more poo questions (sorry)

[SenoraBruja]

ds is 20 months.

for the last few days he's been doing at least 5 poos a day, very runny, very sore bum.

But the thing is, he's fine. he's filling his nappies (and the potty) with wee like a champ, eating very well and is happy. no sick or anything. none of that nast diarrhea whiff to the poo, though it is stinky. he does have a filthy cold though.

so i'm wondering if i should be worried. it's not the runniness (his poo is always runny), but the frequency that's bothering me. He's been on a bland diet today, but with milk - should I cut that out? should i take him to the docs?

on the positive side, he said "caca" this morning (spanish for poo) - his first spanish word!

someone?

if he has a cold it could just be nastiness coming out. If it last fro a week though I would take him to the doctor. Can you also try him with diarolyte drink from the chemist to replace his liquids - they come in flavours.

My ds 2 was the same as you describe when he was little. He was later discovered to have a wheat and dairy intolerance.

As well as the runny and frequent poos, the condition manifested in - and he's going to love me for sharing this with you - smelly farts and lots of them, way too much snot, prone to tiredness, face reddening and lots of colds which took a long time to clear up.

Since taking him off the wheat and dairy all the symptoms have gone and his general health and energy levels are much better.

It's a bit of a drag, but well worth a go if you suspect it might make a difference..

It was a naturopath who diagnosed my boy.

that's very interesting, spidermama.

ds has a constant cold, and every one goes to his chest (his dad has severe asthma - he probably has too). He is very snotty too, but doesn't really have a red face and sleeps less than his sister did. he also has eczema, and a food intolerance did cross my mind.

am i right in thinking the only way to tell is to cut out the food for a few weeks and then reintroduce it?

It could be his cold. DS was also very runny though which led to difficulties with potty training and our HV said that we were giving him too healthy a diet.

We switched to white bread (not granary), rice krispies (instead of weetabix/shreddies), cut down his fruit intake and introduced stodgy puddings, only allowed water and not diluted juice, cut out raisins, etc.

It worked. End of runny poos and potty training was sorted!

SB that's what the naturopath advised me to do. I was told to cut out both wheat and dairy for 6 weeks, then re-introduce them one at a time. I brought back the wheat first and found symptoms returned so I stopped it again for two weeks, then brought back dairy and again the symptoms came back. So he's intolerant to both.

It was a long and drawn out process but well worth it. Luckily there are lots of products (wheat-free pasta, goat cheese and milk) which I can use instead. It has taken some adjusting, but I think the whole family is doing better because we have all cut down on wheat and dairy.
Also, my asthma, which I've had since childhood, has completely disappeared. I used to use the drugs for it every day. I haven't used them for about six months.

spidermama - wow.

but 6 weeks is a long time - wheat free is hard to get round here. might just try the dairy first.

I've had the same problem with lottie. She's been constipated since birth (had Down's syndrome so brain not telling bowel to work properly). About a month or so ago she was poorly one night, threw up a few times and had really loose, awful nappies. She got over the sickness but not the nappies. So we decided to put her on a gluten free diet. Been doing it 2 weeks now so bit too early to tell but I have a feeling it might be doing something, not sure. Do you think it would have been better for me to have cut out dairy at the same time? Bit late now i suppose?

SenoraBruja - you could get really organised and buy online, get all stocked up and have stuff made and frozen and then go for it. For bread etc buy on line and stock up an d freeze and just get your head round what to do for breakfasts etc. They'll be plenty of advice, tips and support from mumsnetters.

If he's otherwise happy and you are sure it is a cold then it's probably just the mucus upsetting his stomach - BUT milk creates more mucus, so cutting it out and getting a result does not mean that he is allergic or intolerant to milk permanantly, just that it is making his cold worse.

You would have to cut out milk when he was well to see if that improved things on a long term basis.

When I had gastro problems I could either eat wheat or milk each day - the combination of the two was too much.

Probiotics are good for this sort of thing too - so may be worth a try while the cold clears up.

it's not just the nappies which are making me think I should try changing his diet, bobbybob, it's his eczema and constant colds too. He doesn't usually have nappies like this when he has a cold.

he got terrible nappy rash the day before yesterday (partly my fault, partly nursery's I think) and the woman at nursery was rather snotty about it yesterday. I asked what they used for it and they said "lots of talc" - poor ds was screaming yesterday afternoon and i think the talc had made it a lot worse. Better now as i've managed to borrow some sudocrem -another thing they don't sell here. Think I might start importing it: it's a miracle!