Help please! - 8.5mth old with severe diarrhoea

[Bodders1]

Can anyone help or reassure me PLEASE? My 8.5mth old started projectile vomiting on saturday morning and has had nasty diarrhoea since Sunday (very liquidy) so we are now on day 3 of diarrhoea with no sign of improvement. I am exhausted from constantly changing him/me/the bedclothes as the nappies are useless at containing it and to make matters worse he is not sleeping well and is very fretful in the day. I have got no idea what to do - i took him to the docs this morning and b'cause he is taking his milk ok and does not have a fever they did not seem to bothered. He (normally) has 500mls of SMA per day and doesn't eat toast yet and doesn't like water but i am worried that giving his milk is making his diarrhoea worse but i don't see what else i can do? can anyone tell me if it is normal for tummy bugs to go on this long and it giving him his milk is the right thing????

No, I would not continue to give milk.

You say he doesn't like water, but would he try a bit of very very dilute juice. Or dioralyte (even better) although I could never get my dcs to go for that cos it does taste a bit salty.

When I say juice I mean water with a tiny weeny bit of ribena in it so that its just the palest pink colour. Hopefully this will prevent him from becoming dehydrated.

If you continue to feed him milk you will continue to feed the bugs in his tummy.

Did the docs not recommend dioralyte? its really important not to let the him get dehydrated. You can get it over the counter at the chemist and most supermarkets also sell it. They do a blackcurrant flavour too but its important NOT to mix it with cordial.

IME these things can go on a while. If the vomiting has stopped I would try and feed him as normal, is he weaned yet? Keep to small portions, cereals or whatever he likes.

Both our dss have had similar in their day. We covered their cots with the bed mats and put 2 nappies on them at night, one the next size up. This usually helped contain the worst of it.

Give him a couple more days then if still no improvement go back to the docs.

Sorry eekamoose, not sure where you're getting your information from but I strongly disagree. What you're suggesting - starving a tummy bug - is not now considered best practice. Current recommendations are to give milk as normal if its accepted and stays down. Most of these type of bugs in kids are viral in origin. You cannot 'feed' a virus.

Bodders1 - definitely keep giving the milk and offer lots of dioraltye as well as I've suggested.

Obviously you don't know either of us so I would double check with your doctor

to stop diarrhoea if the child is eating

BRAT = Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, toast.

Pheebe - my doctor told me to starve my 4 month old for 24 hours and only give dirolyte. Was sceptical this was correct and now have been told what you just said.

Re: Dirolyte - my DS wouldn't drink the flavoured variety only the plain salty one! strange boy.

My DS has had an upset tummy for about 3 weeks now and I was told they don't give anything for it. I was told to give 1/2 strength formula for a while which I kept up for a week as it wasn't improving and in the end went back to the doctors who said to start on full strength again. We handed in a poo sample which came back fine so the doctor said it wasn't a bug as such and it would clear up but today has been the worst of all as he has been constantly doing extremely squelchy runny poo, his bum has become red despite me using cream on it and he has been crying on and off all day I don't know what to do for the best now as he won't drink a lot of water and wouldn't even drink apple juice either and I don't want to go back to the doctors if he's just going to say it'll clear up again.

Am getting my information from experience, Pheebe. Feel free to ignore!

I've got memories of similar symptoms from a virus that went on for a week. (it wasn't nice - explosive vile diarrhoea in middle of night. DH on nights at time.) As long as he's drinking plenty and weeing he should be ok. Just feed him whatever he'll take and second the banana suggestion.

Bluebump if its been going on for 3 weeks I'd be very tempted to go back and ask for immodium. Is he taking solids?

We have had that here, bloody horrid and we have ALL had it, thank god we have two bathrooms.

DD is 10.5 months and we kept offering her milk and she kept it down and it is the best thing for them from a hydration, vits and calorie perspective. We also gave ribena to get liquid in her as she hates water!

Our lasted for just over a week and DD was quite clearly in pain towards the end of it (as were we!) with bad stomach cramps, she would bend over and scream. I spoke to GP and he said it is going around at the moment and there is nothing you can really do about it in babies apart from wait for it to pass. We gave DD all of her favourite things to eat as we just wanted her to eat, weren't overly fussed about what, just wanted to get her energy levels up!

Hope yours passes soon

No normansmum he's not really, he had a bit of sweet potato at lunchtime and an hour later it had come out - now that's fast, I usually have to wait until the next day. He's not particularly interested in solids still. I just tried milk and some water tonight and he's drunk loads.

Thanks for all the advice everyone!

I have spoken to my sister who is a paediatrician and she advised to carry on with half strength milk feeds + try diarolyte if i can get it into him.

We are now on day 5 of diarrhoea and still no sign of it abating and he is still refusing almost everything solid with the exception of baby rice.

My sis reckons most tummy bugs in babies are viral and the symptoms can go for a week. She said that if they go on for more than a week the dr should test a poo sample for more sinister things (altho e coli etc unlikely if stools not bloody).

In the meantime i am trying to stay positive which is not easy given lack of sleep and am a bit lonely as don't want to meet anyone with kids for fear of passing this on! Also DH working silly hrs at work so he is of no help.

Thats good to hear bodders. We found that it took quite a few days for things to get completely back to normal as everything firmed up so to speak. Hope you're both feeling better soon.

hello ladies mumsnet saves the day again, I am feeling really pissed off and down my four month old has very bad runs no sickness and is having plenty of milk he is a good size baby and is happy enough under the circumstances. h e had this problem about three wks ago it took about five days for it to clear and then we stayed away from everyone for another week so that he could build up his strength again and also to ensure that we were clear and not able to pass it on to someone else. We started going out again just ovver a week ago and blow me sown my poor baby has cought this again the guilt is terrible my hands are raw with the constant washingof them.

I could go on and on I know that there is nothing that I can do but being a mum you feel responsible and somehow dirty unclean I do know feel a little better knowing that I am not alone and where the hell do these viruses come from anyway.

keep your chins up ladies and thank god for tumble dryers.