6mo with constant diahorrea - help!

[LuvileeJubilee]

Am sure more experienced mums will have wise words for me!

DS 6mo has had the runs for 4 days with no signs of improvement. His dad and me have both been suffering similar, think it's a virus DH picked up at work.

Am back at work at the mo so DH looking after him - he called doc yesterday who said keep an eye out for signs of dehydration like dry mouth and general withdrawal. He said give Dioralyte, so we bought some but DS not keen on it!

Dioralyte says to give instead of milk (DS is ff if it makes any difference) but this seems counterintuitive I would have thought keeping his milk intake high is paramount?

Any advice re Dioralyte or any other advice re baby with the runs? It is literally pouring out of his bum after each feed. He also seems to have a sore tummy. Calpoling him up too on doc advice 4x a day before he starts crying, something about glands around his tummy may be swollen and hurting too.

Perhaps I should add a emoticon too.

I would keep up the milk feeds especially if he isnt keen on dioralyte (it is gross!). Does he take solids at all? Starchy foods can help bind things up e.g. toast, potato, rice, pasta, banana, etc

Thanks for replying! He's only just 6 months, we had started solids last week but have stopped til he's over this.

As I speak he's just downed 7oz of Dioralyte

Just worried about getting enough liquid into him, he's pooing liquid immediately after each feed.

Ds1 had this at 16 weeks, he didn't have a decent milk feed in 24 hours but had dirolyte every few hours. if your worried take him back\speak to GP. it took Ds1 about 5 day's to get over it but the diarrhoea got less spectacular! It's a real worry isn't it but as long as he's having some dirolyte, doesn't seen dehydrated and is alert etc try not to worry.

and for some reason he'd only drink the plain one which is like sea water, wouldn't touch the favoured one's!

www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/11846/43789/43789.pdf Nice guidelines for children under 5 with gastroenteritis

Summary - Lots of fluids, normal milk, water, dioralyte all good. Avoid fruit juices. After first few hours carry on with food if they want it. Monitor for dehydration, back to GP if seems dehydrated

It sounds miserable. Poor baby and poor you. I have been through this a few times and the paediatrician's advice is always this: buy the special (I think lactose free?) formula ('sensitive' is what it's called here). It's available in any chemist here, but I'm not in the UK. THis is better for the diarrhea, which the normal milk does not help at all unfortunately. You can also buy probiotic capsules (enterol/probactiol) and add them to a feed - one morning and evening (restores gut flora). If nappy rash kicks in (almost inevitable) Eosine is excellent to get the healing going and I think Daktozin is a good barrier. Good luck with it all. It's very hard.