CHILD: Stop! You can’t show that. That’s disgusting.

CHILD: No it’s not. Waste products are part of the way your body keeps itself healthy.

JOAN CARTAN-HANSEN: That’s right. Living creatures take in food, water and oxygen and then get rid of what their bodies don’t need. Body wastes are kind of divided into two groups: things that help protect your body and things that are left over.

When you eat and drink, the food and liquid go into your stomach where it’s turned into a milkshake sort of liquid called chyme. Next, chyme passes into the small intestine where your body absorbs the nutrients. The leftover solids then move into the large intestine and eventually pass out of your body.

CHILD: It takes about 24 hours from the time you put food in your mouth until it passes out as poop.

JOAN: Urine or pee is an important body waste too.

The liquids you drink are absorbed into your blood stream and your small intestines, then your blood carries that liquid to all the cells in your body. The blood then collects the waste products from the cells and passes them back to the kidneys. The kidneys then take the waste products and make urine which is stored in your bladder until you’re ready to go to the bathroom.

Some of the liquids you drink are also used to help the solid waste in your large intestines to move along.

CHILD: The more water that you drink the clearer the color of your urine. If your pee is deep yellow you may need to drink more liquids.

JOAN: Breathing creates a body waste too. When we inhale or breathe in we take in oxygen to our lungs. That oxygen is transferred to our blood where it is carried out to all the cells in the body. The cells then use the oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. The blood then carries carbon dioxide back to the lungs and you exhale or breathe it out.

CHILD: Plants sort of breathe in too. They take in carbon dioxide and get rid of oxygen.

JOAN: One of the other body wastes produced when you digest your food is – well- gas. Millions of microscopic creatures called bacteria live in your intestines. They help break down your food. They also make gas and some of that gas escapes as a burp.

[burp]

CHILD: Excuse me.

JOAN: Some gas makes its way out of your bottom. That is known as flatulence or a fart.

CHILD: – farts can be quiet or loud. They’re smellier than burps because gases have more time to build up in your body before they escape.

Oops. Sorry

CHILD: Yuck!

JOAN: Puss is another body waste. When you get a cut or you get a pimple that means some bad bacteria has gotten under your skin. When that happens special white blood cells come in, they eat up the bad bacteria and die. The puss left behind is made up of dead skin cells, dead bacteria and other stuff your body is trying to get rid of.

CHILD: Puss is a good thing because it shows your body it’s healthy enough to fight off the bad bacteria.

JOAN: So those are the group of body wastes that are things your body wants to get rid of.

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