For fun it's a wonderful toy. For constipation it's a wonderful tool.

I know my daughter is going to be angry one day, for my talking about her poop to . . . well, the world.  But this was too good to pass up.  Constipation.  Sometimes it happens because your kid isn't getting enough fluids.  Sometimes it happens if they get too much protein.  Sometimes it happens from not getting enough fiber (age plus 5 for a recommended amount up to 21 grams daily in case you wondered, I only know because everyone was telling me I wasn't getting her enough, I'd ask how much was 'enough' and no one seemed to know.  It took a couple of days but I found it.) Sometimes it happens because they are growing.  Sometimes it just happens.  For Xyla it usually happens right about the time she is going to hit a growth spurt.  It persists for a few days but we have always been able to resolve it naturally - that is without manual "help".

I know why she does what she does.  Mostly because I have been there myself.  You know when a poo is going to be solid.  TMI WARNING.  You know when the poo has the potential of ripping out of you quite literally.  When you feel one of those coming on, it is natural to not want to let it come out.  I get that.  That is why I will sometimes find my daughter hiding behind a door, or a towel, or a curtain, scrunching her face and crying a small desperate cry.  She is clenching her butt cheeks.  

She will walk around with her cheeks clenched.  It looks the same if you run into a coworker in hall who obviously waited too long to hit the head.  Stiff legged, waddle from side to side and sometimes stopping in her tracks because if she doesn't get it under control it will all be over but the crying.

When she was smaller I would put her on the toilet.  She was so small that her little feet would stick straight out and she wouldn't have a choice, your muscles don't have that kind of control.  She would go and I would be holding her for support both physical and emotional.  The poo would come and she would whimper.  We would flush it away and say "bye, bye, mean poo poo."  

There is no reasoning with her that everything will feel better if she'd just let it go.  I mean, when you have to go and can't you have this pressure working against you.  At best your back starts to hurt, at worst is positively aches.  When your back hurts it messes with your emotions and you just feel like a rotten mess.  At some point you hurt everywhere down to your toes.  But yet she is just sure that the pain of the poo is going to far outweigh anything she is going through.

That is what we have been experiencing since Friday.  Only, now she is too big for the potty trick so I have to let her sit there and she is really efficient at keeping it in.  So 15 minutes later we are back in the same place, doing the same thing.  We have been tied to the bathroom for about two days.  Whining, crying, whimpering.  We have gone through a few puuuwwups.

We had already been to the bathroom twice this morning in a span of 30 minutes when Xyla decided to go play in her room.  I hear a shriek.  I go in to investigate. 

Xyla was standing over her plastic rainbow colored slinky, which she obviously wanted very much to play with.   She was standing, stiff legged and trying to bend at the chest to reach the slinky.  Obviously this wasn't working.  She knows that if she bends over to reach the toy that there will be no more holding in the poo.  She also knows that she really wants that slinky.  

I told her if she wanted the slinky she would have to lean over and get it herself.  Honestly, I thought she would give it up and move on to the next toy.  I seriously underestimated how wonderful this toy really is.

I walked back into the living room.  After about 10 minutes and some barely audible whimpering my darling daughter comes running into the living room at light speed shouting, "I got it, I got it."  Consequently, I too, got it.  I peeked into her pull-up and the biggest, stiffest poo we have seen all week greeted me with a familiar smell.  

I told her, "see, now don't you feel so much better."  I changed her and we celebrated the victory with a dance to some swing music.  You can do that when you don't have to poo.

You know you are a mom when poop is like your favorite Christmas gift, ever.