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Original poster

Diarrhoea for 11 days. Help

55 replies

Echocave · 03/01/2015 04:51

D's who is 3 has had diarrhoea since Xmas eve. She has about 8 or 9 loose stools a day (some very small) but is in pain when she goes and has lots of wind.

She's been to the dr's twice and we've had the usual advice but I'm concerned it's showing no sign of improvement after this length of time. We did a stool sample about 5 days ago but the results aren't available until Monday and if it's a virus won't show up anyway.

We are trying to give her very plain food, no dairy, making her drink Dioralyte but nothing is making any difference. I have been up with her 4 times since 2.30am.

Has anyone got any ideas please? Everything I read says up to 10 days is normal for a bug but we're past that now.

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Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 13:05

Blimey Spring perhaps that's what dd's got. I'm also just worried as due back at work and Dr told me at our last visit in Friday that she's still contagious so I can't take her in.

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Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 13:45

Spring, may I ask which probiotics you would recommend? I'm a bit nervous of using anything when her tummy is so sensitive. Thanks.

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LittlePoot · 04/01/2015 16:08

Honestly -BRAT diet is no longer recommended for tummy bugs. There was no real evidence it did any good and current medical advice is to continue with normal diet to provide nutrition and help tummy and its microbes get back to normal. I do hope your dd is better soon -sounds like a really horrible bug.

Baddz · 04/01/2015 16:15

I always use the brat diet fete a bug and it works for me.

Good idea to avoid fatty, rich and dairy foods for a while afterwards.

Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 16:48

Thanks all for the advice. We've definitely cut out milk and other dairy but I'm struggling a bit with what else to give. DH did say the Dr had said normal food whatever she fancies within reason. Maybe she should have a more interesting diet. Littlepoot are you a Dr? (No matter if not, you just sound quite knowledgeable)

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Thumbnutstwitchingonanopenfire · 04/01/2015 16:53

I had a type of food poisoning once, which I and my microbiologist lodger decided was probably rotavirus (from the symptoms). So did my friend. We both got it from the same place, and the only thing we ate in common was a sandwich.

Anyway - I followed my usual rule of eat nothing, drink clear liquids, would have drunk lucozade if I'd had any but didn't, so went with flat ginger ale instead and once I'd stopped the worst of it, just dry toast; friend continued to eat normally. I cleared it within a day; he had it for 4 days. Of course he could have just had a worse bout of it, but equally he could have been continuing to irritate an already irritated gut. Don't know, but I'll stick to my version of post-D&V eating.

J10H12 · 04/01/2015 19:33

If my kids had diarrhoea for that length of time I'd be using loperamide at the recommended dose to ease the discomfort and rehydration sachets as well as see the GP like you have done.
In terms of diet -- avoiding fatty foods is all you need to do really and small light meals. AFAIK use of probiotics in treatment of diarrhoea (or treatment of anything in fact) has zero scientific basis.
Hopefully stool sample will indicate a bacterial cause and treatment will be with antibiotic and recovery speedy. All the best.

Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 22:37

Thanks all again. We've been giving rehydration sachets and flat lucozade as recommended by the GP. Lets see what the test results say. I'd be surprised if it's not rotavirus or another bacterial infection (although GP said only about 5% of tummy bugs are bacterial).

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mausmaus · 04/01/2015 22:42

we had this with dc when they just started nursery.
took 3 weeks...
gp said that it can last a few weeks sometimes but ifthe child is otherwise well there is nothing to worry about and nothing that should be done.

mausmaus · 04/01/2015 22:43

oh and gp said not to restrict diet.

Mummybashy3111 · 04/01/2015 22:46

Sorry haven't read all the Coments..my ds had a week or so like this and his stomach was overly swollen. Took him to the doctors and they kept fobbing it off as a stomach bug. Turns out he was severely constipated. Could that be a problem maybe?

Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 22:51

Hi Mummybashy, no not constipation. Prior to this bug, ds was on Movicol and was fine. Drs have also felt her stomach and said its not likely to be constipation.

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Original poster
Echocave · 04/01/2015 22:51

Sorry, *dd not ds.

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Original poster
Echocave · 05/01/2015 08:06

To anyone kind enough to have taken an interest in this, we've had no poos since 6pm yesterday. Maybe we are turning a corner....

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Springsintheair · 05/01/2015 08:28

That's great echo Smile I hope you did turn a corner. The product we use is called Biocare children's strawberry bioacidophilus, from 6months.

AFAIK use of probiotics in treatment of diarrhoea (or treatment of anything in fact) has zero scientific basis.
I don't know if there is any evidence that probiotics can improve diarrhoea however our doctor did recommend it. I think there is no harm and it can help replenish the guy's 'good bacteria' or is this pop science cliche thinking? I'd love to know if there is actually any scientific research on this..

Thumbnutstwitchingonanopenfire · 05/01/2015 09:12

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/probiotics/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Springsintheair · 05/01/2015 10:19

Thanks thumbs that's interesting!

Original poster
Echocave · 07/01/2015 08:54

Still struggling on here. Slight improvement but really not brilliant. Dr basically told us off for taking her back in yesterday and then said that it could last for 'months'. As she can't go to nursery with it I'm going to get into serious trouble at work if it continues. This is becoming a nightmare...

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Thumbwitch · 07/01/2015 09:18

Has anyone bothered to offer you a specimen jar to get a stool sample analysed?
How much weight has she lost? Is it significant? If so, then go to a different doctor, one who has a better idea of how to start sorting things out.

Original poster
Echocave · 07/01/2015 09:50

Yes she's had a stool sample analysed and it's come back negative for whatever the basic tests are.
She is very slight but I'm not sure there's been significant weight loss yet. The problem is we've seen nearly all the GPs at our practice Blush and they all say this can take a long time to go away. I need nutritional advice though because she's not had dairy for 2 weeks etc.

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Thumbwitch · 07/01/2015 11:54

She can get calcium from vegetables, perhaps you should make her some veg broth (liquidised) or something, see if that helps. (I assume that's your main concern?)
a list of vegetables with their calcium content, in order from highest to lowest

Get some Vit D to help utilise the calcium, probably best obtained from vit D drops - I give my 2yo Baby D drops because they're tasteless and highly concentrated, I think in the UK it's 300IU in one drop (I had the UK ones, now I have US ones which are 400IU in one drop). Vit D is also good for immune support. You might consider something like Floradix for iron and other mineral supplementation as well, if it carries on much longer.

Re. the fat - well, if a no-fat diet isn't stopping the diarrhoea, then perhaps just reintroduce it slowly - maybe yoghurt, especially biolive yoghurt, a bit of butter on her bread/toast, that kind of thing.

You could also try feeding her eggs, if she'll eat them - scrambled or something - as I certainly always found eggs to be quite "binding" (I suffered a lot from constipation, eggs made it worse).

I really hope it stops soon - so distressing for you all! :(

Original poster
Echocave · 07/01/2015 12:00

Thanks Thumbwitch. It certainly is a bit distressing.
I've just called up a GP friend and she's said the next step would be a stool sample testing for an inflammatory condition but that unless you see lots of blood in the stool the NHS won't send a child for this test for ages. But she thought more than 10 days for a bug was not normal. Oh dear Sad

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Thumbwitch · 07/01/2015 12:05

Did she have any other ideas?
I'd ask her what she thinks about maybe a dose of immodium now...

Thumbwitch · 07/01/2015 12:17

There is one other possibility that may or may not have been mentioned to you yet - coeliac disease. Does anyone in your family have coeliac disease? Or your DH's family? there is a strong familial component.
presentation of coeliac disease

Anyway, I know it's one more thing to remove and you don't really want to be limiting her diet any more - but perhaps if you could switch her to gluten free food, it might help, it's easily enough available these days. The only problem is, if it IS that, to get a diagnosis, she'd need to be put back on gluten for 6 weeks to make her ill again so that the bowel biopsy shows the damage.

You could always ask one of the several GPs you've spoken to about it, see if they would consider testing before you try her on GF - or you could try GF for a week and see if she improves (it can take up to 2 weeks but usually improvement is pretty quick) which would give you more impetus to ask for testing; as would having a family member who is coeliac.

Original poster
Echocave · 07/01/2015 15:34

Hmm thank you. I will ask about this. No family members with coeliac as far as I'm aware but my brother has Crohns which is making me worry.

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