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Toddler with e-coli 0157

5 replies

luckyluckylou · 19/03/2019 12:19

I want to share my experience of my 2.5 year old son having e-coli 0157. In January 2019 my son started to have what can only be described as continuous diarrhea, like dysentery. As it was so severe we took him to the GP who asked us to provide a stool sample. We did this and though he continued to have diarrhea he seemed to be improving so we almost forgot about the stool sample until a week later we get a phone call from our GP saying that he has tested positive for e-coli 0157. This is the very serious one, not to be confused with the e-coli we already have in our stomachs. This can cause serious kidney failure if it jumps from the intestine to the bloodstream through something called HUS and possible death. Therefore our case was handed to Public Health England. PHE took over and we were asked a million questions, we had not been to a petting zoo or a farm and didn't remember eating undercooked meat as we are mostly vegetarian. Anyway - our son was getting worse again and panic set in, visits to hospital for blood tests etc. We were told it should last max 10 days, however a month later he was still testing positive. He had lost a lot of weight and by now both him and his sister had been forcibly signed off school, hugely frustrating as his sister was not sick. Suddenly I was at home with 2 kids full time and couldn't work. Nursery wouldn't give us a refund so we were paying for time he wasn't there. It was starting to become a nightmare. Our son seemed much better but still was testing positive. Then, I did some research, as there is no clinical treatment for e-coli 0157 I was determined to find if anything else would help. Information I gathered told me that I should be giving him Lactobacillus Casei strain of pro biotic, which I bought in tablet form for him from Wholefoods, gave him 2 per day, plus 3 x yakult drinks per day, Bio-Kult Infantitis and Kombucha drinks mixed with concentrated cranberry juice. Amazingly within 2 weeks he was testing negative for e-coli 0157. At toddler age they can take 18 months to test negative so everyone at PHE and the council were thrilled. I am writing this post to help others, to save them having to take so much time off work as i did and lose so much money as I did in the hope it can be helpful. The good bugs (those exact ones) pushed out the bad bugs it seemed !

OP posts:
Desperatemum10 · 05/09/2023 19:52

Thank you for this, I am in week 3 of positive stool samples for my 18month old daughter!
can you tell me what probiotics you bought!
thank you

Mummyneedinginfo · 11/12/2023 13:48

Hi! I'm in a similar situation, little boy tested positive 4 weeks ago and we are still yet to get a negative :( just wondering if you've managed to get any negative yet? Feels like it's going on forever! I've been giving him some of the bio-kult but doesn't seem to be helping so far.
Thank you

LadySimba · 11/12/2023 18:19

Hey, can’t seem to log into my other account. I’m the above poster with the 18month old back in august.
im so sorry you’re in this position, it’s just awful, not being able to mix with other small children and I had to close my childcare business while she was ill.
i hope you little boy is feeling ok. And I hope you’re ok.

I did a bit of research and found specific probiotics that get rid of ecoli in the gut: Lactobacillus Acidophilus, Rhamnosus GG and Bifidobacterium.
I used the Holland and barret probiotic: https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/product/holland-barrett-live-friendly-bacteria-20-billion-capsules-60031614

and this one from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Culturelle-Supplement-Bacterial-Lactobacillus-Rhamnosus/dp/B08PC6SDM2/ref=mp_s_a_1_5_sspa?crid=3UJXHS64B8XEK&keywords=rhamnosus+gg&qid=1702318606&sprefix=rhamon%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-5-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1

I gave her One of each every day and she managed to get over the ecoli in 4 weeks.

also, avoid the following food as they exacerbate ecoli: all dairy, pear and apples (juice also) fatty foods.

hope this helps your son too xxx

Mummyneedinginfo · 11/12/2023 21:34

Thanks so much for responding! He's totally back to himself thank goodness just going a bit mad not being able to mix with other kids lol I'm due baby no.2 in 5 weeks so just worried he'll still be testing positive then.

Thank you for the info, will defo get trying these and hopefully we will get that negative asap!

Hope you and your little one are doing ok now. Awful you had to close your business, I hope you've been able to get it all going again.

Thank you again! x

LadySimba · 17/12/2023 20:47

Oh god extra hard when you’re pregnant, congrats though.
How are you getting on? Hoping you’ve had a negative sample 🤞🏼🤞🏼

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