16 month old being sick nearly every day - doctors wont do anything

[mckenzie]

My friend's 16 month old daughter has for the past 4 week sor so been sick nearly every day, sually just once a day. She also sometimes has a runny bottom but usually not at the same time as the sickness. She has a normal temperature and is completely fine in herself before being sick and almost immediately afterwards.

My friend has taken her DD to the doctors and they asked her to get a sample of one of her runny stools which she did but it seems that either it or the results have been lost. The doctor is saying it's possible that she picked up a bug of some sort while in Turkey at the end of July but because she is keeping down two meals a day they wont do anything about it. Apparently the medication that they would give to get rid of the bug would juts make her more sick and give her more of the runs.

Has this happened to anyone else please? Any ideas of what else might be causing it? Or what might halt it?
My friends insurance company are going to freak because apart from lots of the little ones clothes, she's also ruined 2 carpets!

Is your friend in the UK? Has she just been to her GP? They should take another sample and if the GP won't do anything then she should demand a referral.

Get the doc to check again. Sounds like it's bug and maybe needs treatment/not but that's not right

she is in the UK, yes.
She's now waiting for another runny sample (they only want to test the runny sample, not her normal poo) to get that checked. She's also giving her DD a bottle of Yakult (or similar) every day to see if that will help at all.

If the GP is not prepared to look into it properly you can ask for a second opinion. There is a proper procedure to go through, but if you tell the doctor you want a second opinion they should let you get one. Apparently they are not legally required to do this, but according to the Citizens Advice Bureau "If a GP is unsure about a diagnosis, they could be found negligent if they failed to refer you to a specialist and you suffered as a result of this. If you have not been referred for a second opinion and have suffered as a consequence, you may wish to complain."

I am certainly not a doctor and so I am not in a position to make a diagnosis, but she could have a food intolerance. I'm wondering this because the nausea and diarrhoea are intermittent but have been going on for ages - so are unlikely to be caused by something like a rotavirus, say, even if that's what she had initially. And I wonder if the Yakult might possibly be making the situation worse.

Diarrhoea, whatever the initial cause, itself causes temporary lactose intolerance as it washes away the bacteria on our gut wall which help us to digest lactose. I think (but am not sure) that this usually lasts for only a week or so but sometimes for up to 6 weeks. Yakult may contain live Lactobacillus casei but it also contains some lactose. Some lactose-intolerant people can tolerate yoghurt and some can't. I just wonder if it might be worth trying to cut out milk and anything else containg lactose for a while - while of course still trying to get your GP to either give a diagnosis or refer you to someone who can.

She might also have another intolerance that has somehow been triggered by the initial gut disturbances.

If you still want to give the child the type of 'good' bacteria found in Yakult you can get milk-free versions from healthfood shops - they look like a powder and can easily be mixed into drinks or sauces.

Here are some useful sites for learning about gut disorders and food intolerances:
medic8 article about lactose intolerance
some information from Dr Mike Thompson's website who is an excellent paediatric gastroenterologist
AllergyUK is quite commercial, in my view, but it does have some very good factsheets and you can request up to five to be sent to you for free.
and here's some more info about lactose intolerance

hope that helps and hope she gets better soon

thank you so much Mummypig for all the information etc. I shall be calling my friend straight away with the suggestions.