What Makes Green?

Dear John,

Everyone has these bizarre parenting questions.  In fact, I think that every set of parents gets to discover their own personal bits of the bizarre.

One of the joys of parenting is not only finding the answers, but learning whom to ask.

Yesterday, you pooped green.  Not sick green.  Not call the hospital green.  More like comedy relief St. Patrick's Day green.

It seemed pretty clear that you had eaten something, well, green.

We had not fed you anything green.  You actually go out of your way to avoid green foods altogether.  We asked the daycare and no one remembered any green food.

So probably, we're thinking, you ate something that wasn't food, that was green.  Hmmm.  Playdough?  Paint?  Crayons?

This is where I call your Gram.  Thanks to the joy of raising your dad and uncles and her job as a nurse, she does a really fine job of answering these kinds of questions.

She asked if you had eaten anything purple.  Purple food coloring breaks down in the body as green, for some reason that I didn't understand but completely believed.

Still, I had not fed you any purple foods.

I let it go, deciding that you were acting fine and given the three green poops, clearly whatever you ate was moving right on through.

Then the daycare called.  They had just remembered that another little boy had a birthday party and his mother sent cupcakes.

They weren't green, though.

They were teal.

And purple.

So there you go. Purple turns to green in a human digestive tract.  Who knew? Well, I mean, other than your Gram.

Love,
Mom