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Original poster

DD2 now on 4th day of diarrhea. Advice needed.

30 replies

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 07:27

DD2 (4 months) was admitted to hospital on Tuesday night with Viral Gastroentoritis (sp?) - we were allowed home late wednesday night with her able to keep dioralyte down but no milk - she had stopped vomitting but still had the diarrhea.

It's now 4 days on and she still has the diarrhea - how long should this go on for ? She is back on her milk but only 2-4oz at a time.

OP posts:

donnie · 14/04/2007 08:14

poor little thing. DD1 had a nasty bug at around 8 months and had diarrhoea for at least 8 days I'm sorry to say. She was on solids obviosuly but hardly ate a thing. If your dd is keeping milk down then that is great. What have the drs said?

belgo · 14/04/2007 08:50

does she still have a temperature?

My dd was 17 months old and had a very nasty virus. The diarrhea took about a month to go completely, I had to be very careful with her diet.

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 09:13

Thanks.
Doctors said as long as she wasn't vomitting she should be fine, if she had diarrhea it shown that at least something was getting through her system whereas with the vomitting, nothing was getting into her.
Her temp has dropped - it was 38.5 in hospital and has now slowly gone down to 36.7.
I just didn't know long I should let it go on for without consulting someone again, with her being so young.

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OrangeBear · 14/04/2007 09:19

Hi. My DD just had the same (she is almost 5 months). Not sure how long you were on Diarolyte for but I took my DD off milk for a full 24 hours (they said that milk is so hard to digest that it wasn't giving her inflamed bowel a chance to recover).

She is bottle fed and after the 24 hours without milk, I gave her watered down milk, gradually increasing it back up to normal strength over a period of 2 days. While she was on the watered down milk, she still had some watery stools but my paediatrician said this was because her milk was watered down and so was normal (they went back to normal as soon as she had full strength milk again).

All in all it was 8 days before she was back to normal but I didn't do the Diarolyte thing straight away. Once she had been off milk for 24 hours she got better v quickly (but wanted to eat all the time to make up for the fact she hadn't eaten properly for so long).

I would def try that and then start her off again with watered-down milk. Hope it works for you.

OrangeBear · 14/04/2007 09:20

forgot to say that my DD never had fever so maybe she didn't have it as badly as your DD.

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 11:48

Thanks Orange bear - we are now on the 3rd diarrhea nappy so far today.
I called the ward we were to ask for their advice and they advised taking her down to A&E as she would usually feed 6oz every 3 hours and now only managing 2-4 every 3-4 hours.

I have decided to scrap the formula for a while and just try her on dioralyte which is what we were doing in the hospital to see how she manages with that.

OP posts:

powder28 · 14/04/2007 12:07

Foghornleghorn, are you ginving her regular sips of cooled boiled water?
My hv advised not watering the milk down when dh2 had d@v, but keep giving water between bottles.

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 12:29

Yep she is having regular sips of water or dioraylte.
Don't know if this makes a difference but she is really sstruggling with her milk, she manages 2oz OK but anything more than that takes her an age and she seems to be find it a real effort.

I am in a quandry now. DH has gone to watch the arsenal game, MIL thinks I shouldn't take her to A&E, take her off her milk and go back to the dioraylte which was working in the hospital, whereas my mum thinks I should defo take her back to A&E if that is what the nurses and peadeatrian on the ward are recommending.

Her temp is now 36.1 - I don't know if it relevant or not but her hands are absolutely freezing and have been since yesterday and it is not cold here at all. She has a vest and babygrow on

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Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 12:41

Feel so fucking useless, how can I not know what to do, I am her mum

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BandofMothers · 14/04/2007 12:45

Put a cardy on her and maybe some gloves. I get cold when I need to eat.

My friends dd had GI very young too and didn't eat ANYTHING for at least 4 days. Try not to worry, she will get better.

powder28 · 14/04/2007 13:42

I think we all feel useless when our children are ill, but I agree you should go back to a&e. Thats what i would do becasue as you know, they can go downhill so quickly.

powder28 · 14/04/2007 13:47

How is she now fhlh?

OrangeBear · 14/04/2007 13:52

Poor you. From what you say about your baby not wanting milk, it seems as though she may have something different to what my DD had. I would definitely try and get some proper medical advice at A&E for her if I was you.

Don't feel bad - it's not your fault at all and you're not a bad mum. I felt the same when DD was ill - it's because we don't know what to do or what exactly is wrong.

powder28 · 14/04/2007 16:39

FHLH keep us posted

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 14/04/2007 17:43

We went back to the ward we were admitted to earlier in the week (after visiting A&E first).
They are happy she is not showing sign of bad dehydration, they advised to continue with the milk and dioralyte, 1.5 oz of each, every hour no matter how much she poos it back out again. We are to go back to the ward straight away if she shows sigs of dehydration (he has given me little tests to do) or becomes lethergic.

They weighed her and she has lost 13oz in 2 days . That sounds like an awful lot of weight for a baby to lose in 2 days, god knows how much she will have lost when the diarrhea finally stops.

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powder28 · 14/04/2007 18:00

Do you feel a bit more positive now? Sounds like you are making progress anyway.
They're pretty tough, babies, but they scare the hell out of you when they get ill.

donnie · 14/04/2007 18:53

it does sound like a lot of weight foghorn - but she honeslty will put it back on once she is better and she WILL get better. When my dd had her horrid illness she got so skinny I would weep. But then she picked up and ate like a horse, and your dd will make up for it - it is so hard watching them suffer but as long as she will take th edioralyte and a little milk, the bug will fade and fade - promise.

belgo · 14/04/2007 20:42

don't worry too much about the weight loss. My dd weighed just 16 pounds at 17 months after her illness, her ribs really stuck out - but then she got her appetite back and now she's doing really well weight wise.

OrangeBear · 15/04/2007 09:51

Oh yes - I am sure she will make up for the days she hasn't eaten properly as soon as she feels better so please don't worry about that.

BandofMothers · 15/04/2007 10:02

Most of the weight you lose when you are ill like this is water, which is why you become dehydrated, so she will put it back on really quickly once she starts eating again.

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 15/04/2007 12:04

Thanks everyone - I feel much better about it all now I know what to check for etc.

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powder28 · 15/04/2007 22:39

Fhlh, how is she today?

Original poster

FoghornLeghorn · 16/04/2007 09:05

Hi Powder - she seemed a bit better yesterday to be honest. She had about 6 diarrhea nappies in total but there wasn't alot to them so I thought things were getting a bit better - however this morning she has so far had 2 diarrhea nappies, one of which there was so much the nappy stopped absorbing it and it was sort of just floating around.
Gross I know, but true.

Keeping a v. close eye on her

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lory · 16/04/2007 10:15

Hi, when DS1 was 8 months, he had a terrible diarrhoea which lasted for more than a month.

The paed in Switzerland told us to cook rice everyday and keep the liquid for his bottles, as rice is constipating . And it did improve a bit. Maybe you could give it a try.

Ceebee74 · 16/04/2007 10:20

Foghorn - hope your DD is on the mend.

My DS had this at 5 months old and his diorrhea went on for about 10 days - we went to the doctor and he explained that babies can develop a temporary dairy intolerance but it does improve.

Also, my DS was born with a defect which meant that he vomited everything up - it happened gradually but over his 7th week it reached it's peak and he lost over a pound (in a week) before he was diagnosed and operated on. He went really skinny and it was so upsetting - but he ate loads afterwards and soon caught up his weight and got back on his original centile - so don't worry about the weight - she will eat enough when she is better.

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