[FONT=Trebuchet MS]My daughter is about 2.5 years old. She is fair skinned, very small, and very thin. When she is taking a bath in our bathroom, I have noticed that her abdominal area appears to have a slight green tint to it. The areas that are not her abdomen are more pinkish in hue. My wife has seen it and agrees that I am not imagining it*. We have fairly bright CFLs in the bathroom. I have not noticed the effect anywhere else.[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Don’t misunderstand, I am not worried about her, and I do not think there is anything wrong. She is a perfectly healthy little girl. But I am kind of curious about this.[/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]My best guess is that this is only noticeable because she is very white and does not have much fat on her. Maybe the other areas of her body have thicker muscles under the skin which give it a pinkish hue in comparison and the presence of organs in her abdomen give it a different color. If this is true, I think it is kind of neat. I can see her organs. [/FONT]
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Any other thoughts?[/FONT]
*My daughter thinks this is amusing. “My tummy is green, hee hee!”
The CFLs in the bathroom are the most likely explanation. Cheaper CFLs give things a greenish tint.
To determine if you daughter’s abdomen is actually tinted green, use sunlight as a light source. Your eyes are calibrated to use that. I could imagine some kind of GI or liver problem that might cause this, but, again, verify under proper lighting conditions.
I think the effect is more obvious in CFL light because of its emission spectrum, but I don’t think of the CFL light as “improper.” It just allows me to see something that natural light doesn’t allow me to see.
I turned my neck deep blue once because I “man read” the instruction on a heavily dyed duvet set to wash it before use:smack:. Has your daughter got newly dyed clothing or bedding that would be staining her skin?
Isn’t there some dietary supplements that can colour your skin? Silver or copper perhaps?
I wonder if it’s related to one’s face turning green while sick. I think the reason for that is the blood leaves your face, and the blue blood vessels actually look green through the skin.
Maybe she’s a little chilly and the blood is pulling back in to her core, and the most obvious place to notice the effect is the abdomen?
Just remembered this is GQ…while it’s just a guess, I think it’s as good a theory as the CFL.
She has very much green in her clothes at all. I might try bathtime with incandescent light bulbs tonight (if I can even find any) to see how that looks.
Just a small note that the clothing does not need to be green for it to color the skin green. Often dark colored inks and dyes are actually concentrated mixes of several pigments some of which rub off and or travel in sweat more than others (take a black pen and write a big dot on a paper towel, put one side in alcohol and let the alcohol travel across the dot for an hour … see what happens).
My favorite experience with that is the fact that certain dark, almost black gummy candies will turn kids poop flourescent green.
I am not sure if this is a joke response or not. I do not know which direction you would call a bathtub “facing.”
I looked again last night. The effect is only in the bathroom, it is non-existant or very slight in other rooms that have other CFLs or incandescents.
I recognize that the CFLs are causing it, but there really isn’t an explanation yet for WHY. Nothing appears tinted green on me, and her upper torso, head, arms, and legs are not tinted green, just her abdomen and lower back. I still lean to the organs being a separate color than muscle+bone explanation.
All I have to contribute is this: I have very pale skin. When I was a pre-adolescent, I used to come out to the breakfast table in the morning, and my mom would accuse me of not washing my face because of the “dirt” on my chin. She would try to “mom wash” it off (spit and a tissue), only to find that it was my veins underneath my skin making the dark color.
When I was a kid my mom called 9/11 because she noticed my belly had turned a dusty blue color. Then we realize I had been wearing blue shirts for the past four days. Nothing a good scrub-down didn’t solve.
See the spike in the green range? The other “why” has to do with something being different about what the light is reflecting off of in her abdomen/lower back. As I recall, there’s anatomically an entire abodominal compartment around that area. It doesn’t necessarily even have to be a dye or something : just gaps between materials can have reflectivity differences.
There is a way to find out, scientifically, what exactly it is, but I don’t see the point.
You know the green vein in your arm ? If you cut your arm open and look at the vein directly, its bright red.
When in the bathroom, are the veins of the child’s arm brighter blue or brighter green ? I think so.
Same thing with the belly, its a fake colour, but this fake colour has moved from not noticeable to just noticeable. If the skin and fat was removed, the muscle would appear red…
I reckon its just a very subtle effect , that can be seen only when everything is white or even slightly blue, caused by the bright white of lamps in the bathroom, and the lack of any yellow, red, brown, tinge created by the lamps , ceiling , walls, curtains floor ??
The translucent effect created by fat layer in the childs belly is causing the same as the ‘green vein’ effect you regularly see, but its such a weak tinge that its only discernible with in the bathrooms bright white light.
But the child would have numerous other symptoms…
When the symptom is just the one symptom and only so slight that it can only be seen in the bright white light in the bathroom, it is a trick of the eye and brain, not a symptom.
