Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Everybody Poops!

I've been thinking a lot about this children's book by Taro Gomi (http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Poops-My-Body-Science/dp/192913214X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232605813&sr=8-1) the last few days.

Why?

Because poop is the easiest way to tell if one has eaten something bad or not. Everytime Nancy or I change William's diaper - especially a solid poopy one - we're thankful that the food handling precautions we've taken have paid off. William's doctor in DC warned us before we left that he would get sick, but so far we've only had one day of questionable results. And after we changed to washing his sippy cups and pacifiers in bottled water, he's been great!

What precautions do we take? Everything is washed - not just fruits and veggies, but the outside of the milk and juice boxes, the outside of the meat containers, the bread packaging, etc - before being placed in the fridge or on a shelf. If a fruit or veg won't be pealed before eating, then it's soaked in a mild bleach solution for 20 minutes. All meats (which, granted, is only chicken and fish here) are cooked through. The trash is taken out every night. All countertops are wiped down at the end of the day with bleach. And now only bottled water is used to wash things that go in William's mouth (hot tap water seems to be OK for washing plates). We're trying to wash our hands before we even go in the kitchen - I'd put Nancy and me at about a 75% success rate so far on that.

I haven't had any exciting trips like Greg, but it has been interesting, needless to say, figuring out how to avoid Delhi Belly.

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