsen in the sense of liquidity, frequency, and duration of the bowel movement. (As a note of interest, we think it was about when we switched from soy milk to almond milk that this happened. Even though we've determined that soy is what causes him to react immediately--at least for now.). Then it got worse and bloody and progressed worse and worse until a dramatic turnaround to #2 for three weeks, then a gradual shift to #4-#5 and worse for some time, and then a gradual improvement until about two weeks ago, whereupon he's right at #3-#4 once a day or sometimes skipping a day if he has a low residue day.

Keeping a food/poop diary is a must for us while Isaac is growing and developing. We need to get on that. What we need to develop is a good method for us collecting our menu items and to report on stool on the same calendar. Bonnie already writes down the menu plans but it's always on separate pieces of paper. Hmmm.... Any thoughts or ideas or what works for you?