Giardia

[clinellwipe]

Just wondering if anyone had Giardia experiences to share? I've read every old mumsnet and Reddit thread on Giardia , mostly at 2am!!

Our 3yo has had 30 days of vomiting and fishy diarrhoea (🤢). Now husband has these symptoms. Trying to persuade GP that it's giardiasis has been challenging as our son had one negative stool sample - despite it being notoriously difficult to get a positive sample due to the parasite's life cycle.

Our house stinks of fish and I've lost the will to live.

Following foreign travel GP able to diagnose via stool sample testing and treat very effectively.

Hi, me, partner and DC all had this and we caught it in the UK. It made me very ill and I was signed off work. It was cured simply with a couple of rounds of antibiotics in the end.

We had that in our house 5 years ago. We caught it from our new dog (I think the vet said it was zoonotic or something so unusually could be passed on to us?!) , she came from an awful kennel and was riddled with parasites and infections, Giardia was one of them. My daughters had it first then us. It was absolutely horrible and took ages for the doctors to do a load of tests and figure it out. We all had antibiotics including the dog and it went but took a little while to recover me and hubbies older tummies. Good luck hope you clear it soon!

I had it for two months. God it was horrible! I never actually felt that poorly, but .had 20-30 episodes of diarrhea a day. Couldn’t eat anything without it going straight through me - I lived off haribo and salt and vinegar crisps.

cured in 2 days once I got the antibiotics. Mine was from the uk as well

A couple of rounds? Were you still having symptoms after the first round? My son has just had 7 days symptoms free after first round of antibiotics but now sick again. Can't believe it

Yeah - DP needed a couple of rounds of metronidazole for his giardia as he still had symptoms. It is tricky to shift.

Ooh I had it about ten years ago and it was awful. I was moving around the US at the time so was diagnosed in one state (where it's very common) but struggled to get the doctor in the second state to agree with the original diagnosis and prescribe antibiotics. By the time the diagnosis was formalized by some tropical medicine specialist it was already out of my system but it had wreaked absolute havoc with my body. The only thing that got me back on track (and with huge improvements in literally a couple of days) was probiotics. Before I took them though, it was literal months of the worst upset stomachs and nausea and not being able to eat a single thing with even a hint of fat in it without it making me really ill. So sorry you're going through it.

Yep - Had it

Caught from a Farm Animal

It's endemic to the UK now?? Yikes.

I had it in the 90s, was dismissed by my GP and the tropical diseases clinic, so went back to Brazil and got it fixed. I'm sure there would've been less expensive ways to get a course of antibiotics and don't really know why they wouldn't just prescribe anyway, given it was clearly a tropics-acquired gut infection.

Much sympathy to you all, and I hope your treatments work fast. Just going off to calm my fear of parasites ... 😬

Thank you all for responses and sorry to see you guys are also up at this hour!!

Our GP was extremely obstructive. Was clearly going off knowledge from medschool many many years ago - which is fine as it's not common and GPs can't be experts of every single thing - but it was extremely stressful begging a doctor to listen to us.

We think our son either got it from nursery, petting farm animals or from the local swimming pool as he goes about 3 times a week - and it can survive in chlorinated water for 45 min 😬

He's gone from 76th centile for weight to 12th centile since mid January. The pharmacy gave us enough metronidazole to do a second course but I doubt GP would condone us giving it. Hmmmm

Ask for a paeds referral? That sounds like a lot of weight loss. Did you travel abroad recently?

No foreign travel.

Paeds referral was done by GP as "urgent" but that was about 3 weeks ago and hasn't even been triaged by the local hospital yet.

We saw a private paediatrician privately an hours drive away last week who was lovely and advised likely Giardia , and recommended a series of tests for NHS to do if it doesn't get better (ie if not Giardia). His team are happy to do them if NHS refuse

The relationship with our GP has broken down over this time period , I was crying and stressed in the appointments (about poorly Ds) and GP kept saying I was the ill one , NOT my son. I felt really gaslit the last time I was there being told over and over that my son was well.

Maybe this is a sickness bug tonight and just a coincidence. I wish someone could tell me what's going on and what to do!

I'm not surprised you're worried and upset, @clinellwipe. I'm sorry your GP was so rude, and pleased to hear you did manage to find good advice.

Antibiotics often cause diarrhoea due to killing off the gut flora that should be there, as well as the bad guys. I don't know what this would look like in a young child, but it's not impossible that it's the cause of DS's current distress. If the poo and burps are the same type as before, though, it's probably persistent giardia.

I've just checked that probiotics are available for children. It's never a bad idea to use them while taking antibiotics and for a week or two afterwards.

English & American sources say that probiotics alone can get rid of giardiasis - this is not what 1990s Brazil recommended, and I feel we are a little too cavalier about parasite infections (I freely admit to a mild phobia, though!) In your shoes, I think I'd start him on probiotics then use the second course of metronidazole - with probiotics - when he's a little stronger.

I am not his parent, though, nor a doctor! Just sharing whatever I do know, and sending a friendly shoulder-squeeze.

I had it giardia in the early 2000 from Malaysia and had metronidazole

I did feel better but my god it's the worst bug ever and stinks to high heaven but not if fish of sulphur. The fish odour may be key here a quick google suggest salmonella or cholera (cholera unlikely)

Your poor son. And now DH.

For me one course of metro made me "fit to work" but I was ill for around 18 months.

Try a bland diet of rice and chicken and some probiotics and kefir.

Also detol disinfectant spray gets rid of odours ( learnt this when dog was ill!)

Oh and sorry me again

Access to GP is dreadful. call them again and if they fob you off call 111 and failing that go to A and E. It's so very shit as this is not what A and E is for but you need to work the system.

He is sick he needs to be treated.

Do not let them fob you off.

You've got this!

Well whatever it was , it's back!

The classic vomiting at night and absolutely rotten , mucousy , classic stenchy poo in the day

My poor boy. The GP has been so incredibly stubborn that you don't get Giardia in UK, a negative stool sample means it's nothing infectious etc etc.

Have been offered a paediatric outpatient appointment with NHS for late June!! I know waitlists are ages but he's lost 3kg in 6 weeks and I'm not sure how we're expected to keep to keep going with d&v until June. Not to mention all the missed nursery/social/educational things he's missing out on which are extra important (in my opinion) because he's on the waitlist for autism assessment. He's not exactly going to learn emotion regulation bent over with abdominal pain in front of Bluey

Will get my husband to speak to GP tomorrow (I've got a telephone appointment) as for some reason his booming posh man voice is more credible than my hysterical mother voice

Thanks for replies, folks. Helps me feel less alone