Gut Wars - The Belly Awakens

My son, who for reasons of privacy I will refer to as Clifford, the Big Red Guy, has had an ongoing battle with the porcelain throne. He was, in fact, the Toilet Buster - Clifford never found a toilet he couldn't clog. Sporting a look of grim determination, he would enter the lavatory with a plunger, because he knew that the w.c. was no match for his awesome powers of blockage. Sometimes he would wield his weapon for many minutes until victory was his. All humor aside, this was a difficult situation for him, and for the rest of the household.

Clifford, being a young man, was loath to share his privy problems with his doting mom. But his obvious distress made me realize that some changes would have to be made if he were going to unclog his personal pipes. I began looking into the idea of adding a probiotic to his diet, since he had recently been on a bout of antibiotics for tonsil issues; it is well known that gut bacteria are crucial for overall health, including, possibly, mental health. I found one at the local natural pharmacy, and he was willing to try it. Clifford's diet, while relatively healthy for a young guy who gets at least some of his food supply from the local convenience store, seemed to be lacking in fiber; so a week or so after adding the probiotic, I suggested and he agreed to the introduction of smoothies into his diet, containing whey powder, banana, blueberry, spinach and flaxseed, plus whole organic milk. The smoothies were delicious, although he grumbled a bit about the spinach. We didn't have to wait long for the results.

After two weeks, Clifford not only had stopped clogging toilets, he had the opposite problem - a lot of disturbance in the abdominal force, shall we say - perhaps due to the introduction of a whole lotta fiber in a short period of time. We backed off on the smoothies, and his system began to re-regulate itself. So far, it seems, we have fixed the situation. The plunger sits, unused, in the corner of the lavatory. Clifford is continuing to take the probiotic. The best part is, all of this was accomplished without the use of medicine or laxatives and we know that if there is ever a Return of the Blockage Monster, we can use food as our weapon, and peace will reign in the gut again.