Help toddler diarrhoea

[janbaby2]

Posted about this in parenting but no replies so sorry but posting for traffic here.

My nearly 2 year old has had diarrhoea for about a week now. She's absolutely fine within herself, not showing any signs of illness, full appetite, playing and very happy. But she's having very loose stools very regularly and it's causing her to have a really sore bum. I'm using nappy cream but I don't know what's causing it, why is it going on so long?

I don't think it's a bug because of the longevity and the fact she's been well in herself. She's had CMPA as a baby but we've been doing the milk ladder for months and she's been tolerating yoghurts and other dairy products well. I don't know if the allergy can suddenly come back?

Does anyone have any advice?

Is she cutting teeth? My DS had awful poos when his teeth were coming through - particularly molars.

my younger ds was prone to loose stools and multiple poos a day until he was trained at 2yrs 6m. It worried me that he wouldn’t be able to be toilet trained as he’d be running to the toilet.

thankfully it seemed to resolve as he was trained 🤷🏻‍♀️

She had a lot of this when she was younger and cutting teeth but I can't see any new ones coming through. I did initially think it was a bug because it was so severe but it's been going on for about a week now. Tends to be a very loose BM after every meal, sometimes in between too.

She's so sore on her bum bless her. But other than that she's totally happy and well within herself, it's very strange.

Mine has phases like this and gets terrible nappy rash because of it. I just try and bulk out her stools by feeding her things like toast, rice, bananas. Usually sorts itself out.

I also bath in just warm water every day and then once I've dried her let her have a good half hour without a nappy. Usually with a dance party in the bathroom, easy to clean if she wees 😂

Toddler diarrhoea is a thing, due to developing bowel and broadening menu. If it goes on for weeks and there's no obvious cause (keep a food diary) and she isn't unwell apart from her bum then (unless she needs a GP note for nursery) then just crack on. Daily baths and metanium (other barrier creams are available) and try not to worry.

This has still been going on today and it's gotten so bad she now has two open sores on her bum. I feel so bad for her.

She's absolutely fine within herself. Eating and playing like normal. But she's pooping a lot and it's not always obvious. And changing her is a nightmare because it's so sore she's just thrashing around and making a huge mess and it's really hard to clean her and apply cream :-(

I would recommend washing her instead of just wet wipes (wash her down in the bath waist down) this will help prevent and cure the nappy rash. Vaseline can sometimes be better than nappy cream. Might be worth giving lots of Crackers/ toast/ breadsticks and leave the dairy for a few days if you suspect it.

Yes, daily warm baths to wash her. As much nappy free time as you can manage and get some metanium in the yellow tube.

For a few days just a boring carby diet with few fruits and leave the dairy alone.

My grandson was the same at that age - dr just said it was toddler diarrhoea and to use that yellow cream, think a pp has mentioned it. We tried everything and nothing worked, it just went on its own eventually.

Sorry, I know that's not what you'll want to hear, it's really distressing for them (and you!) - it looked like acid burns on my grandson . I'd never heard of toddler diarrhoea before, I thought the doc was just stating the bloody obvious but like a pp said, it's a thing!

My son was diagnosed with toddler diarrhoea at 18 months - he was completely well in himself, he just had constant diarrhoea for weeks.

There's not much you can do about it, but in our case there were certain foods which triggered it and made it worse. For us it was high fibre cereals- weetabix, bran flakes etc. We cut those out and the extremely watery poos stopped and allowed his bum to heal and it was much more manageable.

He continued with sloppy poos for another year, until we tried to potty train - we realised he had little control over his poos so we looked into his diet to try and find another trigger food. Turns out it was cows milk - we removed that from his diet and it made a HUGE difference - he was doing solid stools for the first time in over a year, and successfully potty trained.

He's now almost 3, and still avoids high fibre cereals and cows milk. He can now tolerate a bit of cows milk, but not the cereals - he has really runny poos for a day if he eats those.

consider too what she’s eating. Too much of particular groups can cause it - fruit (fructose overload), dairy (lactose overload)

Get timodene cream
from your gp it’s magic.

High fat food like
avocado will slow
down the transit time.

Thank you for the replies. Unfortunately it's gotten so bad she's now got open sores on her bum that are bleeding when I clean her. I'm trying to be as gentle as I can but she's writhing and thrashing about which makes it really hard.

I'm using the yellow nappy cream which seems good as a barrier cream but does anyone know of anything that might help heal the open bits?

The nappies are mucousy which makes me think it could be the dairy allergy again. We'd gotten quite high on the milk ladder and she's been tolerating yoghurt and cheese for weeks so don't know what's triggered this but it's really awful for her. As I said she's fine in herself but nappy changes are so painful.

She needs to see GP, open sores are at risk of infection and she's at risk of dehydration. Diarrhoea that severe should be checked out within 48 hours, not left this long.

@botheredand she's drinking and eating like normal, lots of wet nappies and no signs of dehydration at all. She isn't unwell this is why is so confusing.

And actually according to what I've read online it's not classed as severe. She's going between 3-5 times a day which is actually classed as mild.

Hi OP, my nearly 3 year old has been suffering from toddler diarrhea for months now. I say suffering but she's completely well apart from usually one very loose stool a day, sometimes two. If this is what your DC has, there's little you can do except be mindful of diet- you can Google things to avoid, it tends to be things like fruit juice and raisins but different triggers for different children. Avoiding these foods has slightly improved things for us.

If you contact the GP they should send her for a blood test and ask you to bring in a stool sample, this will rule out a few things. It could be allergies but that would require further testing. We decided not to do further testing because our DC has no other symptoms of anything at all, just the loose stools. Our GP said this usually stops by age 4(!) Hoping it doesn't take that long!! But it has been at least 6 months now.

If you can get her seen by the GP they can have a look at her bum and maybe prescribe something to help with the rash. I hope things improve for you soon, I know how stressful it can be

Hi OP, my 2yo had 10 days of a suspected viral gastroenteritis in October. She had no other symptoms either: No fever, drinking and eating like normal. However, the diarrhoea was the worst I've ever seen though. I think on the worst day I had to change her nappy 11 times. She had awful sores as it just seemed to burn her. The doctor asked us to not give her fatty dairy foods like yogurt, or even milk, as it tended to make it worse.

As a PP suggested I would also recommend bathing her rather than just using wet wipes.

Good luck, it's never fun but hopefully will be over soon!

I've had a call back from the nurse who basically advised all the things on this thread - nappy free time, bathing rather than wiping. I asked about the likelihood of infection and she said to just keep using a barrier cream. I didn't get to speak to a GP but she did say she'd ask if there was any cream the GP could prescribe to speed up healing.

So overall it seems to be a ride it out situation unless it gets a lot worse and then I'll go back.

Her poo is very much like her pre non dairy poo (very stinky and lots of mucus) so I'm going to go back to dairy free for a while and see if that helps. Disheartening though as she was doing brilliantly on the milk ladder and we thought she was ok.

A friend’s daughter had instant diarrhoea. She ended up being diagnosed with Celiac disease

It wasn't like this at the start but I've noticed it's got a horrible fishy smell to it now too. Really disgusting.

@janbaby2 did this resolve for your little one?

Hey @janbaby2 did you find out what was triggering it at all? My 17 month old is the same at the minute, poor little love has had it for about 3 days now.. he's fine in himself and eating/drinking as normal! He to has a dairy allergy, we're on stage 2 on the dairy ladder and I'm wondering whether it's the dairy again! Xx

Mine had this on an ongoing basis. Went to an allergy specialist and he said it was toddler diarrhea or just a fast transit.

he gave us some dietary guidelines - was sort of the opposite of what you might think of as healthy.

Not much fibre so white flour products rather than wholemeal.

limited fruit apart from bananas which are binding

eggs are binding too

no fruit juice or squash

no tomatoes

no dried fruit eg yo-yos or similar.

It did help us.

maybe look at her diet but if it still persists get some medical advice