Urgent : blood in baby's stool

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My d.s. is 16 months and for the last 4 days has had horrible nappies, about 6 dirty nappies a day, but is teething and had a cold so thought nothing of it. He has bad nappy rash (unusual) which I am treating with Sudocreme but I have just found a small amount of blood in his nappy (about half teaspoon). Do I need to see a doctor urgently? Does anyone have experience of this? He is otherwise happy and behaving and eating as normal. TIA

i do think you should visit the doctor,my ds had a very similar sounding thing at about the same age,it happened for two days running whilst he had a bad cold/cough-lots of mucus etc.i saw the dr and he daid it was due to all to his upset stomach and bld was not coming from stomach but somewhere along the bowel or bottom,it didnt happen again,but i do think you should see a dr.

wouldn't worry too much. By conicidence ds1 had some blood in his stool today. Not sure whether it's because he's constipated or from the massive nosebleed he had 2 days ago. When ds1 was teething as a baby his skin used to bleed his stool became so acidic. If I was you I would keep an eye- she may just have a slight tear or something. If you're worried ring NHS direct and if it happens again see the dr, but if it's just once and she's happy in herself I wouldn't be too concerned.

Phone NHS Direct - 0845 46 47.

I agree with the other posts. I found a small amount of blood in ds's nappy when he was 8 weeks old and I must admit panicked a bit. After phoning NHS direct we took him to the emergency doctor (it was Christmas day - aaagh). Apparently its pretty common for babies to have blood in their stools and its nearly always nothing to worry about if its a one off and they're otherwise well. It lasted for about a day and a half but hasn't happened since. It did make me feel much better to have seen a doctor though as I found it really shocking to find the blood. Hope your ds is fine and the nappies get a bit less horrible.

Thanks so much for the replies, everyone. I must admit to feeling a bit panicky as I'd never experienced this with my other two children. Will keep a careful eye and give doc a ring if the symptoms continue. xx

Not convinced about the wisdom of calling NHS direct:
We first saw a small amount of blood in dd's nappy during the day and spoke to our GP. After a visit to the surgery we were advised not to worry unless it recurred in a big way.
The following weekend we saw a similary small amount of blood in the nappy and, being typically paranoid parents, we rang NHS direct to find out just how much of a regular "don't panic" type occurance it is. After a lot of stressing waiting for them to call back, they asked loads of questions and concluded that it was almost certainly not a problem, but that we should take her to Accident & Emergency "just in case". Has anyone else been unfortunate enough to spend time in A&E on a Saturday night?!? Not a great environment for a baby (or for a knackered parent). Seems to me like NHS direct were doing some serious arse-covering. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose. After all, I could ask my Mum for a vaguely reassuring response followed by a 'best go to hospital anyway'! I guess we should have just rung the GP surgery's out of hours number!

I find NHS Direct useful for two things:

1. Convincing the dragon receptionist at the GP's surgery that yes it is urgent "because NHS Direct have told me so".

2. Using their drop-in centre in Croydon when I couldn't get past dragon receptionist despite ds having a serious chest infection.

Otherwise, yes, they do err on the side of visiting the GP as far as kids are concerned.