It’s happening again. Only this time, I’m not freaking out. By that I mean I haven’t called the doctor yet. I’m staying calm. Mostly. But OMG, it’s horrible! Heart-breaking! Bunny’s little bum is bleeding!! He has a nasty, bright red ring around his poop hole, and blood is oozing out of the pores through his skin. It’s almost like the skin has been taken off with the fine cheese grater. Or like someone took a bit of sandpaper and filed down inside his bum. Poor little nipper, it looks so painfully sore.

I thought about posting a photo here so you could get a visual on what I’m talking about, but then I thought hmmm… maybe not such a good idea. I don’t want to gross you out. Plus some weird sicko might be looking and get a hit out of it. So there’ll be no bloody baby bum shots on my blog, you’ll just have to use your imagination instead.

Until yesterday, bunny hadn’t taken a dump for about 5 days. I wasn’t sure if he was constipated because he didn’t seem to be straining at all, but after the 4th day I knew his poop pipes must be blocked up. I tried sneaking some linseed oil down his throat to get things moving, but he wised up to that trick and most of it ended up on the floor.

Then yesterday, bunny went into a poop frenzy. He must have pooped about 20 times throughout the day. Hard looking poop. Poop bullets. One after the other. He stopped at night, but then started again at 5am this morning. Each poop pellet seemed more and more painful to squeeze out. Bunny’s little face would screw up and turn red, while he grunted and moaned for a LONG time just to squeeze a measly bit of dried-up poo poo out.

Each time I’d have to wipe him down and change his nappies, and then this morning I suddenly saw all this blood welling up and dripping down bunny’s bum cheeks. Oh no! I thought. I’ve wiped all bunny’s skin away by being too rough. What a bad mama!

So here’s the real deal, more scoop on poop. Thanks to my previous experience, I have a handle on what is going on. Bunny is having an allergic reaction to something he’s eaten. He has all the classic signs of a food allergy (minus the rash) – runny nose with clear snot, and phlegmy breathing. It’s something he’s getting either through my breast milk or from the tiny scraps of food I’ve been giving him the last few days. I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t been doing the whole, “one food at a time for 4 days” like a good mama, instead I’ve been feeding bunny any old scraps that he seems interested in. His diet consists of anything that I’m eating, and anything that grandma feeds him when I’m not looking.

Hey, by the way, I saw you grandma, chucking raisins down on the floor yesterday, and watching while bunny scoffed them down like he was some kind of dog or something! Is that the kind of feeding you want to encourage in your grandson??? God only knows what else you do with bunny when I’m not there…

The upshot of all this, is that I haven’t got a clue what bunny might have eaten to cause a red, bleeding bum. Most likely culprits are wheat and yeast, since he’s taken a bit of a liking for bread and pasta. But it could be tomatoes or maybe I ate some dairy by mistake? Who knows? Could have been all kinds of things. I guess it’s back to the ol’ steamed veg and rice for me (yawn) and organic oatcakes for bunny. At least we know where we stand with these old favourites.

What’s interesting is that my own poop is all messed up, and I have a bleeding bum too.  We’re in sync, bunny and me. We got the same problems going on in our poop tubes. Must be herediturdy. It’s a shitty situation, but we’re gonna get to the bottom of it, and sort it out, one turd at a time.