Child with ongoing stomach pain and diarrhoea after Bali trip

[LavenderLxx]

My son has had stomach ache and diarrhoea for nearly 10 days now. He hasn’t managed to start school this term as he’s been too unwell. GP has taken urine sample (fine) blood sugar (fine) and we’re awaiting stool samples.

We went to Bali in the summer holidays and I came back with severe D&V which wiped me out for over a week. For the most part I’ve been ok but my ‘funny tummy’ has come back too. The GP tested my stool too but it’s come back normal.

My son is throughly fed up and of course school are questioning why he’s had 6 days off if the GP can’t find an answer… Any words of wisdom?

My nephew recently spent 2 nights in hospital for something similar. His digestive system was completely wiped after food poisoning.
He met a gastroenterologist who is rebooting him with a special diet and probiotics.

Could be champylobactor

Could be parasites. Not tested for as standard

Did they test for giardia. It is classic for recurring symptoms

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15238-giardiasis

but in general he needs to be seen by an infectious disease specialist who covers tropical medicine. Have a look at this hospital

www.uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/find-service/tropical-and-infectious-diseases

After a trip to India I became lactose intolerant, I had a really bad stomach while there. Have you tried excluding certain foods?

They’re testing for parasites - just waiting for results.

Sorry to hear this OP and hope you get answers soon. I wouldn’t worry about school, just put D&V after foreign trip. They won’t want him using school toilets and potentially spreading it.

How is he in himself? Is he managing to keep down fluids? If not, go to A and E as dehydration is serious, and he’s been ill for ten days now. Mention that he’s been abroad.

This is what I think it is for both my son and I - just waiting stool results

No we haven’t - that’s maybe worth a try. Thank you

He’s keeping fluids down and eating small portions of bland foot. He’s just really ‘flat’ and tired.

Giardia. It absolutely stinks though you probably will know if you have it. Course if metronidazole.

Are you based in London? I am and after an illness I may have picked up in India or Sri Lanka (was ill for several days after returning) I was sent to the Hospital of Tropical Diseases in UCL. Sorry but GPs aren’t always great if it differs from the general stuff they are used to. If you’re really worried about it I’d try and be seen by HOTD or at least a specialist in gastric issues.

I had a parasite after trip to India, it was some kind of microorganism? Cant remember the name. Only found out after a very expensive private stool test.

Just to let you know one of our family ( a student in a shared house at the time) had to have a 3rd stool test as she had the same symptoms as your son but the 1st 2 tests were clear. By the time the GP was muttering about a 3rd test or her being referred to the Hospital of tropical diseases she had lost tons of weight (was slim to start with!) and collapsed on the way home one day.

3rd test - nearly 2 months after she'd 1st gone to the GP- confirmed it was a nasty form of giardia - she had travelled around India.

Environmental health then visited the house to check which countries she'd been to as they wanted to check it wasn't in the local water supply, and gave the entire house of students rules to follow til she'd recovered. She wasn't allowed to prepare food or go fresh food shopping as they didn't want it spreading, and one of the toilets was for her use only.... She was also warned it could recurr years in the future (it hasn't so far)...

So if the 1st result is clear but your son is still ill, worth persevering...

Parasite populations go through boom and bust so sometimes they can be hard to test for. I kept testing negative for giardia. GP wanted to put me on the waiting list for consultant gastro (which would have taken months and I was so miserable). Eventually I begged for metronidazole just in case and was right as rain within 24 hours of starting the course.

giardia would be my guess.

It seems a bit odd that the school want your kid in when they have diarrhoea as usually they have 48 hour rules for a good reason, although if he is at an important stage (past primary, and at least not year 7/8) they are probably concerned that he's not in because of falling behind, that said, I suppose if you sent him in and he's spending more time in the toilet than the classroom it would cause other issues like being likely contagious and passing it on to the other kids and staff not to mention the clean up potential

Most less concerning causes tend to go away of their own accord after about 24/48 hours like norovirus so the fact this hasn't plus the travelling probably means you need to be pushing for the tests as a lot of the more faraway countries (such as not the US/Canada, Aus, NZ, EU etc) do tend to have issues with this kind of thing

My DD came back from Vietnam like this. She was 18 so a lot older but it went on for a year. Eventually it cleared.

Some schools haven't got the 24/48/any hours rule anymore.

DS ( then 15) had diarrhea for about 12 days last year, worsening until he was going just about every half an hour and passing blood. I took him to A and E twice. They did blood tests, ultra sound, they lost the stool sample (🙄) and then did a stool test at the gp but came back as "just a stomach bug"
He lost about half a stone, and he was only 8st to start with.
His school dont have any rules about D and V but there was no way he could have gone.

It's still sensible as a lot of the time with these things you feel like it's going and then it hasn't, and also if it's contagious (which it probably is) the body is still shedding the virus after symptoms have stopped

Either way this lad is still actually having diarrhoea so isn't in any clear period

Have they tested for h pylori?

Giardia has distinct sulphur/ eggy burps

Thanks for all your advice. Awaiting stool sample results so we’ll see what they say.

To add to that he’s woken up with what looks like tonsillitis! 🙈