13 month old with dirrohea for around 3 weeks!

[loveingigglypiggly]

Any ideas what the cause might be?
Went to doc then hospital last month as DS had nasty dose of tonsilitis and needed antibiotics. He also has sickness and dirrohea. Whilst tonsils are now fine and sickness gone, nappies are still very watery and much more frequent than normal. He has had terrible nappy rash and out of hours gave him canastan which is working well, but doc said he had no idea what could be causing dirrohea and to see regular gp??

It could be a virus that hasn't cleared up yet.

But equally, could be an allergy to something he's eating.

We found that mixing sudocrem and vaseline together cleared up nappy rash the best.

(DD had dairy allergy that went undiagnosed for a while and her nappy rash was awful)

ummmm interesting. We have introduced cows milk on cereal in the last month.......could that be a cause??

How was your DD diagnosed?

Possibly. Was your DS breastfed before this point or did he have cow's milk formula throughout first year?

DD started getting diarrhoea around 4 months old. It came on very gradually I hardly noticed it, just that her motions were getting looser and looser.

In the end, I went to the gp as I suspected milk allergy. We put her on hypoallergenic formula and from that point on, nappies were perfect. That was the only way we figured it out.

BF still 6months then follow on formula. He was VERY colicy and had reflux though??

Sounds like he has developed a temp lactose intolerance. You need to be referred to a dietician who will do tests to make sure. In the mean time I would switch to a Soy formula and cut out all lactose.

You need to be really pushy with stuff like this with your GP - 3 weeks diorreah must be really uncomfortable for your LO and could lead to dehydration if they are watery.

I found metanium fantastic for nappy rash.

Snap with Metanium and DS's dodgy nappies cleared up almost instantly when i switched to soy formula

I went to order Soy formula tonight but did a quick google and read a few concerns so thought I would stop the cows milk and just use Aptimil as before??

You could try cutting out the milk for a few days to see if it improves.

You can use alpro soya yoghurts/soya cheese etc as a replacement if you're worried he won't get calcium etc.

Agree with Crush, you may have to be pushy with GP if you think allergy is the cause.

Btw, they never did any tests on DD, just tried her on the special milk to see what happened.

Aptamil is cow's milk formula so in theory shouldn't make any difference (as I understand it). DD was on aptamil when she got her problems.

You could buy a tin of Nutramigen if you're really concerned about soy. This is hypoallergenic milk - it's expensive, we got it on prescription long-term.

I second what others are saying regarding a secondary intolerence following a tummy bug.

Last september, my ds was almost two and had a string of things one after the other like your ds. IIRC he had tonsillitis, and ear infection, then something else and then finally a diarrhoea bug. It has left him with an intolerence, but rather than a lactose intolerence, I think it is to dairy protein.

I took him off dairy altogether and started using a combination of rice milk, oat milk and soy milk alongside breastmilk, and then later introduced goats milk/cheese/yog etc which he could tolerate.

Is he uncomfortable at all aside from the nappy rash? Does he seem to be having stomach cramps or anything?

I think it would be worth cutting him right back to really plain food (rice, fruit/veg, plain pasta etc) for a couple of days and then going dairy free for a while to see if it makes a difference.

HTH

Thank-you Lizziebeth, as he is 13months I thought an allergy was unlikely but the more I think about all the diary he has started eating recently, it makes sense. Will talk to doctor and ask to be refered. Will a slow return to diary be on the cards? I hope this is a temporary thing.

mawbroon - thank-you everything you said is right on the nail! He is really off his food in general. Everyone keeps telling me its teething, although the out of hours doctor said teething isn't a cause of a tummy bug and more likely an allergy.

Where can I get rice milk and oat milk from?? Would you use it on cereal etc?
I think going dairy free for a while is a good idea.

I don't know much about the temporary intolerances that others have mentioned. Perhaps it's just for a short period.

For us, DD was off all dairy for about a year unfortunately.

We slowly reintroduced small amounts of cheese and yoghurt after a year. She finally started to drink proper cow's milk about 2 years after diagnosis.

Could well be an allery. But definitely worth talking to your doc to rule out that there's not some other cause (ie virus).

Ps. My friend's DD had awful reflux til she came off dairy.

I get the other milks in the supermarket loveingigglypiggly. Look in the section with the UHT milks and also the "free from" section as well.

My understanding is that these intolerences can be temporary, but if the gut doesn't get a chance to heal by getting a rest from dairy, then they can become permenant.

I would suggest that you maybe keep a food diary and if dairy seems to be the culprit then you can present it to your GP and ask "what do we do now?" rather than "what do you think is wrong?"

I last tried my ds on dairy in Feb 08 (so 5 months after we stopped dairy) and he very quickly got stomach cramps so we took him right off it. It took him 9 days to go back to normal poos, so don't expect dairy free to sort things overnight, give his system a chance to get used to the change. I can now give him tiny bits of dairy with no effect, but haven't risked giving him anything big.

All of the above assumes that this is what is wrong of course!! It could be something else, but this is a line worth pursuing from what you are saying.

Yes it will become permanent if left to go on eating dairy and their gut getting so constantly iritated. GPs imho are CRAP at this kind of thing I had to end up going to a private consultant who did specific tests for sugar in the poo. It cost me a fortune but the diorreah cleared up in 24 hours of switching to soy products. We did it for 5 weeks and no longer.

Diorreah can leave them really low for ages afterwards and prone to infection. DD took a really long time to pick up again - do let us know how it goes and best of luck x

I was thinking about this today and wondered if you know about toddler diarrhoea

Worth investigating that too, but I would still be inclined to investigate the dairy thing first given that it started after a tummy bug.

Hello, just wondering how you're getting on? Any chance it's clearing it up yet?