I am inspired to ask this question after changing one of Whatsit Jr.'s diapers yesterday. The contents appeared to consist entirely of undigested raisins. I mean, seriously. It looked like the kid dumped a jar of raisins down his shorts.
Upon viewing this spectacle, MrWhatsit voiced the same question that had occurred to me: “So, is there even any point in feeding him this stuff?” Seriously, it looks like it’s going straight through. Maybe not every single raisin, but a lot. Also happens with other food items sometimes.
Also, why do babies/toddlers experience this phenomenon, but not adults? I could eat like a pound of raisins and they still wouldn’t appear magically undigested on the “other end.”
And now, having run out of semi-clever euphemisms, I throw the discussion over to y’all.
You have large effective adult molars that you’ve had many years of practice in using properly. Whatsit Jr. has itty-bitty baby molars and he hasn’t had much practice in using them to masticate things effectively.
My WAG, as a mom who also spent a certain amount of time looking at undigested raisins in diapers, is that if he’s not chewing them properly, then, no, they’re not being utilized and there’s no point in feeding them to him.
AFAIK there’s no way to teach a toddler how to chew his food more effectively. I think he just has to figure it out for himself, plus wait for those bigger permanent teeth to arrive.
Odds are that any raisin that is passing straight through is providing no nutritional value whatsoever. However if they are being chewed sfficiently to break the coating of the grape then they may well be getting at east partially digested.
I’d keep feeding them to the kid. The fibre itself is good for him, and they’re a good alternative to other less tooth freindly sweet foods. And there will be some that are getting digested and providing vitmains etc.
Related question: If a person is lactose-intolerant and so the lactose (milk sugar) passes through without getting digested, does that mean that he’s gotten fewer calories than the label indicates?
Thanks for the input, guys. I think we’ll continue to give him a small amount of raisins, but I’m going to cut back on the raisins and increase the amount of, say, yogurt he gets instead, or something. He just got a couple of molars in, so maybe soon he’ll figure out this whole chewing thing.