Diarrhoea driving us all mad?!

[SeatOfMyPants]

5mo DS has had loose watery stools for over a week. He also has a bad nappy rash. We are constantly having to change him (poos small amounts often), which is not helping his rash.

Saw GP on Thursday who said to come back after the weekend, prescribed Dioralyte and a HC cream. I have since talked to an out of hours dr, because I wasn't sure about how to administer the dioralyte (which I'm still unclear about, dr just said to guess whether he was losing a lot of fluid and try to replace as estimated).

Dr said diarrhoea probably wasn't a bacterial infection and couldn't tell us how long it might go of for. Not sure what it is, if it isn't but, hey, I'm not the dr!

DS is miserable, we're miserable - can't go anywhere because he needs changing, he's in a lot of discomfort for his rash and the HC cream doesn't seem to be doing much over the past 24 hours.

WE have to fly on Tuesday and I am dreading it.

Is this just one of those things that babies get? or should we be asking different questions/prompting GP to look at other options? He's been on the same formula for the past 2 months...but I have wound down breastfeeding in that period.

If bf-ing has wound down then he won't be getting the same level of immunity that he was and may well have caught a tummy bug. It takes babies a lot longer than adults to get rid of these things. Keep him hydrated and try a couple of different creams for the rash if the one the GP gave you doesn't seem to be working. I wouldn't use wipes on the rash, if you have been - those may well be irritating the skin - just warm water and cotton wool.

DS (7mo) went through this a few weeks ago. It just passed after around a week.

I recommend metanium nappy rash cream, it's miracle stuff for healing nappy rash.

If everything is coming out, I'd be tempted to cut out all milk for 24 hours, and just keep him hydrated with the dirolyte. Then slowly reintroduce formula. Are you bf at all? Thats the only other thing I'd give him.

Hope hes doing better soon

Oh really? Gulp / I don't think he can do without food for that long.,..
I don't have the supply of breast milk to replace the formula feeds, though I wish it wasn't so (don't get me started on the I didn't want to give up breast feeding rant).
I don't really understand the doc saying it wasn't a bacterial thing,,, if it isn't a tummy bug then what on earth is causing it. Seemed to make that diagnosis on the basis that DS isn't at nursery and I'm not sick.
So tired. Just want DS to return to his usual (often constipated) self!

Gross I know whAt colour is the poo. ?

What formula are you using?

Most tummy bugs are viral and it wouldn't be unusual to have symptoms of up to 2 weeks. You need to concentrate on ensuring he gets enough fluid, be it milk or clear fluids. Also I second the metanium for the nappy rash and washing bum with water rather than wiping lots.

Am washing & cotton wool-ing so that is good, at least one thing going ok.

We use aptimil comfort. I had been off dairy because it would make DS wind awful and make him strain to go. He is still bf/ing a tiny bit and I've had the odd bit of dairy stuff too (on the basis of hey! Why not, now it's such a small part of his diet). When we tried formula the aptimil made him blocked/windy so we moved to comfort and found it a lot Better.
Poo has been yellow mainly, with one bout of green. There's never very much of it, and it's always watery.
End of my tether here. So tired, my granddad died last week and I'm very upset about it, and this feels like its dragging on and on. Also feeling a very selfish person for stressing about the impact this is Havibg on our sleep (which I so desperately need), rather than DS.

Should have said been trying metanium during the day (as only using the HC cream twice) and not noticing much of a difference grrrr
Have has it for 3 days now

seems to be a lot of this going round. one friend's baby had it for a month another friend has just kindly passed it to my 9 week old (she didn't tell me her baby had it until she had been at my house for half an hour ). really hoping it doesn't last that long...

good luck, hope you get rid of it soon.

Hi

It could be a rotavirus - causes horrid watery stools for up to 2 weeks in little ones and really unpleasant.

Don't stop giving formula/breastmilk! Even if it's flying through, it still helps prevent dehydration and some nutrition and you do not want a baby that young losing weight. have you still got a bit of breastmilk supply? If you can handle doing a bit of expressing, it'll help him a wee bit too as it is so very easy to digest. If you can't express, then don't start beating yourself up about it!

Tbh, I'd be off to see another doc asw the risk of dehydration at this age is high - I don't want to be alarmist, but it is a significant issue. Also, nutritional status, etc needs to be monitored.

Is his tummy hard to touch/ bloated?

Hmmm... I think possibly yes.

DS had a nasty tummy bug a few weeks ago. We're pretty sure it was a bug as all of the babies in our NCT group had it. Horrid explosive, watery yellow stools. This lasted for about 2 weeks unfortunately. We were told not to stop milk feeds and to go back to the docs if he became weak or listless. We used metanium for nappy rash, only a very thin layer though. You should still be able to see the skin through it.
Hope your little boy is better soon

If it's not a virus it could be diet related.
Have you had him weighed recently? I'd advise getting him weighed, if it continues ( which hopefully it won't) it is useful to have figures to show doctors.
Otherwise keep taking him to the doctors if you are at all concerned. My DS kept being sick for 3 weeks, I kept taking him to the doctor and was continually told it was just a virus and normal for these things to last 6 weeks! I managed to see a paediatric consultant after 3 weeks. It turned out to be food related, and what helped me was to keep a diary of how often he was sick, how much he was eating
drinking and keeping records of his weight.

Our DS had terrible explosive bowels for nine very long days when he was four months old. He couldn't keep anything in at all. The only thing that finally stopped it was switching to a lactose free formula as apparently babies often become lactose intolerant when they have a bug. It saved our sanity. Hope he is better soon.

Ah I thought it would be a comfort milk. Try switching formula.

DS suffered a terrible d/v bug that sounded a bit like what you describe when he was about 9mo. His bot was so sore, it was as though the poo was acid like and he had open sores. For the nappy rash I went with metanium and leaving nappy off for as long as possible (bought lots of cheap towels).

The bug lasted about 10 days, BUT and this is why I wanted to post, it resulted in him being lactose intolerant (apparently bugs can do this to babies) and he suffered for years afterwards until it was eventually diagnosed. I don't want to scare, just to flag as something to look out for if it seems to be prolonged.

Team bacon- really? I'm interested in why u think its comfort formula.
A couple of babies in the Nct group have has very similar things recently too apparently (hadn't hear from them in a little bit) so I'm hoping its a viral thing rather than something more complex

My two DS (2 and 5) currently have this bug, loose stools for over a week each! Doctor said it might take two weeks unfortunately.

Because it gave DS very loose poo, was about the sane age. Have seen several threads about it too. It could well be dairy, or another food intolerance, but switching formula is quite an easy one to try.

Try something other than aptimil - cow and gate worked in the end for DS, but we tried a couple before we got there.

Don't try the C&G comfort though... Unless you like dealing with liquid, green exploding poo. :P

It prob is just a bug, just thought I'd share:)

is he rolling? ds used to get terrible nappy rash and when he was about that age he got the trots too. I had those disposable change mats and laid him bare bottom on those as much as possible just to air his bot, when he exploded, just changed the mat and cleaned him up with a little warm water.
I think the air time definately helped.

mEANt to say that it wouldn't have worked if he had been moving though

Well, I've just got some very contradictory advice from 2 drs.

1st - Dioralyte little and often to make sure not dehydrated, but carry on feeding (formula) as normal and it'll eventually get better.

2nd - Just give Dioralyte for 2 days, then switch formula.

So I'm giving the switching formula a go, just from Comfort to normal aptimil. I couldn't bear not to feed DS, he'll go mental, so I'm ignoring that one. I am going to try to ratchet up breast feeding a bit over the holiday so I might regain one feed or two during the day, which might help his stomach a bit.

Was also filled with anxiety at 2nd drs reaction to the rash - about how bad it was - we now have a different HC cream which we need to apply 4 times a day.

Really worried DS has a CMP allergy that I'm just going to be exacerbating by going to normal formula. Really worried his nappy rash is just going to get worse.

We're going on holiday for a fortnight - Ireland & UK - dreading illness over the festive period. We fly tomorrow. Please tell me it's going to be ok. Filled with anxiety about it.