The Ugly

Did you know that Swimmers contain poop? They do!! It's amazing how well contained that poop is inside that dripping Swimmer.

If you're wondering how I know this...well, the proof is in the Swimmer instead of in the pool or in O's swimsuit as just a grainy sludge that has worked its way up around her ribs.

Ick!

One of the ugly parts of our version of 5p- is the low muscle tone.

While Olivia was spared the illness, the kidney problems, the eye problems, and many of the other issues that can occur with 5p-, she did not manage to avoid the low muscle tone.

Which is why she didn't sit up until she was a year old, didn't crawl until she was 17 months old, didn't walk independently until she was 29 months old.

And that low muscle tone is universal. It's throughout her body. The big muscles, the little muscles, they're all weak.

This includes her bladder and her bowel.

When O swims, the warmth of the water and the activity, the exercise, relaxes her bowel and she poops.

Every single time.

And it's gross. Oh dear Lord is it gross.

But we know she isn't doing it on purpose. It's not a deliberate behavioral problem that she can control.

No, it's just something that happens. I'm not even sure she knows it's happening as it happens. It's just when we get out of the pool and find her wearing a poop belt under her suid that we realize what happened.

Luckily, my mom's pool is steeped in chemicals, the poop pretty much disolves on contact. But it's still gross. It's as if we're swimming in a toilet.

In comes the Swimmers. I figured it couldn't hurt to try them.

I touted them as her special swimming underwear. She loves them.

And they contain the poop. It doesn't disintigrate into the pool, it just sits there, inside the Swimmer, waiting to be washed off her butt. which is so much easier than trying to rinse the grainy remenants that are left when the Swimmer is not worn.

Until she grows and matures and her muscles get stronger (and they are getting stronger, all of them) we're going to be putting special swimming underwear on her and checking them often in an effort to keep the poop from the pool and from irritating her butt.

Anyone else with poopers who aren't even aware they're doing it, this is a great way to let them continue to play, to be a part of the group without exposing the rest of the family (or the general public, if you happen to be swimming at a public pool) to all the nastiness that is poop in the pool.