Diarrhea – and my mental health

[Anonymous]

We’re on day 8 or 9 of Owen’s diarrhea problem. We’ve removed all dairy from his diet, stopped giving him soy milk and are only giving him formula and rice milk to drink. We aren’t giving him any vegetables in case that was hurting him so he’s basically on a pasta, chicken nugget, potato puff, waffle, scrambled egg diet. Still, no improvement at all. Actually this morning it was worse, and he had to be changed into new clothes at day care yesterday because he had made such a mess of himself. Every morning he wakes up and poop has gone out the sides and the top of his diaper and it just doesn’t seem to be improving at all. I called his GI doctor at 7 this morning and left a message that I think he needs to go in to be checked out, but I don’t really know what the next step is at all.

I’m just at the end of my rope and SO sad. Last night I started thinking about all of my friends who have kids and I couldn’t think of one person whose children have any kind of health issues at all. I know that Owen is really fortunate and could be so much more worse off, but I just feel so sorry for him that he’s almost 15 months old and he’s still having these issues. I started to cry and couldn’t stop. I NEVER do that. I feel like I was releasing all of the stress I’ve had for the past year with all of this stuff.

I’m just disappointed. I was so optimistic at his last appointment that everything was on the way out and now this. I just don’t really know what to do next – I’m completely at a loss at his point.

[Anonymous]

Hope things get better for little Owen soon, Laura. Is he cutting any new teeth by any chance? Around 14 months or so my older daughter started cutting some new teeth and she started having massive diarrhea. It would blow out everywhere several times a day with no obvious reason for it. Otherwise she seemed fine. The daycare finally called and told us that she was having too many blowouts, and had to stay at home until they either passed, or she had stool testing to rule out anything contagious. Well after 2 rounds of stool testing and nothing showing up, she still had the diarrhea. Finally the teeth popped out (I can’t remember which ones) and then the diarrhea suddenly stopped. We had to stick to the BART diet for her when she had it- bananas, apples, rice, toast- that’s really all she ate for several weeks…but she did not have Gerd or allergies. I really hope that the answer is as simple for you.

s&h’s mum2006-3-23 9:38:50

[Anonymous]

Oh, Laura…I can feel your frustration. It’s so hard when your little ones are sick. I hope this helps…

I remember being at my doctor’s office with my first child when she was about 14 – 15 months old. She’d had diarrhea for probably a week or two at that point and I was convinced it was something horrible and she’d end up hosptialized. My doctor checked her out and asked me, Is she playing, eating, etc.? She was. My doctor told me that when children get a stomach virus they can have diarrhea for weeks, while the digestive system recovers. She must have seen the look of astonishment on my face because she left the room and came back with a big medical book and she read aloud about stomach viruses and diarrhea in children, and yes it said that it is perfectly normal for the diarrhea to last up to 30 days.

It didn’t that last that long for my daughter and it probably won’t for Owen, but it’s probably not anything serious. My friend’s little girl had a few bugs that gave her diarrhea for weeks, and her doc also said it was normal and she’d be fine, and she is. Knowing this, now whenever one of my kids catches a stomach virus I roll my eyes and say, Here we go again! Fortunately for my little ones it usually only lasts about two weeks.

Do you think this may have started as a stomach virus? Maybe from daycare? As long as Owen is feeling o.k., playing, eating reasonabley well and is not lethargic or dehydrated, he’s probably fine.

The BART diet is a good idea because it allows the digestive system to heal. My doctor always says no dairy during diarrhea, even if your child usually can eat dairy. I always give some pedialyte as well to help keep them well hydrated.

Another thing that helps my kids a lot when they have diarrhea is Rice Milk. It’s so binding that I can’t give it to my kids when they are not sick or they get constipated. I’d only give the unflavored/plain type. It doesn’t taste bad, and my girls both will drink it when offered.

Oh, and my little guy just cut his eye tooth (he’s only six months old!!) and he’s had really loose stools for two days now. All of my kids get diarrhea/loose stools with teething as well.

I hope this encourages you some. It’s not a bad idea to talk to your doctor if you are worried, but I bet Owen is just fine!

[Anonymous]

Oh Laura, I am so sorry. I am wondering if it is teething too. Luckily, Seth has not had any major bouts lately associated with teething(except the minor one the other day when he was also covered in drool) but I remember last summer, when several teeth were coming in at once, he had it for days. It was so bad, he had to stay home from school and MIL came to watch him. I just kept him in onesies and had to throw most of those out! If you are really worried, maybe the GI could test his stools to see if they can tell what is going on but it may be something that just has to run its course. I know the medical community sometimes denies that teething causes diarreah but every old timer mom I have talked to swears that it does. Let us know what the GI says!

[Anonymous]

Well, I can contribute to this issue as well since Hailey has had loose stools (what I call diarrhea) since she was 12 months old! I like you thought it was something specific she was eating like milk, soy or something else since we were seeing reactions with other things as well. I let this go on for a couple of months and then we went to see her regular Ped and he ordered a full stool workup. Here’s my post about that:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3912&a mp;KW=debit34

In that stool testing, the test for reducing substances (means there is undigested sugar in the stool which shouldn’t be there) can back positive and so her Ped thought she was lactose intolerant – although the reducing substances can mean any sugar in the stool not just lactose. So, we cut all lactose (all dairy actually) from her diet for a month and there was no change. Before the dairy we also tried cutting out juice completely at her Ped’s suggestion and there was no change there either. Here’s more info from my post on that:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4045&a mp;KW=debit34

Finally, her Ped suggested we go back to the Ped GI. A couple of months went by before we did that and she was still having loose stools. Here’s my post from that:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4110&a mp;KW=debit34

We eventually repeated the reducing substances test and it was negative so that was good. We saw the Ped GI again and he then mentioned this condition called “toddler diarrhea” or “toddler tummy” and said that some babies have what appears to be loose, frequent stools several times a day and it can be normal for them. They eventually grow out of the condition. I asked that she be tested for celiac and have a CBC to check the eosinphil level in her blood and both were negative.

So, anyway that’s all. We were released from the Ped GI and her diagnosis is toddler diarrhea. We have her on all foods and she’s doing fine. Her stools have improved from the blowouts she was having but her stools are still frequently loose. The diaper rash problem she was having also went away and I never really did figure out what caused that problem – the loose stools or some other irritant like the diaper itself.

I hope some of this helps.

[Anonymous]

is he running a fever? or any other signs of a virus?? If not I know of a condition my nephew had for a while called “toddler diarreah” Just had it for no apparent reason, and eventually it cleared up on its own.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys. This is all a really big help. I’ll definitely keep you updated when I hear back from his ped gi!

[Anonymous]

Laura, sorry owen’s still having trouble! You said you were giving him eggs…. well, i am mspi and for some reason i cannot digest eggs, they fall in the dairy category. Must have some protein in it that milk has. Give me a horrible stomach ache. Maybe you can cut out the eggs for a while and see if he gets better.

[Anonymous]

You know, he always has been fine with eggs, but the other day when he made a mess of himself at daycare he had eggs in the morning. Maybe that is part of it! He has always been great with the yolks but this was with some white too. Can you handle yolks or just not any egg at all?

[Anonymous]

Hi again –

Just wanted to update on Owen’s issues. The good thing is that his mood has totally improved – he’s back to his normal, not-so-clingy self. He finally learned how to really walk all over this place this weekend so I think that has helped with his mood a bit. He’s also eating much better again, which is also a good sign. He’s still having loose bms in the morning, but it seems to be just one each morning and then he’s fine the rest of the day. Yesterday he actually had a normal poop in the am. I talked to his GI doc on Thursday and she said she would squeeze him in on Wednesday morning if we didn’t see any improvement but now I’m thinking I would prefer not to bring him in. He has his 15 month appointment with his ped on 4/7, and then he goes back to the gi at the end of May. Since he seems to be improving I’d prefer not to have him have to go through going to the doctor since right now it’s not one of his favorite places to go, if you know what I mean!

So what do you think? Am I silly to NOT bring him? I’m sure that I can get in if need be – she is very supportive of us and him so it’s not like if I miss this window that I’m out of luck. What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Hi Laura,

I agree with you, I see no reason to take him in since he’s improving. You can always re-schedule if necessary.

[Anonymous]

I would not take him in either if he seems to be improving.. glad he is finally doing better!

Owen must be on a different immunization schedule than Seth- I was told we did not have to come back until 18 months. Maybe I should double check?

[Anonymous]

Yeah – we go back at 15 months and he gets two shots I think, and then he doesn’t have to get any more until he’s 4 years old! I’m so excited for that. Of course we still have appointments in between then but no shots at them. I can’t believe we’re already at this point – it seemed so far off when we first got the schedule!

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