My 15 months old son has had diarrhea now since Sunday morning - it's Wednesday night and there is NO sign of improvement. His pediatrician says 3 - 5 days is "normal" and we do have his 15-month-checkup tomorrow, but I am getting really upset with the situation. He is obviously uncomfortable and must have cramps. We've been feeding him the BRAT (well, BT, because he doesn't care for rice and applesauce) diet and yoghurt, cut down on milk and he's been drinking pedialyte and gatorate.
I'm sorry, I know this is TMI, but his BM's are still very watery and they are not getting any better. Is this really "normal"????
Does anyone of any suggestions on what else I can do to make things a little easier on DS and myself? Not to mention that if he doesn't get better soon I'll have used up all the sick and vacation time that I accumulated in the short time I've been at my job...
Thank you all so much for the advice. I took my son to his pediatrician on Thursday (diarrhea day 5) and she said that it's going around right now and that it could last up to 2 weeks. She said to give him a capsule of Culturelle per day with food and to stay away from milk, juice and green veggies. Wouldn't you know, the next day the diarrhea was gone - he gave it to me... :-)
Cheese and crackers, thats what I give my son, he doesn't like apple sauce and he's allergic to rice, so I give him his normal food and just add cheese, crackers and bananas, wherever I can and that seems to do the trick. Hope you child gets better soon.
I would stick with the BRAT diet and cut out all dairy unitl it passes. Dairy can be hard to digest. And yes, keep him hydrated like you are doing!
Nicole,
I am a Pediatrician as well. The one concern I would have for you is Giardia. If your child is in daycare and is exposed to anyone who has Giardia it is pretty infectious. I know of one case in Lansing right now. Giardia usually causes watery stools so it is worthwhile to ask your pediatrician if the diarrhea is persistent and if your child is daycare exposed
Hope this helps.
HI Nicole,
Sorry to hear about your son not feeling well. I don't come with much hope. Last year our twins had what seems to be the samething. And it lasted for about a week and a half to 2 weeks. It was crazy and horriable all at the same time. I tried everything and took them into the doctors more then once, to be turned away saying there is nothing more we can do. I know it's hard and sucks, but hang in there he should be getting better soon! Just keep him hydrated.
my doc says never give a child gatorade, or powerade. ONLY pedialyte and water.
I was given some information with my first child and it has never failed me yet. Go for 12 hours on just liquids...pedialite, water, juice, broth, jello even is considered a liquid diet. Then you switch to solids with no milk at all. If he is on fromula then make it soy instead of dairy based. Usually it get remarkably better in a 24-36 hours.
Hi,
I don't know if you are still having problems with this, but you might want to ask your dr about using acidophilus. We took care of a 4 year old girl for a year & she would go through spurts of diarrhea. As soon as we started her on acidophilus pills, it would clear up. I'm not sure how young you can start them but my husband uses the pills for the same thing.
I hope your baby is better by now!
T.
In my experience- this is normal. Just keep pushing the fluids. If you are going to be at the doctor's anyway, you might as well ask to be sure, but we went through something similar. Started on a Monday and didn't stop completely until the following Monday. Use the best diapers you can, change him right away and keep diaper rash cream on his bottom to protect the skin. Hang in there!
My daughter has had chronic diarreah for over a year now. I've taken her to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist. Her bouts of diarreah last anywhere from a week to three months. Some suggestions, I would offer are. Have a doctor run a food panel to make sure your child isn't allergic to some foods/milk. I heard an old-wives tale about feeding them really green bananas but it didn't seem to help my daughter. Totally taking you child off milk, using only pedialyte. After so many days of diarreah the ped GI doctor explained that my daughter may have damaged the 'little hairs' that hold and compact the feces in the bowels for a normal movement and to feed her a bland diet to allow those 'little hairs' a chance to grow back. Please excuse me, I can't for the life of me remember the technical name for the 'little hairs' right now. Also maybe, and it's up to you, to take your child off of all sugar. Complex sugars are hard for a child to digest. If I recall correctly my pediatrician said once a child has had diarreah over a period of time, the diarreah has flushed out the bacteria in their intestines that is needed to break down the complex sugars. This means taking your child off juices, and gatoraide as they are high in sugar.
My daughter is on acidophilus. Acidophilus, as explained to me, is similar to the live cultures/bacteria in yogurt. Also I wanted to add, have your child checked for h-pylori (i'm sure I misspelled it) and other water-borne parasites. These can be determined by blood tests. Hope this helps.
what is he getting for fiber? Are you giving him any crackers even? Make sure he is getting water to drink and something with fiber, or even go to Healthy Horizons and ask them about some good flavored fiber additive to put in his water. If a body doesn't have any fiber, they aren't going to have good bowels. Just a thought.
Is he teething? I know that can be a cause of runny poopy diapers sometimes. E.
Nicole, we had this problem in December,16, with another dear kid.
I wrote this:
Melissa, good advice from me who does not like using medication much, especially for babies, and which saved all such problems to all of my three kids when they were b, and forever, even for yourself:
to 'fight" diarrhea, please find in some store
WHOLE WALNUTS, not the ones cut and clened from shells, and then put in bags. WHOLE WALNUTS< shells and all. Get a bunch of them, and make sure you refill your supply whenever you're out.
Now, once you have them, break the shells, and take the nuts out. use the nuts for your food whichever way you wish,
but the SHELLS inside have a thin layer holding the nut in place, right? Do you know what I am talking about? You take all these inside linings (I do not even know what you'd call them), take all of them out of the shells, from inbetween the nuts, and keep them.
Now, for a little baby, like your dear angel, take about 5 of those inside linings (let's call them so), and put them in the little pot with about 1,5 cups of water. Put the pot on the stove, and heat it up so it starts ALMOST boiling, then turn the heat down, and stay near the pot, and look that it will be simmering there, not boiling. Once you get it quickly boiling for the start, do NOT let it boil anymore at all, only let it simmer there for about half an hour. Thus, you have a most wonderful harmless 'potion' that heals tummy aches and diarrheas in a most wonderful way.
Now, what you do is you need to let Emma drink it, but it does not taste anyhow, so she will not like it much, probably.
Let it cool down to a warm or lukewarm, and if the diarrhea is really bad, do not dilute, but once give the simmered walnutshell tea as it is. You may put a little bit of honey in it, just for a little better taste, but not much. She is so little she will not drink the whole cup rightaway, but slowly, she will, every time she will accept drinking bottle, just give her some. You will see it will work very soon.
If it's still not normal, give her next time not so strong walnutshell tea, but dilute it a little.
Also, while she will be healing, I wouldn't give her any sweet things.
:) to know how to solve the opposite problem, if she cannot go 'podi" longer than usually, then plum juice gets you 'loose' :).
I raised all my kids without any medication, in a very remote area in the Mountains. They are 25, 23, 17 now, all very healthy.
Other moms gave different useful advices there also:
http://www.mamasource.com/request/6877617846793273345
the opinions are different, the approaches also, but you have a better picture, and more options to make your decision on how to make it work well.
GooDay to you, have a smile, :)
Unfortunately, this is in fact pretty normal. My son, who is almost 2 1/2, currently has diarrhea as well. He had it once back in July/August that lasted for a little over 2 weeks. The doctor did all sorts of tests, took x-rays, etc and never found anything. It was just some sort of bug that eventually passed. We went through lots of diapers, pedialite and Popsicles, and eventually got better. It can be very stressful I know, but you just have to keep pushing fluids, do LOTS of hand washing and give him lots of love and cuddles. Watch for signs of dehydration too, and if you see any call you doctor right away before it gets bad. Good luck, I know this is a hard one to get through.
My son had this same thing every birthday for the first 3 years. The best thing I found was a homeopathic remedy at a health food store. If you have one that you like close by, ask them what they have. It's usually a small "pill" (it looks like a bead) that your son will suck on. I think it's called Podophylum or something like that. They can help you.
Good Luck!
Try Oscillococcinum (Osci). It is a homeopathic remedy for any flu-like symptoms. It is little pellets in a tube. You can melt a few in a spoon of hot water and then give it to the child when it cools down. You can do this every 20 min. You cannot overdose and it will help with the gas too! Adults and children can all use it. It's a wonderful product. You can get it at WalMart, Dahls, Campbell's, etc... It is in a white and orange box. Also, focus on liquids only, don't feed him any solid food! Hope this helps!
I don't know if you have already been to the doctor and figured out whats going on, but...my son (age 8) often has this same problem. His problem though is that he gets bound up in the intestine and the doctor said that the watery things (like water, juice, milk, etc...) were going around the blockage instead of pushing out the blockage. FIBER, that is what he needed. My son has to have at least one bowl of shredded mini wheats (or high fiber cereal) each day to help with his digestive system. Another way to get kids to eat applesauce or apples, put them into the foods they like. Apples mix well with most foods or can be used as a supplement. Apples are a great source of fiber. Check his stomach for bloating or soreness around the intestines. It could be this or it may not be because some kids just get diarrhea from viruses and such...good luck with it.
Diarrhea can last this long but as long as you are keeping baby hydrated with the Pedialyte and Water you are doing a good job. Diarrhea is our body's way of getting rid of whatever is bothering it. I do know one person who cut out fruit after trying all of the above for 2 weeks and the diarrhea stopped. As long and baby is happy and healthy. Your doing a great job.
Definitely call and ask your doctor about acidophilus (it's pronounced "acid OFF ill us"). I had a friend tell me about it when my 2 year old had diarrhea for almost two weeks and was losing weight. I had never tried any "natural medicine" or anything like that but I was desperate so I called my doctor and he said, "Oh, yeah, acidophilus always works really well!" In less than 24 hours my son's diarreah was completely gone. But I think doctors don't often tell you about acidophilus because it's homeopathic and you have to ask them first or something? You can get it in capsules and you just empty them into your child's bottle or in their food. It has ALWYAYS worked for my family. Since then I've had two more children and none of them has ever had diarrhea for more than a day or two at the most. Your doctor can tell you the right dosage. Good luck!
