Baby with persistent diarrhoea

[Mawsymoo]

My 9 month old developed a gastro bug 10 days ago. We had a day of vomiting and a few days with loss of appetite but the diarrhoea is still continuing 10 days on. He has a number of severe bouts every day - with many of them seeming to strike in the middle of the night. Otherwise he is in good spirits - he's eating and sleeping and playing.

He is not dehydrated but he has CMPA and is of low weight for his age so I'm getting more and more concerned the longer this goes on. He doesn't have a spare ounce of fat on him. Has anyone experienced similar? Any advice? I'm going to ring the GP this morning to try to get an appointment for tomorrow but I'm not sure there's anything they can do for me.

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

I would take him to a drop in surgery. 10 days is too long for a young child to have diarrhoea.

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

At least ring the non emergency NHS number for some advice.

[ohwhatsinausername]

My 4.5 month old has this, at the moment.

I took her to GP yesterday, who said it was Gastro and babies can have symptoms up to 3 weeks!

We are also 10 days into it so I was getting concerned but as long as they're not showing signs of dehydration, I'm not sure there is much that can be done but riding it out.

I did take her to get weighed as well though and she has actually gone up slightly on her percentiles, so no weight loss or anything.

I rang GP initially, just to get advice but they still wanted to see baby, just to be safe and check for dehydration etc - so you might want to ring for peace of mind? Hopefully they will be better soon!

[milkjetmum]

You can get temporary lactose intolerance after a tummy bug (dd1 is very prone to this). If he has really acid poops causing nappy rash that would be a sign.

Try adding colief to his milk? You can buy it over the counter, and I think the instructions are just to give it 15min in the milkto break down the lactose before they drink it. We found we had to do this for a few weeks after a tummy bug before she can manage without it.

[Mawsymoo]

Thanks all. I'm not in the UK so no NHS direct and there isn't a drop-in surgery so I'd have to go to A+E which seems like overkill when he's so well in himself otherwise. I'll ring the doctors as soon as it opens. I'd like to get him weighed and checked over anyway.

[Mawsymoo]

Sorry also to clarify - he has CMPA so is dairy-free and on prescription formula which is also lactose free so lactose intolerance shouldn't be a problem.

[Gillian1980]

My dd had a diarrhoea bug last Xmas which lasted 3 weeks, she was 4.5 months when it started.

GP monitored her regularly it said that unless she became dehydrated, which she didn't, it was just a case of waiting for it to pass. It cleared up one day as suddenly as it arrived!