The GFCF Poop Blog

Autism Hangout Podcast

2009-01-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a podcast recorded today with Autism Hangout. I talk about my son, my introduction to GFCF, my other blog Tori's GFCFSF Blog, this blog (The GFCF Poop Blog), and my 3rd site, Lend4Health.

Click here: Autism Hangout Podcast

Yeast Colony!

2008-07-30T23:25:00.000-07:00

Click on picture to enlarge it & see more detail.

Source: A fabulous GFCFSF mom

Style: Yeast

Notes: This shows an entire colony of yeast that came out in the toilet. Mom was taking Diflucan at the time.

Submitted by: [Mom's name is protected for privacy!]

Low Taurine

2008-07-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Source: NT girl

Style: Soft

Notes: Changes from digested stool to low-taurine stool (thus the lighter color)

Submitted by: Christel

Lack of Pancreatic Enzymes

2008-07-30T23:22:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge it & see more detail.

Source: Boy, mitochonrial issues

Style: Loose

Notes: Mom believes this is indicative of a lack of pancreatic enzymes, allowing stool to stick, OR it is food intolerance (thus looser at end where it all muddies).

Submitted by: Christel

Food Intolerance

2008-07-30T23:20:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge it & see more detail.

Source: Newborn girl.

Style: Diarrhea in diaper.

Notes: Mom believes this is indication of food intolerance.

Submitted by: Christel

Black Strings

2008-07-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

click on photo to enlarge & see more detail

Source: 20-month old girl. Mom says, "She is as of yet undiagnosed. Her older brother is ASD/Asperger's syndrome. She isn't showing much in terms of ASD symptoms other than severe GI enterocolitis symptoms, reflux, GERD, food intolerance, etc. We are sure we would see ASD symptoms if she wasn't on Neocate or if we had continued to vaccinate her further."

Style: Unformed, diarrhea with black strings.

Notes: Mom reports: "She has been off of all yeast protocol supplements (Klaire Ther-Biotic Infant formula probiotics and 5mg biotin twice a day) for the past 8 days because we are in the middle of collecting stool samples for a complete stool analysis. She has been in obvious GI pain with a lot of posturing and seeking belly pressure. Her sleep is terrible. This morning she passed a loose bowel movement with some yellowish cheesy looking clumps and numerous long black strings. Since her diet is >95% Neocate elemental formula, we are very sure that this is NOT something she has eaten passing out undigested. We are wondering about yeast, bacteria, parasites?? We have never seen the black strings before.

Submitted by: Sheri

Mucus, Yeast Die-Off

2008-07-16T05:02:00.001-07:00

Click on photos to enlarge.

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.

Style: Soft, mucusy.

Notes: This poop woke my son up this morning crying. It seemed like it was acidic or otherwise hurt his skin (he wanted a shower afterward). I was surprised by how "held together" this poop was, especially looking at how liquidy it was last night (see post immediately after this one or click HERE for last night's poop). What I wanted to show the rest of you about this poop is the amazing amount of mucus in it. I don't think I've seen this much mucus before in my son's poop. The first picture is what it looked like in the pull-up; the second is when I put it in the toilet (it floated, by the way). I am guessing (hoping) that this is yeast die-off due to what has been happening in the past day and the fact that I've been treating for yeast overgrowth.

Bacteria, Virus, and Yeast Die-Off, Oh My!

2008-07-15T20:42:00.001-07:00

click on photos to enlarge

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.

Style: Diarrhea.

Notes: Child had strep throat (bacteria) two weeks ago and was on antibiotic. Toward the end of the antibiotic course, the child contracted Coxsackie virus (herpangina; mouth/throat blisters). Boy was given a 24-hour antibiotic shot in each leg (not knowing at the time that it was a virus) and the next day started augmentin (another antibiotic). Because throat was so painful, boy's diet while sick consisted of easy-to-eat things like GFCFSF ice cream, and lemon-lime soda. After about 6-7 days on the antibiotic, child started showing strong signs of yeast overgrowth. Dad (mistakenly) gave 15 drops of GSE one day. Next day had 5 drops; next day 3. Antibiotics were stopped at Day 8 because child complained of pain in tummy and was very resistant to the administration of the antibiotics. Probiotics were resumed, and biotin dosage was increased. Child started complaining of pain when pooping and would have explosive poops in the shower while trying to avoid toilet at all costs (most likely due to pain associated with toilet). This morning, child passed lots of soft, but semi-formed, stool. A couple of hours later, teachers at summer camp report he was going to the bathroom a lot and had two poop accidents. Child also had loose stool twice and was sent home. At home, mom served 1/2 cap of activated charcoal to help absorb die-off. About an hour or two later, child woke up from nap with very dark, runny diarrhea. More pain and more dark diarrhea came a couple of hours later with black flecks. Tonight before bed, photos were taken. Child still complained of pain immediately before passing stool, as well as when pooping.

This poop is liquidy diarrhea, but there are chunks -- more like blobs -- in there as well. Some of the blobs are like amoebas with "hairy" tenticles. There also is an oilyness to the stool, and lots of bubbles/gas. There is mucous as well, and black flecks and specks.

Click on the photo to enlarge, and see some wacky stuff. First, you can see all the bubbles. Second, look at about 10:00 or so on the poop, at the outer perimeter. You'll see white strings. These were totally strange -- not long strings but like a little "mop" of strings or like a white spider. Finally, look at about 1:00 in this picture and see a couple very odd white chunks. Ew!

Look at how a "sludge" was left on the side of the potty. I had to wipe this out with toilet paper -- it didn't just pour out. This reminded me of getting my Turkish coffee grounds read in Istanbul.

There's that freaky white chunk again.

I expertly isolated this part so you could see the mucous.

This is what the potty seat bowl looked like after I had poured every last bit of the diarrhea into the toilet. You'll see there's a good bit left in there that was not coming out of the potty seat easily. You'll also see some "tracks" through the middle where it looks like I ran a finger or something. That was actually from some of those "mop-like amoebas" that I spoke of earlier.

High Dose Vitamin A Protocol

2008-07-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Click on photo to enlarge.

Source: 4-year old boy with PDD-NOS.

Style: Diarrhea.

Notes: Child struggles with yeast and parasites, but no bad bacteria. He has always since birth had exploding diarrhea but since starting Acetyl Carnitine the week before this picture, his poops were solid and formed but soft, so I think he was digesting his fats better. Today we started the High Dose Vitamin A protocol for gut measles and this is what we got - back to where we were. This poop is a darker brown with a tinge of dark green (something you would expect with bad bacteria) and it has some undigested raisins, a bunch of black flecks (which he always gets after eating anna's bread), and, in addition, you will see a bunch of orange flecks which is undigested CoQ-10 (no matter what we do he does not absorb CoQ-10). There are also strings in the poop, which I don't think is die-off because it is not the mucousy cheesy type strings; they are more like sewing thread strings. Whenever he has diarrhea he gets these strings but doesn't get them with his solid poops - hmmmmm. Now for this poop, it smells almost like cat vomit or sweet human vomit, which I attribute to the High Dose vit A because usually his poops, whether they are diarrhea or solid, smell of very strong metal.

Submitted by: Kristi

Cyndi Newton Wins The Poop Blog Contest!

2008-07-01T20:43:00.000-07:00

I'm very happy to announce that Cyndi Newton of Springfield, Virginia, has won The GFCF Poop Blog contest! Cyndi kindly submitted 2 great poop photos to boost the usefulness and variety of this site. Of 12 entries total, it was Cyndi's name that I pulled out of the hat! (well, it was my husband's shoe because I couldn't find a hat! ha ha ha)

As her prize, Cyndi will win a month's supply of diapers and pull ups for her sweetie pie son, Matthew.

I asked Cyndi to let us know a bit about her, and here's what she wrote:

I'm a 37 year old stay at home mom of Matthew, age 3 (my only child who took 7 years to make!) who was diagnosed with "moderate autism" at age 2.5. He is currently in the Fairfax County, Virginia, PAC program (preschool autism class) and also receives 6 hours/week of ABA at home (thankfully paid for by Tricare insurance!). My husband John is active duty Navy and is currently attending some schools in preparation for his return to the submarine force.

We knew from about the time Matthew was 18 months old that something was not right. He never pointed, only had 5 words at 24 months, and just didn't act like his peers. I called Early Intervention and he starting receiving speech therapy one hour per week. It was his speech therapist that first mentioned the possibility of autism and thanks to her, we took him to several doctors (a neurologist, a psychologist, and a developmental pediatrician) that all confirmed the diagnosis. I was actually hoping one of them would say, "no, your son is fine...he's just a late talker" but that never happened.

So after 3 opinions, we accepted the fact and pushed on. We immediately put him on the GFCF diet and saw results within two days of removing dairy...his language doubled! He is a lot more "with it" now and can focus better during therapy. We also saw a DAN doctor who put him on many supplements (there's about 15 of them) and antifungals for his gut yeast. We are still battling the yeast and will eventually try chelation to remove the toxic heavy metals from his system.

It's been 9 months since the first diagnosis and 6 months since going "bio-med" and we have seen good results. I continue to learn more every day and couldn't do this without the help of my on-line support friends like you (yahoo groups rock!). This has been a difficult year for us and it will be even more difficult when John deploys next summer, but I try to stay positive and learn and do everything I can to help Matthew. We hope that one day he will be mainstreamed but more importantly that he will lead a healthy and happy life. Here is our blog address to keep up with his progress: http://matthewsautismjourney.blogspot.com/

Congratulations to Cyndi, and thanks to the others of you who submitted poop photos for the contest! Your efforts will help many!

Yeast Die-Off Diarrhea

2008-06-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 3 1/2 year old boy diagnosed with moderate autism

Style: Diarrhea, black specs

Notes: Mom reports: "I've upped the yeast protocol, but have been doing it for over a week now with no changes. Suddenly, we had a few diarrhea issues and then it went normal again. This was one that had a horrilbe fish smell and had several black specks in it, even though nothing he had eaten had black seasoning or would've been that color."

Submitted by: Deidre

Melted Cheese-Like Strings

2008-06-23T21:39:00.001-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 19-month old girl.

Style: Loose/unformed with melted cheese-like strings.

Notes: Mom wonders if this is yeast overgrowth. "Over the past 7-10 days she has started occasionally tip-toe walking and hand/arm flapping when very excited or very upset. These are new bahaviours for her, and we wonder if they may be related to yeast overgrowth." Other notes from mom: "We reduced her dose of biotin a few weeks ago because I was wondering if she was reacting to it. Now I think her yeast has flared back up as a result. She is currently on a Klaire probiotic (infant formula) and 3,000 mcg biotin twice a day. She had been on 4,500 mcg twice a day in the past and we saw good die-off from that, so I think we need to up the dose again." Child is almost exclusively fed Neocate infant formula "since her GI issues are so severe."

Submitted by: Sheri

Diflucan, Fever, & Diarrhea

2008-06-23T21:30:00.001-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 3-year old PDD-NOS girl.

Style: Loose, diarrhea, black specs in photo #2.

Notes: Child is currently on Week 3 of Diflucan. Mom notes: "This morning she woke up with 102.8 fever. Her twin sister had the fever 2 days ago with no diarrhea. She had this poop during the day. I am thinking viral die-off or maybe yeast. The second picture is much looser in consistancy and you can see little black specs. She is stilling running a fever with no other symptoms."

Submitted by: April

Multi-colored Balls

2008-06-23T21:23:00.001-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 20-month old NT [neuro-typical] boy.

Style: Balls.

Notes: Child's twin sisters have PDD-NOS; boy "has no issues thus far" per mom. "I thought this picture was interesting since you can tell he had green beans and hot dogs last night. You can definetly see them in color. Strange how the individual ball colors are what he ate separately."

Submitted by: April

Antibiotics

2008-06-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 26 month old boy, not on the autism specturm.

Style: Unformed. Loose.

Notes: Child is currently on Amoxicillan 400 and has had past yeast issues after antibiotics. He has been on the GFCF diet for 3 months, been CF for 6 months.

Submitted by: Susan

Oily

2008-06-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.

Style: First parts are formed but soft. Last part is mushy, unformed. I also saw black specs, white seed-like specs, some strings, and the pee looked oily.

Notes: Photo #1 is with the pee (note oily appearance and dark color of the pee). Photo #2 is after I dumped the pee out. This morning he all of a sudden started complaining that his penis hurt. We looked and couldn't find anything externally that looked "off" or different. It seemed to get worse and he was in a lot of pain. I was thinking maybe it was a urinary tract infection, but I called the pediatrician's office and they said it's very rare for a 3-year old boy to get a UTI. He was miserable. He wouldn't pee. He wouldn't get in the bath. Finally he fell asleep and slept for about an hour. When he woke up, he did this pee and poop. Once he was done with all this, he was back to normal.

Vitamin C, Magnesium Citrate

2008-06-20T19:35:00.001-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 6-year old girl, PDD-NOS/Aspergers, SPD, Receptive/Expressive Language Disorder, Anxiety, ADHD

Style: Formed and pretty soft. Fell apart when mom flushed the toilet

Notes: Mom reports: "Been working on eliminating yeast, for almost a month now, by giving 8 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract (GSE) in AM and PM. She had been experiencing severe blockage/constipation about 3 weeks ago, most likely as a result of the die-off. Along with all her other supplements, she's now taking 200 mg magnesium citrate 2x/day, and 1,000 mg vitamin C 3x/day. She complained of a tummy ache associated with the poop, so it's probably time to cut back either on the C or magnesium."

Submitted by: Anna

Constipation, White Strings

2008-06-20T19:13:00.000-07:00

click on photo to enlarge

Source: 3-year old boy with "moderate autism." On GFCF diet and "tons of supplements."

Style: Little balls. Mom reports "tiny white string-like things in them."

Notes: Child is currently taking Diflucan for yeast and "has weird poops," says mom. "One day they are formed, the next day they'll be runny, and many days he doesn't have any at all (sometimes up to 3 or 4 days)." "I noticed they had tiny white string-like things in them," mom says, "so I called the pediatrician and made an appointment for tomorrow to discuss and pick up a pin worm test. (Better safe than sorry!) I'm not sure what they are but have 3 guesses: pin worms, yeast die off, or undigested rice crispy treats from last night...you tell me!"

Submitted by: Cyndi

Yeast Overgrowth?

2008-06-17T11:58:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.
Style: Formed. Some "strings" in the middle. Some mucus bottom right.
Notes: I think strings and mucus could be indiciative of some yeast overgrowth. I gave him 1 drop of GSE after this. Child had missed a couple of days of biotin too, but he's back on it now.

Blueberry Skins

2008-06-17T11:56:00.001-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.
Style: Formed.
Notes: I think the specs in there are blueberry or raspberry skins.

Eating Lots of Rice

2008-06-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Formed. Bumpy. Type #2 on the Stool Chart.
Notes: Child had been eating lots of rice-based foods. I believe this made the poop more on the constipated (ie, balls) side rather than "smooth" edged.

Pale Colored

2008-06-17T11:46:00.001-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy.
Style: Formed.
Notes: Pale in color.

Infraction

2008-06-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

Source: 23-month old boy diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID), and possibly apraxia.
Style: Unformed with undigested food. Poop #2 is more runny than #1.
Notes: The child "worked" for about 20 minutes on Poop #1 which was immediately followed by Poop #2. The child is on a GF diet, but he still does have occasional milk, according to his mom. His primary source is breast milk. He eats well, according to mom, "but his poops ALWAYS come out runny and or undigested." He got a hold of a few bites of his sister's wheat toast today, and Poop #2 "is obviously the outcome of that." Mom notes that it smells REALLY bad too.
Submitted by: Jenn

Mucus, Undigested Food

2008-06-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

Source: 4-year old PDD-NOS boy.
Style: Unformed.
Notes: Child is currently off almost all supplements and is "a MESS" according to mom. Spinach can be seen in the stool. The red is most likely tomatoes, she says (not blood). Child was with his father over the weekend; dad doesn't report food consumed nor give supplements. Mom also reports lots of mucus in the stool. She thinks the color is indicative of yeast and is planning to treat for yeast using biotin and GSE.
Submitted by: Heather

Worms?

2008-06-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Source: 16 month old NT boy
Style: Unformed. Possibly yeast die-off.
Notes: Boy has been on culterelle & VSL in unknown doses because they were stolen from sibling! He is going 2-3 times a day. His behavior seems normal.
Submitted by: Julee
Additional note from Tori: Click on the photo to increase size. Check out the top center of the photo. I am seeing little white lines of a consistent size and shape. These look like worms to me, although I could be wrong.

Formed & Fuzzy

2008-06-05T23:06:00.001-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Formed, fuzzy (not the photo, but the poop -- as if it has fuzz on it)

Black Specs

2008-05-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

Source: 3 year-old SPD boy
Style: Unformed, watery. Diarrhea with a few chunks of undigested food (corn?). Tons of little black specs; looks like black pepper throughout. Also a few black "seeds" and some white "seeds."
Notes: Child has had virus/stomach bug for 2 days. Ate very minimally throughout the day. Behavior was great.

Stomach Virus

2008-05-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Diarrhea, unformed, undigested food (beans and corn).
Notes: Over the course of a day, the child's poop went from diarrhea with chunks of undigested food (beans and corn) to thick watery diarrhea to thinner watery diarrhea. I am suspecting a viral stomach bug because this child's sibling got the same thing the next day. Vomiting also occurred.

Undigested food

2008-05-26T14:04:00.001-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Mushy. Two colors. Undigested kidney beans and corn.
Notes: Child had just finished antibiotics when this picture was taken. Child had been constipated for a few days (as far as I knew).

Partially formed, partially mushy

2008-05-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Partially formed, partially mushy. Two colors.
Note: Child was on antibiotics for strep when this photo was taken.

Dual-colored, hard and mushy

2008-05-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Partially hard, partially mush. Two colors.
Notes: Child was on antibiotics for strep at the time this photo was taken.

Yeast Die-Off/Oxalate Dump

2008-05-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

Source: 17-month old girl
Style: Unformed, black specks, yellow cheese-like strings, gritty
Notes: Hundreds of black specks, and a few yellow cheese-like strings. It was very gritty too, which I [the contributor] believe to be an oxalate dump, based on some research. She is on an almost exclusive diet of Neocate infant formula, with a small amount of stage 1 baby foods as well, so this is definitely not something she's eaten passed out in the stool. A brief history: she's been on probiotics for 5 months, and biotin and magnesium for 6 weeks. We first started seeing signs of yeast in her stools 3 weeks after starting the biotin/magnesium. She is 24.5 lbs, 17.5 months old, and currently taking 3,500 mcg biotin twice a day, 100 mg magnesium twice a day and Ther-Biotic Infant Formula probiotic (a strep-free probiotic) from Klaire labs. Her chronic constipation (since 2 months of age) seems to be gone (hooray!) and her mood, demeanor and sleep are much improved.
Contributed by: Sheri

Formed, Dark

2008-05-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Formed. #3 or so on the stool chart.
Notes: Has strep and has been on antibiotics for 2 days. First non-mushy poop in a while. Ate lots of rice today (constipating). Dark in color. First part to come out was little balls stuck together.
Contributed by: Tori

Dark, Gritty

2008-05-13T18:22:00.001-07:00

Source: Undiagnosed boy, 2 yrs 9 mos old, possibly SPD. Also has dopa-responsive dystonia.
Style: Gritty and dark
Notes: Poop has never been this color before. Boy started Omega 3-6-9 oil the day prior. Boy has been GFCF for a while but started SCD diet a few days before this picture was taken.
Submitted by: Jennie
Comments sought?: Yes.

Very Dark Mush; Gritty

2008-05-12T20:28:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Dark, hard mush. First part that came out (hard to see here) may have been formed and coiled like a snake on top of itself with the mush on top. This was dark like dark chocolate. Looks "gritty."
Notes: Child had strep but it had not yet been diagnosed, so was on no antibiotics at the time.

Little Balls Smooshed Together

2008-05-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Barely formed. Lots of little balls smooshed together.
Notes: Constipated. Between #1 and #2 on Bristol Stool Chart but closer to #1.

Formed, Dark and Light

2008-05-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Formed
Notes: Two different colors. First dark then lighter. Noticeable pieces of something in stool.

Formed with Dark Part

2008-05-06T21:48:00.001-07:00

Source: 3 year old SPD boy
Style: Formed
Notes: Dark part near top

Everything!

2008-05-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

Source: 3 year old SPD boy
Style: First a very dark, hard ball, Then some formed pieces and a longer formed "tube," then mush on top ("cake batter")

Mostly Mushy

2008-05-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Source: 3 year old SPD boy
Style: Mostly mushy, "cake batter"
Notes: Brown flecks

Formed and Mushy Together

2008-05-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Source: 3 year old SPD boy
Style: Small formed pieces first followed by mushy "cake batter"
Notes: Brown flecks in the mush

Formed, Curved

2008-05-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

Source: 3-year old SPD boy
Style: Formed, Curved
Notes: Brown/black flecks (blueberry peels? Anna's bread? oxalate dump?)