Why do babies poop so much? This man has the answer

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      Credit where it’s due. When you receive a press release with the question “Why do babies poop so much?” splashed across the top, you're going to pay attention.

      And so it is that a week or so after receiving it, the Straight is on the phone with Harrison Houde, the man who can actually tell you why the input-output ratio on your average suckling infant is so disturbingly out of whack.

      Houde is the 17-year-old host of the new Knowledge Network series Finding Stuff Out, a science-adventure type show in the Bill Nye mold that—mercifully—looks nothing like the teen starlet, product-placement bonanzas othewise clogging up the youth market cable universe and your kid's reptile brain.

      As someone who was “obsessed” with Blue’s Clues as a child, before Bill Nye caught his attention, Vancouver Island native Houde retains a stirring belief in the power of TV to educate.

      “They always  talk about how people are influenced negatively by media,” he says, calling the Straight from Victoria, “but I think it can be used the other way, as well. You can learn a lot from it. Even from doing this show, I’m learning so much!”

      Each episode of Finding Stuff Out is built around a theme—including senses, growth, habitat, garbage and recycling, food and nutrition—with Houde getting flown all over Canada to meet with the experts, get his hands dirty, and otherwise find himself in unlikely situations. Such as climbing into a hot air balloon for an episode about solid, liquids and gases (airing tomorrow [July 20]).

      Tune in Sunday (July 21), and you'll see the baby-faced Houde transformed into an 80-year-old man.

      “That show was all about babies, grown-ups, and age,” he says. “And yeah, one of the big questions in that episode is why do babies poop so much.”

      So?

      “You’ll have to watch the episode to find out,” he replies, “but I’m sure it has something to do with small, small intestines. I didn’t have to handle any baby poop, thank God.”

      Okay, so he didn’t get his hands that dirty, but Houde brings a likably manic quality to the show and improvises a lot of his own material, a quality that even survived an audition by Skype. (“It was pretty similar to a real audition, but with lag,” he deadpans.)

      Most importantly, Houde seems to instinctively know how to look into a camera and engage with an audience of kids he can’t see—even if he’s not all that impressed with it himself.

      “I think it’s something that everybody kinda knows how to do, you know? Because we’ve all been a child before,” he reasons.

      Believe me, I tell him, you forget.

      “Well, maybe it’s because I’m so young, still…”

      Finding Stuff Out airs on the Knowledge Network every Saturday and Sunday until August 17.


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