3 year old - diarrhoea in late afternoon/evening only

[BlueSprite]

My 3.5 year old has for a few weeks been having diarrhoea that seems to strike only in the late afternoon/evening. Not lots of it, but enough for - sorry, TMI! - explosive farts and a bit of runny poo.

The rest of the time his bowel movements are pretty solid (he has about 2-3 normal bowel movements a day, but later they start to get more runny and frequent)

He has complained of tummy ache every so often. He's definitely more grumpy than usual, with the worst temper tantrums he's ever had recently (but that could be down to some other changes in his routine, like no longer having naps in the day).

I've been putting it down to too much fruit, but it is still happening now, even though he only had a small amount of raisins with breakfast in the morning and an apple in the afteroon (normally I'd give him loads more than that). He eats a good amount of vegetables - today chickpeas, a raw carrot and peas and sweetcorn with his dinner.

The thing he HAS been eating more of is peas. In this hot weather, he's been having frozen peas as a snack. His aunty is intolerant to peas (she gets diarrhoea) so could it be that?

[trixymalixy]

Particularly if there's a family history then yes it's likely. My DS is allergic to some legumes. He is fine with peas but beans make him ill and he has has problems with soya, lentils and chickpeas.

Perhaps you could cut out the peas for a bit and keep a food diary? Frozen raspberries or blueberries are also nice.

[Chanatan]

I get this,same time of the day,I am veering towards lactose intolerance,if I avoid milk and butter it seems to stop the problem

[SkinnyDecaffGiraffe]

My dd had this issue. Turned out to be worse with weetabix so we swapped to oatabix and it went.

That was when she was 18mths. Now she is 4 and we has similar issues with shreddies (sugar loaded crap!!) so stopped those and its stopped again

[crumbletastic]

Could it be toddler's diarrhea? It's very common in young boys apparnetly and is cured by upping the amount of fat and dairy on the diet

www.patient.co.uk/health/toddlers-diarrhoea

[CreatureRetorts]

Yes to the peas. Even chickpeas have the effect of "moving things along".

Easy enough to stop them for a week and see what happens.

[idiot55]

Yip second intolerance, classic for the runny poo to be later pm

[BlueSprite]

Thank you everyone. I have stopped the peas and chickpeas (it's now been two days off them) and he has been much more solid, although still slightly runnier in the evening (not like before though). Does it take a few days to work through the system? Not sure whether it's related, but he has been as good as gold today, albeit with lots of bribery encouragement from me.

Can even a mild intolerance affect behaviour?

Argh, bollocks - he likes peas and they're good for him!

[CreatureRetorts]

Yes it can affect behaviour as they have low level discomfort but cannot tell you why! Could be other foods too but difficult to know without doing a food diary.