So my 4 year old son had bright grass green poop. We heard that it could have been from eating blue pop tarts. So is it true you can turn your stools green by eating blue food coloring?

Any particular reason you're relying on a bunch of Mythbusters fans rather than a doctor for this?

You've posted and appealed to a board where 50 people have asked

"srsly kin u flot if ur close r full of heelium?"

I think this is actually a serious matter.

Ohhhhhhhh cijay. If only you could see a thread at Straight Dope. A woman's first ever post was a serious medical question (if taken at face value, but you'd have to have the innocence of a 2-year old to take it at face value). It was about a female "problem". Ohhhhhhh the fun we had in that thread.

you would need to down a bottle of food coloring(unless your stool would have been yellow, i'd go with green food coloring myself) nowhere near enough food coloring in pop tarts to effect stool color... heck there's more food coloring in that fake guacamole that restaurants use. sure your 4 yo wasn't actually eating grass?

I've never heard of this, but food coloring sounds like a very unlikely explanation.

I'd suggest bringing this up with your pediatrician. Right away. It's probably nothing, but why take the chance that it isn't?

Actually, in my experience, yes, the blue food coloring can effect your droppings.

The worse ones I know of are the blue frosting some cake decorators use (the blue frosting that actually temporally stains your skin), and black licorice in large quantities.

I don't know if pop tarts would have enough to gave an effect. If you ate enough of them, maybe.

This tends to be something that effects some people and not others. The simple test would be to take away the blue Pop Tarts and see if the problem goes away. There are much healthier breakfast options out there.

The bright color does sound odd, you should probably talk to a doctor about this.

I can tell you definitively that in MY PERSONAL CASE food coloring has affected the color of my leavings. I like to get grape slushies from Sonic (a chain restaurant, I'm not sure if they are known across the whole country so excuse me if it's an unnecessary explanation) because they are quite tasty and refreshing in hot weather. I have noticed however, that every time I get a large slushie, which is 32 ounces of grape flavored PURPLE liquid, I "go green" as it were the next day.

I have heard that the Frankenberry cereal had problems like that when it was first released (I thinks it's off the market now) with a lot of concerned parents because the pink cereal turned kids droppings pink.

If this is indeed the cause of the odd bathroom experience though it's nothing to worry about. Food coloring is just a non-toxic dye. It has no real nutritional value so it goes right through your system and out the back end. So if anyone consumes enough of a particular color at one time it could easily be noticeable on the other end.

it is also true that beets make a distinctive change in the color of your excretions.

I had some blueberry donuts last week. Green stools. VERY green!

So, I'd say that yes, blue food coloring will do it.

Well for those who think my sons health is being neglected worry no more. My doctor told me not to worry unless the stool is lacking color. And yes I knew this before posting on a message board. This isn't exactly where I'd go for medical advice.

This topic is left to lots of questions concerning "Green Feces" Like to see Mythbusters take on this stink of a subject. Lets start here...

http://www.poopreport.com/Inte...Content/Dye/dye.html

http://isitnormal.com/story/green-poop-7011/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_...nt_colored_sometimes

http://www.greenstool.com/green.htm

ABSOLUTELY TRUE! Doesn't even have to be food coloring. Eat a quart of blueberries and see it....you won't believe it, but it will be a brilliant green!

I think it's strange that THIS can be not only posted but resurrected almost a year later (was it necessary?) yet the guy asking about pre-game 'activity' being good for him got blasted into the past.