Took the grandson to the doc yesterday with what we thought to be blood in his diaper. As soon as the doc saw it, he said it did not look like blood, that it looked like the chemical reaction that happens sometimes when the uric acid in the urine mixes with the flame retardant chemical in the diapers. It can turn red, and look like blood?!?!? :shrug: Has anyone ever heard of this?!?! They taped a bag to his little pee pee to get a urine specimin which came back clear (and made us feel much better) but I am still weirded out! I googled it, I checked the Pampers website... I can't find anything on it. It just sounds really weird to me. After 3 kids, I never remember this happening. Grant it, my kids are all grown, and diapers have changed but... Someone please shed some light on this for me.

after googling myself, seems like alot of parents have this problem. It appears that most are newborns or very young and are dehydrated from nursing mother who's milk hasn't come in or not enough supply of milk.

They call it Uric Acid crystals and it's from concentrated urine.

Took the grandson to the doc yesterday with what we thought to be blood in his diaper. As soon as the doc saw it, he said it did not look like blood, that it looked like the chemical reaction that happens sometimes when the uric acid in the urine mixes with the flame retardant chemical in the diapers. It can turn red, and look like blood?!?!? :shrug: Has anyone ever heard of this?!?! They taped a bag to his little pee pee to get a urine specimin which came back clear (and made us feel much better) but I am still weirded out! I googled it, I checked the Pampers website... I can't find anything on it. It just sounds really weird to me. After 3 kids, I never remember this happening. Grant it, my kids are all grown, and diapers have changed but... Someone please shed some light on this for me.

Well you can be sure of one thing, if there was enough blood in his urine for you to detect it visibly it would have shown up in his urinalysis/culture. Not sure how old your grandson is. Did he eat cherries, beets, drink Kool-Aid or something of that nature?

He said it was not the Uric Acid crystals, we went through that when he was a new born and this was completely different. He is 2 1/2 months old now. The doc literly said it was the flame retardant chemical in the diapers that mixes with the urine and turns the diaper red and makes it look like blood. He is not on any baby food or juice yet, and the culture came back clear, there was no blood. So.... if the diapers do in fact have this chemical that can sometimes look like blood when when it comes in contact with urine.... shouldn't there be a warning somewhere on the package??? How are parents supposed to know if there child is actually passing blood or if it is this chemical?? Has this really never happened to anyone else out there?? Is our doc nuts??

I'll bet your daughter about had a heart attack when she saw that in the diaper.

What Radiant said - it would have shown up on the urinalysis if it were blood. And typically urinary problems hurt like hell, and you'd notice if the baby was in pain every time he peed.

When I was a first time Mom, I thought I saw blood in the diaper. So I bundled it up, and took the baby & the diaper to the Doctor's. Imagine my embarracement when the Doc saw that it was a fuzzy thread from my shirt! I have never heard of fire-proofing in diapers, let alone a chemical reaction between it, and the urine. I suppose it's possible! I'll have to ask one of the Doc's about that on Tuesday.

I remember when my son was younger he had what I thought was blood in his diaper so I took it to the Doctor and he said it was from the medicine he was taking can't remember what it was ?

Totally belated, but I had something like this happen when my son was really young as well. We saved the diaper and took it in, but by the time it was looked at (it had happened the night before) it was too degraded to determine anything.

It only happened the once and it was a very tiny amount.

This happened with one of my kids years ago. I was a little embarrassed when we got it narrowed down to the beets that the child had eaten.

Not sure what they're putting in diapers these days but you could always call another pediatrician's office and ask if they have heard anything like that for verification if you need it -- or maybe call the local hospital's new baby department (obstetrics/labor & delivery/newborn nursery) & ask them? :shrug: