Diarrhea in 16 Month Old for 5 Weeks

Does she eat dairy?? My son is lactose intolerant and he had the same symptom. We switched to Lactose Free (NEVER soy) milk and other things and it's better!

It might be the cows milk - Try soy. Your baby might be lactose intolerant. Mine used to do that and vomit all the time, I stopped the cows milk for a while and he had no problems. My husband forgot the effects, saw cows milk on sale again, bought it, and fed my son, the same thing happened again, so we knew it was the milk.

As much as I love my pediatrician too, if this were my baby I would seek the advice of a ped GI specialist and probably have some additional sensitivity/allergy testing done to rule out a reaction to food. This testing can be done immediately and painlessly in an office visit to immediately rule out all the major food allergens. Lactose is NOT typical, but cows milk protien, soy, wheat, gluten, etc are very common. Has she recently changed her diet? Added cows milk instead of breastmilk? If she can still nurse this would be GREAT for her until a solution is found as it will help her nutritionally (absorbed SUPER fast and not diarrhea'd out!) and the antibodies will really help too. You can always begin an elimination diet on your own to see if it is cows milk protein by not feeding her any dairy or anything with cows milk proteins for 2-3 weeks and see if there is improvement (it takes 2-3 weeks to fully get all the protien out of the system and no longer be reacting to it). This includes casein and whey (parts of cows milk)....it will be some work, but worth it for her! It is a very common GI upsetter!

You are right that 5 weeks of diarrhea is NOT normal nor healthy and something IS technically wrong with her.... it just has to be found!! I will pray for her that she finds the right Dr that recognizes what the problem is and can work with you for a solution.

just as an fyi after your follow-up. Once you figure out it is dairy- she could very likely still eat cheese & yogurt :) Good luck!

http://www.qualityhealth.com/featured-article-segment?fa=...

If it is lactose intolerance and you need diet ideas, post a request for food ideas.

Ahhh. Poor little baby. I would suggest a liquid acidophillus from the health food store, appropriate for babies. Talk to the most competent store clerk for recommendations. I am not convinced that the yogurts have enough healthful probiotics to be effective. Good Luck on the lactose test. But even if she is intolerant, she needs the good bacteria replanted in her colon with probiotics.
Good Luck to you,
A grandma in Odessa
J.
http://www.chi-analysis.com.

Hi K.,

One more thought for you. Sometimes diarrhea presents itself when there is a blockage in the intestinal tract. What happens is there is trouble evacuating so what does come out gets watery and actually goes around the blockage. This can be handled with fiber....This may not be it but I just didn't see this in the other responses.

Also, Slippery Elm is safe for babies and it is soothing to the entire digestive tract from the esophagus to the anus....it actually balances the system. It does not cause diarrhea when constipated or cause constipation when having runny stools but actually gets it to where it is supposed to be. This will definitely help but you still need to get to the root of the problem and get at the cause.

God bless,

M.
www.squidoo.com/ifyourbabycouldtalk

I would consider a gastrointestinal doctor in addition to your pediatrician. Dr. Arasu is amazing!!!!!

OMG I feel your pain. My daughter is 21 months and we have been going through almost the same thing. She had diahrrea for 15 days straigh, then it stopped all of a sudden and then she developed a horrible cough (breathing treatments 5 times a day now) and then this morning she woke up to diahrrea. I had started a hole bunch of holistic stuff, I stopped it and then she had diahrra again this morning. I started back with the "superseep" (you can get it at whole foods) and hopefully we will go back to normal stool. Today is the beginning of being sick for 1 month. Try the "superseed" sprinkle a PINCH in apple sauce, yogart, anything that you can mixit with. It doesn't really have a flavor but it seemed to work great for my daughetr. There has to be some kind of crazy virus going around that our pour little ones are having this problem.

Not sure about your little one but the BRAT diet isn't an option. The only thing my little one likes is bananas.

Good Luck and please let me know what you find out and I will do the same for you if they figure out why my daughter has had this for over 3 weeks. Maybe together we can help out kids.
P.S. we did Stool and urinalis both negative. Did they do that for your little one?

Our daughter had diarrhea for four weeks right at her first birthday. We had exactly the same situation. No symptoms, negative tests, BRAT diet, ect... The only difference she had just started cows milk so we had to stop and try soy, didn't help. Probiotics didn't help. Our doctor said the same thing. Hers went away on it's own, or maybe it was all the probiotics, diet, ect... who knows. We thought and the doctor agreed, there was a lot going on at the time and stress can lead to diarrhea. We had her first birthday, shots, started cows milk, had a family vacation and travel, before all this she had the stomach flu which probably started the initial diarrhea but all the changes kept it going. Did your daughter have her 15 month shots, that can cause gut upset (generationrescue.com/org) and probiotics will help. Has there been any major changes in her life/routine? Try going without cows milk and see if it helps. Dont stop the BRAT diet and make sure she stays hydrated. Keep an eye out for any other changes.

Give her probiotics (I-FLora). This has food allegies written all over it. People can develop allergies at any time. See a NAET specialist since normal scratch testing will prove nothing. If you do elimination diets try all dairy (casein) first. It takes 2-3 weeks to really get out of the system. After that try all gluten (wheat) which is the harder of the two. But with NAET you get treated and never have to stay away from those offending foods. It is a miracle. Check it out so you can go to someone reputable. Let me know where you live so I can direct you. Also for the time being get her to drink almond milk not soy. 70% of kids are cross allergic to both. Do not do ANY vaccinations until this thing is cleared up. It may have even been brought on by 15 mo old shots. The gut gets inflamed. Just a thought.

Hi! It sounds like you are very balanced and caring in your approach. I just want to ask you how you define diarrhea.

My kids both had/have naturally soft stools (oatmeal consistency) and at that age they both had 4-5 movements a day. When they were ill, the stools smelled sick, were liquid and acidic--they were obviously not healthy. But frequent, soft stools (that didn't cause a rash or anything) were normal for them.

It was a pain to change them all the time, but as they got older, things changed. They both went to one a day by age two.

It did freak me out a bit with my oldest, but I know we eat a really healthy diet with lots of fiber and yogurt, so I just learned that that is our normal!

Hope that gives you another piece of the puzzle!

Food Allergies....The doctor could not find anything wrong with my daughter when she was a baby and having diarrhea. My Mom is the one that suggested it could be food allergies as she had just started eating regular foods. I mentioned this to the doctor and he said she could be right. He also said the most common food allergy in a child this age is #10 yellow dye. I cut the yellow dye out, also had to stop oranges, carrots and anything else that was yellow or orange. The diarrhea stopped. Her only symtom was diarrhea. If it hadn't been for my Mom hard telling how long it would have taken us to figure out what was wront. But once I told the doctor my Mom said it could be food we started eliminating things until we found what it was. Good Luck!

What happened? Did the lactose free work? My daughter is 9 mo and had diarrhea for almost 6 weeks now i dont know what to do!

Hi,
My son had diarrhea for 5 months starting when he was 22 months old and went on an antibiotic for an ear infection. At first we thought it was just upset bacterial flora from the antibiotics and tried every probiotic under the sun. Nothing worked. At the same time this started I gave birth to my daughter so he also had an added stress in his life. We tried eliminating all juice, all dairy, all wheat and wheat gluten, and nuts from his diet. Nothing made a difference. We saw a GI specialist and an allergist. The GI specialist said that since he was not losing any weight and was happy and healthy otherwise(all labs, multiple fecal cultures etc. normal) to recheck him in 3 months and not to worry too much. The allergist tested him for food allergies and he had a mild positive skin test result to peanuts and wheat. So we tried another elimination diet (No wheat and peanuts) and still no change. She said that it likely was not a food allergy issue at this time. So we tried another probiotic that the GI specialist recommended called FlorastorKids and I'm not sure that helped but we kept using it a few weeks. What ended up happening is that he just started to pass more formed and then finally formed stools after 5-6 months of diarrhea. I was so relieved and wanted to pass along his story to you. He eats a normal diet with no restrictions and has had normal stools for over a year now. Also, during that time when he had diarrhea he was sick a lot because I had started him part-time at daycare and his immune system was adjusting. Now, I couldn't have a healthier kid. So keep talking to your doctors but don't worry too much... she will likely outgrow it.

My daughter had the same thing happen. Tests were all neg.I put her on soy milk, but havent changed anything else and it worked. I make sure I use a soy milk with extra calcium and dha. She eats cheese and yogart. Now sometimes she gets constipated from the soy.Hope that helps. J.

This happened with my friend's son. I believe that he had diarrhea for a few months. He had a stomach flu or something with diarrhea, and even after he got better the diarrhea didn't go away. It was awful for her. After a consult with a pediatric gastroenterologist, it turned out that after an illness like that when his gut flora was totally cleaned out, it can take a few months to get back to normal. So your pediatrician could be right, that although the illness is no longer there her gut system is still recovering. From what I remember, it could take a few months and your kid is still OK. If your instincts say that something else is wrong with her, I would try to get a consult with a pediatric gastroenterologist.

You need to have your daughter see a specialist or get another opinion!

Have you had your child tested for a bacterial infection called C Diff? Is there blood present or any pain associated with her diarrhea?

Hi K.-

I have a 21 month old that has had diarhea since she was about 13 months old. We have done every test in the book. It was so bad that for a while she was actually losing weight! That issue has seemed to correct itself, though she still has diarhea.

The only thing the GI doctor found was some sugar malabsorption, which is considered normal for "Toddler's diarhea". He kept saying keep her away from juice and sugar, and we kept telling him that she does not drink juice nor eat much sugar at all. Her main/only source of sugar is fresh fruits and an occasional unsweetened applesauce! We have given up trying to figure out what is wrong with her and since she has started to gain weight like gangbusters, completely wiping out the loss and adding on several additional pounds, we have stopped worrying.

If the doctor cannot find anything wrong and your daughter is not getting excessive sugars such as juice, etc., then you may just have to wait it out like us. Worry if she stops gaining weight or is not gaining the weight she should (which you have to look at over MONTHS if not a full YEAR to see if that is the case), or if she starts losing weight. Otherwise, there may be little you can do.

K.

Right around that same age - my daughter picked up milk with meals - and weaned off being breast fed. She immediately had diarrhea and a terrible rash immediately. My husband is lactose intolerant and he is the one that suggested that she might be as well. This is what I did and it worked PERFECTLY. First - I gave her LACTAID milk rather than regular milk. That was the end of the loose poo and the rash cleared up immediately. If we were going to have ice cream, cheese or yogurt - I would just have her drink at least 1/2 of a sippy cup of the lactaid immediately before eating the dairy food and she was fine. That only became problematic because we travel A LOT for my husband's racing business. You can't get Lactaid in single server containers, at convenience stores or restaraunts, and it was a pain in the neck to carry it and always have to make sure that the cooler had enough ice and the car was in the shade etc..... My husband always took the Lactaid pills - which are a pain because depending on your severity - you have to take 1-3 EVERY time that you eat dairy if it has been longer than 30 minutes since your last dose. I found a product for him that he loves and then thankfully they came out with a children's chewable version. DIGESTIVE ADVANTAGE for lactose intolerance. They sell it in the pharmacy section near the laxatives, and other stomach aids. This product has changed our lives dramatically - you take one in the morning with breakfast and you are good to go for 24 hours! I would try the lactaid milk thing for the weekend, give it a few days to get the enzyme going in her system though and if it works - just do the lactaid milk before dairy thing or get the tablets. If you go to DigestiveAdvantage.com - you can print coupons too! Good luck, let me know how it goes!
PS: there are a ton of articles about the bad effects of soy on children. I would stay away from soy milk. My daughter used to drink it and was developing dark hair on her legs and arms (age 5) and getting really moody. After I read up about soy, I stopped giving it to her, the moods have leveled out, the hair is gone and back to being finer and blonde!

I know this is a bit late, but is your daughter teething? Many children get the runs while teething. Two of my grandchildren got really acidic diarrhea that would burn their little buns each time. Once the teeth broke through, problem gone.

I saw in your post that you had lab tests; I would suggest that you seek out a different pediatrician (you are right - diarrhea for 5 weeks IS an issue) and have them do extensive testing for all kinds of bacterias and parasites. Be sure to keep her hydrated (pedialyte, gatorade, water, diluted juices, popcicles, etc)- diarrhea in children can lead to hospitalization if they get dehydrated. Definitely avoid ALL dairy. If you want to give her yogurt with probiotics I would suggest a non-dairy one - in my opinion the best one is by Whole Soy and is available in a variety of flavors at Nutrition S'mart. Despite many Americans' opinions, dairy is not a nutritional requirement. Calcium and vitamins can be easily obtained from vegetable based sources. Nutrtion S'mart also has knowledgeable staff in their vitamin department - maybe they would have something to suggest. Good luck - I hope she feels better soon!

Definitely consider her diet. Lactose is always the first thing to come to mind but other things can trigger it as well and every child is different. Certain veggies, white flour, gluten, eggs.....anything can do it. Sometimes a food that was thought to be easily digested before hand can now have a different reaction in her system. Also note what the difference of a runny diarrhea and just soft, mushy poop (how graphic, I know). It is perfectly normal to have very soft poop but when it is liquidy and can potentially cause diaper rash....then be more concerned. It sounds like she is still happy and healthy. Good luck on your findings and hope all works out. If lactose is the culprit, experiment with goat milk/cheese, almond milk, rice milk/cheese, soy chees/milk and other yummy substitutes.

The very same thing happened to our son. From Nov to forever! every time we give him milk-diarrhea. My husband's a chef and we thought our son was lactose intolerant for sure. But it all started w/a cold and the mucous build up messed w/ his tummy and milk encourages more mucous. He was healthy after of few weeks but still w/ diarrhea. So, for those few months we did the soy and weened him off if it gradually. Then gradually introduced milk mixed w/ water. If it didn't take we went back to soy. Also, hard cheeses (like cheddar are ok b/c their aged for over a yr.) Anyway, my kid now drinks 4-5 glasses of milk a day! So be patient and if she's acting healthy take it slow, so foods are harder for kids to acclimate too-especially milk.