Exploring Health with Wali
Authors: Wali, Dr. Michie and the AUC Students
Many children ask me to write about poop – particularly younger boys! At first, I thought, “Yuk, yuk, yuk!” But then I found out that the medical students at the University have lots of lessons about it. Doctors always ask you about your poop, so we must not be embarrassed! So Wali has tried not to look worried when talking about poop with the students.
They tell me this brown stuff is really interesting! It contains some parts of your diet you have not digested: mostly fibres from plants. This is all mixed up with many millions of bacteria and viruses that live inside your belly (and inside lizards, too).
It seems many of these bacteria are good at breaking down foods. You humans have bacteria that make stuff like vitamin K from the plant things you eat, like vegetables. You then take this up this vitamin from the poop in your intestines, to help your blood clot. Cool or what?!
Most of the bugs in your large intestine are good guys, but there are sometimes bad ones hiding in there. They might not trouble you, but they could be harmful to babies or your grandparents. Poo from iguanas can contain bugs that infect humans too, so it is best to leave poo alone...
You may be interested to know that some good poop bugs are put into pills to help some people who are sick – it is called faecal transplantation. And I, Wali, am not pulling your leg!
Doctors always need to know how often you poop. Most humans go once or twice a day, usually after a meal. Lizards poop every few hours! The reason is your gut squeezes from your mouth to your bottom all the time, moving your food along.
This movement is a sign of health. If you hold onto your poop for too long, it goes hard and is difficult to poop out. This is called constipation. If you get sick, your poop can become liquid – this is diarrhoea.
And what about that smell?! Poop usually smells. Because of the bacteria, it makes stinky gases too, and they have to come out somewhere. This is normal. Even kings, queens and prime ministers make gas! They just hide it well, and call it flatus rather than farts!
So to be clean (not like Wali, who is really quite messy), remember to poo every day, and the poo goes in the loo. Please wash your hands after you poo to keep everyone else well. Wali is off to find some more of those brainy students – they feed me all sorts of goodies.
