Yesterday, when I wrote about Alicia Silverstone being ordered to pay her ex 12k a month in spousal support, Erinn commented with a quote from Alicia’s book, The Kind Mama. Alicia quoted Dr. Oz’s bad take on vaccinations as harmful to children. Dr. Oz has been condemned by his peers for the way his show promotes pseudoscience. I get that he needs a lot of content for a daily show but he promotes so much quackery and bad science. One thing he also promotes which seems slightly less harmful and more sciencey is examining poop to see how well formed it is. Like little rabbit pellets mean we’re constipated, very watery poop is diarrhea, and well formed longer poops mean our diet is balanced I guess. Plus the color of poop can be indicative of health issues. So when Alicia said her son knows about poop indicating health, it’s somewhat sensible compared to some of her other beliefs.

“He knows when he eats well, he poops well. So he knows, as a little kid, that when he doesn’t eat right, his poo changes,” Silverstone, 42, tells PEOPLE. “He’ll be like, ‘Mommy, it’s not coming out!’ So he’s learned through his body and the way he feels.”

“He’ll know when he’s starting to get a little sniffly because the kids around him at school are sniffly, and he’ll say, ‘I think I need to eat more vegetables, Mommy,’ ” she adds. “He’s such a healthy boy. When he does get the sniffles or gets a little cough, he’s still running up the wall.”

[From People]

I think the sum of the conversations I’ve had with my kid about poop are “please remember to flush.” Of course when they have diarrhea you talk about it and give Imodium or even Zofran if it’s that horrible stomach virus that goes around twice a year. (I keep that stuff on hand now. I learned my lesson after a $600 ER bill for a saline IV and Zofran.) Alicia doesn’t give her son medication either, because he doesn’t ever need it since he’s so healthy from being vegan. I just can’t get on board with talking to my kid about his poop uh regularly. I do have an easier trick to getting him to eat vegetables though. I give them to him first, always before the main dish, and he’ll eat them. After that he gets nonorganic factory farmed steak from the grocery store. (I’m sorry I couldn’t resist! I do buy local meat from the butcher when I feel flush. Also we don’t eat meat every day. I am conscious of the environmental impact. All respect to vegans, etc.)