Chicken Steeewwww
Well, it turns out that Lina does in fact, like to eat chunky food. As long as it’s chicken stew. It’s amazing to see her chewing food like you and I do, after her total rejection of anything with any texture. From her first bite of stew, she was eating like a pro. And looking at us like “Finally! Chicken stew! What the hell took you folks so long?” So that’s going well.
We’ve only been doing the stew for a week or two now, but it does have an unpleasant and physically amazing side effect. Her, um, stew-poo has antigravitational characteristics. For reasons that I do not understand, it ends up way up her back. Even when she’s not lying down. Stew-poo seems to, well, flow upward. This has resulted in numerous days where, when I pick her up from school, she’s dressed in her “extra clothes” and there’s a bag of poopy clothes waiting for me in her cubby. “She’ll need a bath,” her teacher tells me. “I tried to keep it out of her hair, but…”
So I grab smelly kid and smelly bag and drive home. I did think, for a short time, that maybe this had something to do with school. But since then, I have experienced the unexpected stew-poo migration a few times at home. Shane and I are not sure how to handle this new challenge. Should we buy bigger diapers? She’s still solidly in the middle of the weight range for the diapers we currently use, but perhaps bigger diapers would somehow keep the stew-poo down where it belongs? Short of wrapping her head-to-toe in absorbent materials, we don’t see many other options.
I don’t want to quit the stew. She loves it, and I’m so happy she’s eating something that requires her to chew. So for now we’re going to stick with it, extra laundry and all. Maybe her body just needs to get used to chunky food, or maybe something supernatural is going on. Who knows. My usually high level of curiosity is somewhat subjugated by the gross-factor in this case. Let’s just hope it’s a temporary, albeit fascinating, behavior.
April 22nd, 2006 at 05:52
This unusual gravitational reversal with olfactory projection is normal and common, but for some reason it is seldom taught in physics grad school. It will pass. (Sorry about that.) Meanwhile, it’s best to generally operate with two (or more!) sets of “extra clothes” during this phase.
April 29th, 2006 at 11:23
As Lina eats a greater variety of foods, the aroma will only get worse . . you really look forward to the day when she takes care of the problem herself. And somewhere along the way you learn that you grow with the odor . . . it’s very personal and individual. Someday when you’re asked to change a diaper for a friend’s child who is about the same age, you’ll feel terribly offended at the unfamiliar smell.