Advice Needed for Stool Sample of an Infant

Updated on July 09, 2007
C.S. asks from Dublin, CA
12 answers

Good afternoon ladies! My 8 month old daughter has had diarrhea for the last two weeks. We have been to the doctor twice now and they said we need to do a sample of her stool.. I know ewww!! We are having soem serious difficulty trying to get a sample seeing as though she is in a diaper and its liquid. Any and all suggestions on how we can get this taken care of asap would be greatly appreciated. Willing to try anything at this point! Thanks in advance!

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So What Happened?

Thank you all so much for your advice. Her Ped did give us some ideas, like using the plastic wrap in her diaper, etc. but nothing was seeming to work. However we did finally get both her samples on Saturday and we are waiting to hear back from the lab today or tomorrow (results will talk 48-72 hours). I really appreciate all of your help ladies! We will be so glad once this is all over with :)

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A.F.

answers from Sacramento on

a plastic baggy and a rectal thermometer. By taking her temp and being ready with a plastic bag, she will have a movement. It's unavoidable. :-)

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D.B.

answers from Los Angeles on

The doctor should have given you a containter for the stool. It looks like a urine container. When I worked in a medical office I would also give a stick (tongue depresser) to use to lift the stool off the diaper and transfer it. Some nurses had patients bring the wrapped diaper in a bag but I did not like that! YUCK! - YUCK!

I don't have much faith in doctors especially pediatritians. Does your daughter drink fruit juice yet? If she does, did your pediatrician at least suggest no fruit juice? Fruit juice can increase diarrhea.

Also did you pediatrition recommend elecrolyte replacement?

If your daughter were mine, I would start her on pedialyte. They have different flavors for drinking and they also have popcycles.
Some kids don't like it so dilute it with filtered or bottled water.

Kid loose elecrolytes when they have diarrhea.

I think that there is a pediatric Immoduim now to stop diarrhea also but there is some controversy over it, and I don't know a lot about it. You might ant to call the doctor and ask about it.

God luck and I hope that your daughter is doing better soon

D.

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K.

answers from Los Angeles on

I had to go to the hospital once for my daughter because she was having severe diarrhea. I took the whole diaper with me and they were able to get a sample. If it is severe, keep going to get her checked out since she can be dehydrated.

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S.H.

answers from Honolulu on

What did the doctor recommend you do? They should be the one giving you instruction for that. How about just keep one of her soiled diapers,put it in a plastic bag, take it to the doctor, and they can sample test it. This is what I did once. You need to ask your doctor about what they suggest, and what you are supposed to put the sample in etc. or how they want the sample collected and transported or stored. I know, yuck. But the doctor should be giving you instruction on this. Just call them and ask. Good luck.

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C.D.

answers from Sacramento on

Hey C.,

Sounds like a crappy problem...j/k
now seriously all you have to do is lay a piece of plastic wrap into the diaper and when she goes ...presto! its in the plastic to put into the samlpe container!

Good luck
C.

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H.S.

answers from San Francisco on

Can't you just take a soiled diaper to the doctor??

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.T.

answers from Los Angeles on

Just take a whole diaper into the doctor. Forget about the cup they give you. OR (and I know this is gross) scrape teh cup along the side of the diaper. They don't need that much. Just enough to put under a microscope. My 4 year old son had salmonella (which is what this sounds like it might be) and it was awful. He was throwing up for a day, but then had neer ending diarrhea. Finally, antibiotics did the trick. Please find out what this is asap. He ended up in teh hospital because it got so serious.

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R.P.

answers from Los Angeles on

hello...i know this may sound gross, but you may want to try a diaper that is plastic on the o utside and use it turned inside out. cottony side faced out. then you can put on another plastic liner on the outside. i am a doctor, and usually these cases are not difficult to diagnose clinically...what does the diarrhea look like? Is it watery, foul smelling? what color is it? is there any mucous or blood? does she have a fever? please make sure to keep her hydrated, sometimes these things are just viruses that will just go away.

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D.R.

answers from San Francisco on

Hi,

I had to do the same thing for my baby a few months ago. Put a piece of saran wrap in her diaper so that the diarrhea is not absorbed into the diaper. Listen for her to go poop and then use a plastic spoon to get the sample into the jar. If you know that giving her a certain food makes her go immediately then try doing that. You don't want her to pee in the saran wrap because that would contaminate the sample.

Good Luck!

D.

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S.P.

answers from Los Angeles on

We did that with my daughter... they gave us a scoop with the jar and even though it was watery, we were able to scrape enough off of the diaper to fill it as much as we were asked to. If you still do not have enough, try to feed her some baby oatmeal it will help to thicken up her stool enough to get a sample.

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A.E.

answers from Los Angeles on

when my youngest was a baby she got sick with diarrhea and the dr had me bring him one of her dirty diapers but it had to be as 'fresh' as possible... all i had to do was wait til she pooped and drop it off with the dr.

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D.G.

answers from Stockton on

i had the same issue you did about a year ago, and if you go to a lab that draws blood & so forth and ask for a stool bag, if they have some, it looks like a long clear baggie & w/tape at the end, you peel the backing off the baggie & apply it to her butt making sure it is applied w/out gaps so nothing can escape, once you have the sample take it to her dr so she can have it tested by the lab. just make that when you stick the bag to her but cover it by putting a diaper on her so that if it does escape it will happen in her diaper and not your floor. You do not want to give the sample that is in her diaper to the dr as the diaper has small particles that can interfere with the lab testing it. hope this helps

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