Campylobactor in 4 year old daughter

[samreenahmad]

My 4 year old daughter picked up campylobactor almost 2 weeks ago. For the first 2 days she had fever, very bad diahrrea, stomach cramps and nausea. After almost few days fever gone, nausea settled, But her bowel movements are very weird. She has to use toilet 4-5 times a day. Even at night she poos, which really disturbs mine and her sleep. She has been prescribed Erithyomycine after 2 weeks. After 2 days of treatment, she still has stomach cramps and frequent bowel movements. Eventhough her stools are nice and firm.
Anyone has idea, when her bowls will be back to nomal? and stomach cramps gone?

Oh, poor little thing. i’m so sorry for her. My dp had campylobactor and he was in hospital for a week and he told me it affected his stomach and bowel for about 6 months afterwards.

I hope she’s feeling better soon xx

It's brutal. I had it for weeks. Doesn't sound like the antibiotics are quite the right ones? I had to have a sample tested in the hospital lab 🙁 and then they prescribed on that basis. Go back and ask for that if needed. The frequency of her going to the toilet shows it's not all been sorted yet. How long is this course of antibiotics for?

Try probiotics?

for 5 days

I am giving her lots of Kefir.

It's rough, I had diarrhoea for nearly 2 weeks and had antibiotics
Think I was on clarithromycin

I lost a lot of weight and just ate very plain stuff like rice with butter, salted hula hoops, plain toast

After her antibiotics course is finished. I will ask the Gp to test her stool sample again to confirm if the infection is gone completley. Hopefully it will be.
Then, from there it will be about healing her gut.

When I was in ICU I had ecoli camplyb and salmonella all at the same time.
I was sedated and ventilated at the time but I'm told it was a right shit show 🤣
Any hoo - I still struggle with my bowels now.
I hope your little one makes a full recovery OP

I have had Campylobacter and it does take weeks for your bowel to recover. Antibiotics are really only useful in the first week or so while the infection is active. After a couple of weeks it’s likely that symptoms are mainly due to inflammation. Further courses of antibiotics are probably causing more symptoms than they are curing and just further damaging the normal bacterial organisms needed in the bowel.
It takes on average 3 months for the bacterial levels to recover naturally. Probiotics are not thought to really speed up the process. They are just an expensive way of doing what nature does naturally. Stick to her normal diet with plenty of fresh veg and fruit and the bacteria will recover.
Newborns start with a sterile bowel, nature does the rest. She’s just starting from scratch again.

I would second the simple diet initially. Kefir may be too much for her gut to handle. Chicken and rice is gentle and easy.

I don’t think this is the right antibiotic.
Azithromycin is preferable, some doctors don’t even treat it thinking it will work its way through the system, it won’t.
I do hope she gets better soon it’s a horrible infection.

I’m so sorry, had similar here. She was so poorly
and lost so much weight, it was horrendous. I’d say it took a good 6-8 months for
the cramps to stop and her stools to fully return to Normal and for her to put on 0.1 kg. All my love and sympathy xx

Your poor child. I had this some years ago, but I still cannot watchmen (undercooked chicken is what I think caused it)

GP said they don't normally treat it, just let it take it's course, but as if had it for five weeks, they prescribed antibiotics.

Maybe it's different for little ones. But I hate to think that a four year old going through that.

@samreenahmad erythromycin itself, as per most antibiotics, causes common gastro-intestinal side effects “Common or very common
Appetite decreased; diarrhoea; dizziness; gastrointestinal discomfort; gastrointestinal disorders; headache; hearing impairment; insomnia; nausea; pancreatitis; paraesthesia; skin reactions; taste altered; vasodilation; vision disorders; vomiting”

My child had Norovirus and he was sick for a whole month. I nearly went Crazy. I thought something sinister happened to him. Anyways two months later he developed IBs and wrong food will give him belly cramps. He is only 6 years old. I am hoping he will be better next few months

Poor girl. I had it when I was 19. I went from a fit and healthy teenager to needing my mum to dry my hair. It was so awful.
And hate to break it to you but my stomach wasn't right for up to a year. If I ate something rich or spicy, it gave me awful cramps and upset stomach. As you say, her gut needs to heal. It may be easier in a younger child, but you are in for a few months...
I hope she gets better soon. It's grim.

I had to check myself into the hospital for this. If her potassium are really low it can be dire. I was on intravenous antibiotics with potassium. After I got out, they gave me oral antibiotics and potassium pills. It took me months to recover and I lost half my hair.

It only takes one spore to create the havoc in your intestines. I was 63 when I had it.

Poor thing. I would NOT be giving her any sort of dairy yet including kefir. Definitely the simple diet for now.

I'd definitely take her off the kefir

I had campylobacter at the same time as my husband. He got better in a week and I didn't. It turned out it had triggered coeliac disease in me (which can lay dormant) so watch out for that