The G word.

Note: This post is about poop. If you are offended, please close your browser now. I make no apologies. This is a blog about my family. We fart and poop and sometimes we talk about it. That's just how we roll.

While I am not an advocate for curse words, nor do we use them in our house, this past week I have discovered one I wasn't aware existed.

Giardia.

Being immersed 3 kids deep in the adoption world, I had heard of this nasty little parasite called giardia, but fortunately have never had personal experience with it. Until now.

Let me explain giardia in very scientific terms...

Ellie Kate takes bottle. Several hours later Ellie Kate poops. Poop runs down legs if standing or up torso if I am lucky enough that she is standing on her head during said incidence.


Charlie and Sam make dramatic gagging noises and act as if they may throw up, which is where I threaten to make them clean it up themselves if they even think about it. Ellie Kate requires full wardrobe change. Ellie Kate fights full wardrobe change. Poop gets on the wall, on the floor, on the bed, on our toys, in our hair, in our ears, between our fingers, under our arms...pretty much anything within a 3 mile radius. For more examples...the highchair, car seat, crib, stroller, bathtub, etc. Requires full bath because... well... once you have that much poop on that many things, it's just easier to go full immersion. Ellie Kate screams as soon as foot is set in bathroom because she now hates baths because she gets 3-4 a day. Bath is given. (Bath is a loosely defined term. She screams and squirms and flings her little legs over the side of the bathtub in an attempt to get out. And I carefully hold on to a wet, slippery, poopy baby all while trying to get said poop off and not break her tiny arm because she is doing her best to get away.) Bath is finished. Screaming stops. Fresh, poop-free diaper and clothes returned to better smelling, happier baby. Mommy cleans poop from all above listed surfaces. Mommy sanitizes all previous poop covered surfaces. Mommy does laundry for all washable items that came in contact with said poop. Ellie Kate watches Mommy with sly smirk on face. Repeat process every 4-5 hours as needed.

That, my friends, is giardia.

A curse word in this house.

In all seriousness (I can do serious too), we are almost 3 days into a 7-day-round of metronidazole, that had to be prepared at a special compounding pharmacy that doesn't file insurance. I'm seeing tiny slivers of improvement. Such as, yesterday only required one wardrobe change. And we escaped multiple baths as well due to well-timing and the watchful eye of a Mommy who is weary of cleaning poop-stained carpets. But this morning was spent in tears refusing a bottle because our belly was clearly hurting. The upside to that was lots of snuggles.


Remember those poop samples from our first week home...yeah, this is what that's for. I had a pretty good idea that we may be dealing with it even before the doctor called to give me the good news. I mean, there is only so much poop that can come out of a tiny little body...there had to be something going on!

So, here's your fair warning to all those Mommy's heading home with your bundles of joys. Demand that your doctor do stool samples. And cross your fingers and hope that you don't slap your forehead with an open hand as you mutter under your breath....

"Giardia!"

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