As I mentioned in a recent forum post, a reader sent us a question about looking for blood in your child’s stool when reintroducing food.   She wanted to know if we used guaiac cards, which I had never heard of.  A quick search shows that guaiac cards are used for detecting occult fecal blood.  These cards can be used to detect blood in a stool sample that is not visible to the naked eye.

We’ve never used these cards, and they have never been mentioned to us by any health care professional.

They do bring up an interesting question though:

If your child is growing well, is happy and not vomiting up the new food, does it matter if there is a trace amount of blood in their stool?  The dietician who followed us at the Montreal Children’s Hospital told us not to worry about blood that we could not see.  Will using a sophisitcated diagnostic tool like a guaiac card create more worry than necessary?

If there are any physicians, nurses, dieticians or other health professionals who are familiar with MSPI-realted GI bleeding, your perspective on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

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