During the early childhood years, poop consumes your attention. You’re focused on how often it’s happening, where it’s happening, what color it is and whose turn it is to clean it up. Well, you and your child might be interested to know that a fascination with poop goes beyond potty training. In fact, it’s changing the world.

Energy Hero

The biggest benefit is that methane—the gas released from poop—can be converted into electricity or fuel. While developing countries have been making the most of waste for years (India and China use methane digesters to cook food, and anecdotal evidence suggests that bath water was heated with biogas in Assyria in the 10th century B.C.), the Western world is just warming up to the possibilities behind this sustainable and prolific resource.

Under the gentler moniker of ‘biogas,’ businesses around the globe are seeking ways to harness the power of animal feces:

• Using solid waste from 70 homes, British company GENeco developed a VW Bug (the Bio-Bug) to run 10,000 miles per year.
• Sixteen percent of the energy used by British water and sewage company, Thames Water, comes from human poo.
• Biogas centers in Africa are cleaning up slums by converting human waste into fuel for cooking. 
• The Swiss trap the methane from their sewage plants to make bio-gas for powering city buses and heating homes.
• Using its own gasification technology, the Denver Zoo’s newly refurbished “Elephant Passage” will convert more than 90% of its waste into sustainable energy. It used that same technology to introduce the world’s first poo-powered motorized rickshaw.

Video Intermission

For the kiddies… watch Eek the Monkey teach kids about the super powers of poop!

How does poop become energy?

Here are the facts for those parents whose techie-minded kids will undoubtedly want all the poopy details.

Typically, poop is flushed down the toilet where it ends up at your local wastewater treatment plant in a mix of “sludge.” There, it is treated with chemicals, dried and turned into a solid that is then sent off to a landfill. The U.S. generates about 7 million tons of biosolids every year.

If this waste was instead converted to energy, it could produce 7 million megawatts of power, thus saving landfill space and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

While there are several methods of poop-to-energy conversion, the most proven and economical involves large tanks called digesters. Human or animal waste is collected and heated in these digesters, where bacteria breaks down the poop through anaerobic digestion to produce methane gas. This biogas can then be burned to make electricity. Pretty cool, huh?

About the author: Donna DeForbes is a writer, graphic designer and the creator of Eco-Mothering where she blogs about conscious parenting, nature, humor and guilt-free green living. A Philly native, she currently lives in Rhode Island with her progressive husband, precocious six-year-old daughter and a yellow-tailed woolly monkey named Eek. Follow Eco-Mothering on Facebook and Twitter.

ANSWER: The short answer is to ditch those diapers.

The long answer is this: as long as you keep offering the option of a diaper, we can’t expect the child not to use it.  In the book, I use the analogy of a security blanket.  Upon BEING BORN, most kids are diapered before they even nurse! So it’s wise to remember that pooping and peeing in a diaper is the only thing they have known, literally from birth. It’s safe, it’s comfortable and if it’s on, they will prefer it. We can’t fault them that.

We also have to remember that at first, using the potty is not second nature. They are learning and having to think about it. At night, they fully relax and out comes the poop.

If you are in the first few weeks of potty training, you can ride it out. Many, many kids resolve this on their own. They become more and more comfortable with the notion of putting pee and poop on the potty. And they relax during the day and begin to poop on the potty.

Now, it may NOT resolve on its own. Two things to look for to determine it’s not resolving on its own: 1. months have gone by since you started day training or 2. it is crystal clear to you that your child has to poop during the day and holds it for night.  This is different than a kid who sort of naturally adjusts his pooping to happen at night. This is clear resistance to pooping on the potty. You will know it if you have it.

But still, no matter what you have, the fix is to nap/night train. The child MUST be commando or bare bummed. If you put underpants on a night pooper, you will get night poops in the underwear.

I want to state this very clearly because it can come up in this kind of night pooper. DO NOT PUT A DIAPER ON YOUR CHILD IF THEY REQUEST ONE TO POOP IN.  So, if your child is doing great and is asking for a diaper just to poop in, it can seem like there is no harm to this. THIS CREATES A MONSTER LIKE NO OTHER.  I consider myself a “real world” potty trainer.  We can work with and around almost any circumstance, BUT NOT THIS ONE. Putting a diaper on a child just to poop in is the ONE thing, in all my experience that is a true DON’T, DON’T, DON’T.  I can’t beat this horse enough. Don’t.

Today I found myself standing in the juice aisle at Target confused about which kind to buy. I rarely buy juice for my daughter Sofie, but we’re throwing a birthday party this weekend, and I decided some juice for the kids would be a treat.

I was overwhelmed by the array of boxes and pouches facing me. I wanted the healthiest juice, of course, so I began by checking the ingredients and sugar content.

Photo by stevendepolo/Flickr

Apple & Eve Fruitables ranked high with 66% juice, 6 grams of sugar per serving and additional doses of vitamins A and C. By comparison, CapriSun—the juice pouch of my childhood— contained only 10% juice and had 16 grams of sugar per serving. Their ingredients also listed high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) second. (When reading ingredients, the order in which they appear denotes their prevalence in the product.)

CapriSun offered a “less sugar” option that also claimed less packaging, but still listed HFCS in its ingredients. Their best version seemed to be the CapriSun SuperV brand that included a dose of veggies and no HFCS (but still had 14 grams of sugar). Minute Maid claimed 100% juice although sugar content was 22 grams per serving.

As if the health factor wasn’t confusing enough, I then looked at sustainability. I knew that pouches like CapriSun and Honest Kids were recyclable—Honest Kids even promotes it on their package. After you sign up for TerraCycle, you send them used juice pouches to be upcycled into various products from backpacks to park benches.

The other juice brands came in boxes, which are made of paperboard and can only be recycled in about 85% of U.S. cities. Search Earth911 to see if juice boxes are accepted for recycling in your area. After making my purchase, I realized that my town in Rhode Island does accept paperboard in their curbside recycling. And then I found this article on the manufacturing process behind juice boxes, which do have some environmental advantages to other containers.

Obviously the most eco-friendly option for this birthday party would be to use large juice bottles and reusable cups. However, with the abundance of juice boxes in America, I thought comparing products would be a beneficial learning experience.

While Apple & Eve Fruitables seemed like the most nutritional option, I wanted to balance health with sustainability. So I chose Honest Kids. They contain 30% juice, 10 grams of sugar per serving and derive their ingredients from organic fruits. Plus, I like that they used their packaging (which was devoid of plastic shrinkwrap) to promote pouch upcycling and tree planting. (They partner with the National Arbor Day Foundation to plant trees across the country.)

Do you have a juice box favorite? Is there an eco-friendly brand that I did not mention? Please comment and tell us about it!

About the author: Donna DeForbes is a writer, graphic designer and the creator of Eco-Mothering where she blogs about conscious parenting, nature, humor and guilt-free green living. A Philly native, she currently lives in Rhode Island with her progressive husband and precocious six-year-old daughter. Follow Eco-Mothering on Facebook and Twitter.

And sometimes, I’m just feeling bitchy. That would be now.

Picture this: any number of the well-meaning folks out there offer my child something crappy to eat.
I politely decline, “No, thank you.”  If pushed, I might add, “He can’t eat that.”

And then..and then…I’m told to RELAX.  THAT MODERATION IS THE KEY.

I might just bite the next head off.

1. You do not know me well enough to tell me that. You have no idea how I feed my child. Just because I don’t want him to have what you offer does not mean I don’t understand moderation.

2. You don’t know my child well enough to say that. Are you the one dealing with his reactions to food? Crazy behavior due to food dyes? Bleeding eczema due to gluten? What’s that? No?  Then, please go away.

3. Yes. I teach my child balance and moderation. If we accepted all the crappy food offered to us throughout a day…that would not add up to anything near moderate. In fact, it’d be the opposite of moderate.

4. I’m not the food nazi and I’m not controlling. I WOULD like to occasionally be the person to dole out the treats to my own child.  If he has that and then that and then THAT, then really there’s no more room for treats from me.

5. When you offered that candy, did I launch into the perils of HFCS?  No. I said, “No thank you.” So, please don’t launch into how I need to relax and explore moderation.

6. Certain “foods” cause damage to the body. Other foods have a highly addictive nature.  Just because something doesn’t kill us right away, does not mean it’s okay in moderation. Cigarettes, anyone?  Oh, right.  I’ll just teach my child to smoke moderately.

7. No. My son’s childhood doesn’t reside in a hot dog bun or red dye #40 bug juice. I swear…he’s having a near idyllic childhood without it. I’m not kidding. He’s like…a happy kid.

8. Please don’t tell me to relax now with candy. Because I’m sure as hell not going to be relaxed when his teeth need to be drilled. I’d rather seem a little uptight to you now but I’m willing to look weird to you for that payoff.

9. “It’s just food.”  Broccoli is just food. Eggs are just food. Apples are just food.  The thing you just offered him has 25 ingredients, 15 of which I can not pronounce. It is not JUST food.

Just so you know, despite spewing this rant,  I am perfectly relaxed. I do have certain rules about food. I adore my son and because I want us  both to function in optimum health does not make me controlling or not moderate.  I do not hover over him watching every bite he takes. I’m the farthest thing from hypochondriac as you can get.

When I say, “No, thank you. He can’t eat that.” all I’d like is a little respect in that I know my child and I know what I’m doing and I have my reasons.  If I hear RELAAAAX  one more time I’m gonna go all Glitter Ninja Mom on you. And trust me. That is NOT relaxed.

*end rant*

ps…no, really. I’m SUPER relaxed now that I said all that.

10 BEST WAYS TO EAT YOUR BODY WEIGHT IN VEGGIES

1. Eat FRESH veggies.  I know many people who eat canned or frozen veggies because their  mom did or for convenience. Yes, it’s more convenient but taste and texture is totally compromised and you will not want to eat a bunch more.

2. PREPARE your veggies ahead of time. I’ve talked about how I make fresh kale less of a pain to deal with. This goes for all veggies. Cut up veggies every other day and keep them at the ready for snacking. You’re more likely to eat them if they are ready to go. Same goes for ones you are going to cook in the next few days. A bag of cut up broccoli that you can throw into a pan is so much easier to deal with…especially at the dinner time crunch, when most houses go to hell in a hand basket.

3. Keep a CONTAINER of chopped, steamed veggies in the fridge. You can doctor up just about any dish with a handful of veggies. Add them to salads, soups, even scrambled eggs.

4. ADD veggies to everything. I DO NOT ever recommend hiding veggies from your child. I don’t like that whole theory. I think children need to see and touch and taste their food as is to enjoy it or grow to enjoy it. BUT, I add veggies to meatballs, meatloaf, and sauces. Just to add more kick to the dish. I finely chopped kale and broccoli and add it to just about anything I can mix up. I always serve THAT dish with vegetables.  Nothing wrong with MORE veggies.

5. Don’t be afraid of FAT. The old low fat craze is just that. Old. Good fats are not only good for you, they are essential to proper hormone function (mood, anyone?), satiety and keeping everything flowing (aka, poop). Whoever came up with eating just steamed veggies is a masochist.  Cook them in high quality butter, olive oil, or coconut oil. It’s not only good for you; it will taste so much better.

6. EXPERIMENT with how you like your veggies. I love raw carrots and bell peppers. It took me around 30 years to figure out that I absolutely HATE raw broccoli. I hate over cooked broccoli.  Lightly cooked broccoli; I can sit and eat 3 pounds.

7. Go out of your COMFORT ZONE.  Each week, pick a veggie from the market that you’ve never tried. OR pick a recipe and go hunt that veggie down. I recently tried romenesco; never saw it before but I ran across a recipe for it and hunted it down. So super yummy.

8.  TWO VEGGIES per meal. Rather than basing your plates on the old standard of a meat, a starch and a tired old veggie, up the ante on the veggies. Ditch the starch and add 2 veggies. You won’t even miss the starch and you’ve added more fiber and nutrients. This is also good for the Littles; it gives them a choice.

9. Keep a GOOD ATTITUDE.  Kids are always listening; we know that. If you make something and it’s a bust, simply say, “I don’t care for this. Do you?”  If you make a production about hating something, guess who will follow suit? If you show excitement over trying something new, your child is more likely to do so as well.

10. Keep TRYING new and old veggies. Just because your child spits something out the first time, doesn’t mean you should never serve it again.  You may have to try some foods up to 15 times before your child likes it. KEEP OFFERING.  I believe in offering a few choices. I do not think forcing anything on a child is good for them. It’s been proven that their developing taste buds will change. Just because they don’t like something now, doesn’t mean it’s forever.

One of the biggest keys to success in nutrient dense eating is BEING PREPARED. In our hectic lives, we often have to grab food. Make the food you grab, good food and you’ll be well on your way to superior health.  Ask yourself honestly, what’s getting in the way of your eating more healthy. FIND THE SOLUTION. One exists.

ANSWER: Your entire health can be found in your poop. It can tell you just about anything you need to know. Sick people have sick poops. Not just in the consistency but in the frequency, the odor…oh! The joy of talking poops.

WARNING: WE’RE GONNA HAFTA GET GRAPHIC HERE.

GOOD POOPS:  We all go through times of having not normal poops. In general, you should be pooping 1 to 2 times a day. MAYBE 3 times but that’s pretty unusual.   Poops should be log formation. They should not require a lot of straining or pushing. They should come pretty quickly and quietly.  They may be slightly smelly (it is the toxic waste of your body) but they shouldn’t bring down the house.  A good poop makes a clean exit; you really shouldn’t need too much, if any, toilet paper.

BAD POOPS: I almost called this “abnormal” but unfortunately all too often these are normal poops for some people. Runny poops, rocky poops, pellet poops, poops that come out in a mound, poop with lots of foods you can see in it, pooping more than 3 times a day, explosive poops, really dark poops, really stinky poops, fudge-like-smear-y poops…these are all not ideal poops.

IT IS NOT UNCOMMON, WHEN POTTY TRAINING, TO HAVE IRREGULAR POOPS. Many, many children won’t poop everyday in the beginning. That’s okay and to be expected. What I’m writing here is for IN GENERAL.

The bad poops can be remedied nutritionally; sometimes it’s as simple as drinking more water. But many of these poops can stem from a food allergy or sensitivity.  For me, gluten distends my belly. Then I have explosive, runny poops.  Strawberries, oranges, and chocolate can cause runny poops.

The thing about poops is we all have an occasional off day. But if your child consistently has bad poops, something is wrong. Not necessarily WRONG…like freak out wrong…but something needs to be adjusted. With runny poops especially; that means your child is not digesting their food properly.  Their bodies can be malnourished as you’re spending all your time trying to feed them well. PAY ATTENTION TO THE POOPS. We as grownups, have more off days than kids, ’cause we’ve had a lot longer to wreck our systems. But kids should be pretty close to pure.

I’ve been preaching here for a while and I’m going to keep beating the dead horse. Gluten is the major gut and digestive offender. The easiest way to see if giving up gluten will help you and your child is to give up gluten…all gluten…for 30 days.

Here’s an awesome poster from Practical Paleo detailing the various kinds of poop;  called the Poop Pageant.One of things I love about this poster is that Pascal not only checks out his own poop…but he’s interested in fixing his poop.  “Mom, I had Ms. Rocky. I need to drink some more water today.”

I mean, COME ON…how cool is that?

(finding an image for this post was it’s own form of entertainment)

ANSWER: Yup.  Running water while your child is on the potty or toilet does indeed stimulate their need to pee. If your child is having trouble releasing the pee, this is a great route. Running BATH water is even more effective.

Of course, your child has to be pretty close to needing to pee in order for this to work.  What happens for some kids is they really do almost have potty training down but they can’t release when they want to. I think of it as almost a switch. And for some kids that switch gets stuck on “off”.  If you suspect your child is having trouble releasing, try running the sink water. Then try running the bath water.

If that still doesn’t help them, you can try putting their hands in a bowl of warm water while they are sitting. If THAT doesn’t work you can actually pour a little warm water on their  genitals while they are sitting.  Before you get all weirded out…this was a very common practice of yesteryear…before we, as a society, got all weird about bodily functions.   I will say this about that particular trick: some kids LOVE it and some kids HATE it. If it looks like your child is going to hate it, abort mission asap.

Calm jars, reading, singing, horse lips, giggling and blowing through a straw or trying to blow up a balloon can also help with the release.

Once your child has fully released a few times, they get used to that feeling. In other words, these aren’t tricks that you are stuck with until they leave for college.

These are all tips and tricks for the child who is a willing participant in the pottying process but really just can’t seem to let go once sitting.  There are some children for whom the release become dramatically hard. But these tricks will definitely always be the first line of defense, regardless.

Recently I came down with a bad case of the Grumpies. I can blame the heat, the full moon, my seasonal allergies, the manuscript rejection that arrived in the mail. (And I did.) But the reasons are irrelevant.

What matters is how my daughter Sofie suffered from it. I acted in ways that should put me in the Mommy Hall of Shame. While I did intersperse some hugs and “I love you”s, I felt my cantankerous and explosive moods dominate. While such parenting moods are inevitable, it’s helpful to be armed with knowledge before being afflicted.

About the Grumpies

The Grumpies is an invisible condition that breeds on negative energy. Common among kids and adults alike, it is especially prevalent among stressed-out mothers who tend to put their needs last. Signs include headaches, fatigue, frustration and pessimism. Unfortunately, the Grumpies often goes unnoticed until it is too late.

Photo by Shardayyy

Symptoms

A mild case of the Grumpies may result in:

• Tossing out exaggerated sighs over unending questions
• Making snarky comments about messy rooms and food requests
• Stomping through the house and slamming doors in a way reminiscent of your teenage years

More serious cases, like mine, often include:

• Yelling unnecessarily
• Issuing dictatorial commands to your family
• Freaking out because someone didn’t close the refrigerator
• Harboring hateful thoughts
• Bursting into tears at the sight of toothpaste on your shirt
• Wishing you lived under a rock where nobody could ever find you, especially those who know how to say “Mom-my!” in a whiny voice

Treatment

If you catch them early, you can usually stem the tide. However, the Grumpies have a way of snowballing. Little frustrations accrue, and you draw more negative things into your vortex until suddenly you are a mass of negativity yourself and it takes much more effort to extricate yourself from those Grumpy claws than seems worth it. It’s much easier to just sink into their miserable depths.

Are they contagious?  Yes. The Grumpies are frequently transferred from family member to family member. Not only was I grumpy this weekend, but then my husband got sucked in and of course that left Sofie rather defenseless. Since the Grumpies can go viral like this, antibiotics won’t help. Either will alcohol or food, although I tried both.

The Grumpies are best treated with immediate self-care. Taking time and space for yourself, if possible, is the best antidote. Breathe slowly from the chest. (Grumpies cause shallow breathing through the nose.) Relax. Rest. Meditate. Read a book. Soak in the bath. Do NOT just go ahead with your to-do list for the day. You will not be productive, and symptoms will likely get worse. (Read 31 more ideas on turning a bad mood around while parenting.)

Once you have reached a more balanced state, you can reconnect with your child and family and make any amends.

Caution: Nobody parents well all the time. Do not berate yourself for occasional slips into the Mommy or Daddy Hall of Shame. Such negative self-criticism will only cause you to slide dangerously back into Grumpy territory.

Prevention

When Sofie was about 10 pounds lighter, I’d turn her upside down to shake the Grumpies out of her until she giggled with glee.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t usually work for adults.

I asked my five-year-old how she handles the Grumpies these days. This is what she said:

Seems like sound advice to me.

The latest trend is what I’m calling Paralyzed Parenting.  This is choice paralysis but in parenting.  In the face of so many choices, theories, philosophies, many parents are so overwhelmed by choices that they are doing nothing.

Doing nothing isn’t good.

I know, even in my own industry there are so many, many options. Some parents research methods of potty training for so long, they actually could have potty trained their child in that time (and had time to spare). Or worse, they wait far too long to potty train, deciding on the “right” choice.

Our children are not as breakable as we think they are. They are resilient. They can withstand parenting mistakes. What they can’t tolerate is nothing.   Not actively parenting because you’re afraid of what STYLE of parenting to choose is worse than choosing poorly.

Your child needs you to show up and be present. Your child needs boundaries and limits when appropriate. You don’t need a form/method/style of discipline…you need to simply follow through with what you say you will do. Your child needs to hear lots of  NOs tempered with tons of YESes.

The only parenting you really need is to love your child and really go with your gut. If your child is making you furious, look at it. Ask yourself what needs to be done or how it should be handled.  Don’t look to a philosophy.  You don’t necessarily have to run to 10 different expert opinions. Yes, books and experts can help you form a basis. No denying that.

But I often run into parents who go so against what they’re feeling that they end up being paralyzed. Or worse, they actually let out a volcano eruption of emotions when they finally crack. That’s not good either.

What your child CAN NOT TOLERATE and I mean on a deep, psychological level is NOTHING. Your child will flounder through the day…literally kicking and screaming and all manner of acting out if you are stuck in paralyzed parenting.  Much of what we call “bad behavior” is not maliciousness in our children. It’s them saying DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

No one, but no one knows this kid better than you.  You got this. Making a bold, confident BAD choice is better than doing nothing.  For real.  Bad choices can be fixed, healed, apologized to and for.

But nothing…you can’t do anything with nothing.

My heart is heavy.

And yet…the good guys have to win right? And we’re the good guys. And I have no recourse except to stay as firm in my belief in good as I know how.

And so today, I’d like to share some of the Boston of good. For those of you who might not know this quirky little city.  The Boston of my life and memory and some fuzziness in between. Not the chaos of heartbreak it is today.

In no particular order:

*Bean town is so close to us,we almost all know one, if not many people who were running the marathon today.

*As a teenager, we’d set up camp at the 2nd or 3rd mile of the marathon. That’s when the runners would get hot and ditch their really nice sweatshirts. A lot of them from Ivy League schools. Nothing like scoring a Princeton sweat shirt for nothing.

*Pascal and I often jump on the MBTA to catch a day at the Boston Children’s Museum. It really IS one the best. The Boston Museum of Science is also a treat. MIT hosts amazing workshops for kids and teens.

*“Did he ever return? No, he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston. He’s the man who never returned.”  Charlie and the MTA. Popular song about a dude  basically stuck on the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) because he didn’t have a dime to exit. His wife would hand him a sandwich everyday. As I kid, I remember thinking I was a genius for figuring out that she was a dummy for not putting the dime in the sandwich. I loved that song.

*Pascal loves the T. (what you call the MBTA when you’re like…in the know)

*You haven’t lived till you’ve been in the middle of 4th of July in Boston.

*Why? Cause that’s where it all went down. You can walk the Freedom Trail and go see Betsy Ross’ house (tiniest stairway you will ever climb).  You can throw fake tea off a fake boat in the real harbor. It’s kitchy but kinda dorky cool.

*If you mention the Yankees while in Red Sox territory…you will get your ass kicked. Hard.

*You want to get slice of pie in the North End. Pizzer pie…(for those not in the know).

*If you happen to be visiting from California one 4th of July and hit up the North End…DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT try to order an espresso drink with low or non fat milk. Or with caramel. Or with anything but how The Guy wants to give it to you. You will drink it and love it.

*Boston streets were planned in a spiral and not a grid. Which means if you try to drive there unaccompanied by a native, you’re totally fucked.  And they really do pahk cahs.  Boston is like the WORST for driving.

*But the best for ice cream. And an incredible greenway for walking and biking…with a freaking carousel at the end of it. I mean…c’mon…that’s just so cute.

I love me some Boston.

Sending love, light and healing to all those affected.

Let’s all keep our faith in the good. Otherwise, the bad guys win.

Peace.