Causes of Diarrhea

You are right...it could be a number of different things. When my son was around the same age(He is 8 now), he had diarrhea very frequently. I was in and out of the doctors because it just wouldn't stop, and his bottom was so red and sore. They ended up diagnosing him as being high fructose intolerant. However, there still was nothing we could do for it except wipe out high fructose foods and drinks(Which it happens to be in ALOT of things)It helped some...taking things out of his diet, but we dealt with diarrhea for a long time. I was a SAHM...so I would bathe him often because it hurt at times to wipe his bottom. I would also let him run around the house bare and with a cloth diaper on to let his bottom breathe. Your Son could simply be going through it because of a bug he picked up or like you said...teething. My Daught is 9 mos. and she is teething and having diarrhea as well. Just make sure he gets lots of liquids, bland foods....banana, rice, applesauce, toast..(B.R.A.T. diet)
Good luck.

It sounds alot like rotavirus. You do have to wait it out, but rotavirus can last several days. I have three children who all suffered with it more than once. My dr. said no diary until all better. I would also use probiotics. You can get them at any health food store or GNC. This is a virus, so you need to disinfect your house including toys and car seats. I had a friend whose son had this for over a month until she cleaned his car seat. By the way several of my friends and I think that rotavirus has a very distinct smell. My son's last case of diarrhea depleted his colon of the good bacteria. He had on soy and probiotics for a couple months afterwards or he would have loose stools. I hope this helps.

you need a new pediatrician. he needs to go to the dr asap. getting dehydrated can cause major medical problems for him and is not good on his kidneys. he also could have roto-virus,

this happened to my son and i could not figure out for the life of me what was going on. Well, I always let him have 1 sippy cup of juice each day with his breakfast or lunch. And I usually give him the same flavor of juicy juice for several days until the bottle is empty and we move to another flavor. Well, it took me awhile to figure it out, but Cherry juicy juice was giving him dirreah. Even though it was just one cup a day it was really making him go and it hurt him to walk his butt was so red. It had gone away and then came back when I realized that it had to be the cherry flavor. Ever since I stopped buying that I've had no problems at all.

I'd call the doctor back again and insist on them giving him something...4 days is too long to be that way...I know my kids had some with teething and I do remember one of my kid's rash from diarrhea got really bad and they prescribed something to help clear it up..but with babies they can become dehyrated so easily...I know they can give them something and if everything else fails, they do have suppositories for diarrhea. Desitin may help their bottom. "Do call the doctor back asap! L.Watson

It's good that you are keeping him hydrated, that's very important. When my kids had diarrhea, I put vaseline or some type of cream on them each time. To stop the diarrhea, try giving your child the BRAT diet (bannana, rice, applesauce, or toast). That may help. It's something I learned in nursing school. Let me know if it work. I would start with the toast first.

I do not have any advice on the diarrhea since there are so many things that could be causing it and you are taking care of the hydration concern, but do omit the juice and instead give him pedialyte. My concern is for the little red bottom. The best thing I found for the redness of diaper rash etc., is Mary Kay Night Cream. Yes, the cosmetic company Night Cream. Wash his bottom good and rub this wonderful pink thick cream over it. It serves as a protection against the amonia etc and also heals. It contains beeswax and works great. Also good to put on new scars to help them minimize.
This is just a good tip I picked up over the years and now I always give a tube of MK Night Cream with a baby shower gift. If you don't have a Mary Kay Consultant, I think I saw the name of one at the bottom of Mamasource newsletter.

It's probably a virus that he picked up somewhere. It shouldn't last longer than a week. For my son's diaper rash, I used aquaphor and it worked really good.

Since Dr. said "run the..." Keep him in Pedialite generic is fine. Wash is little red butt in a warm soap bath, rinse really good with lots of warm clear water, pat and air dry. Plaster is little butt with good old fashioned vaseline. We did this for a friend of a young mother who negleted to take care of her little boy. He had been to the doctor had all sorts of bad sores and prescription meds for his little butt. She dropped him off and left said he was driving her crazy with screaming. Well we did as I explained above, he cried a lot. Once the we finished by the next diaper change he was not crying, and in one day almost all the sore were healing up great. The third day they were gone. Just lots of love, pedialite, (and good his appitite is there) keep the germs clean and vaseline on his litte buttocks, ( and NO POWDER). Plain old fashioned clean and vaseline. Love and prayers. You will be just fine and so will he. God Bless.

Hi C.,

My daughter went through the same thing when she was little. My ped informed me to put her on the BRAT diet -- bananas, rice, applesauce and toast to eat and pedialyte (sp) to drink. I did that for 2 days and it did seem to help. Her bowels were soft, but not diarrhea, so I was happy. My ped also had me washing her bottom with soap and water after every diaper change and using a diaper cream as well. I found that the diaper creams didn't work well and had heard about bag balm for babies bottoms. I tried it and let me just tell you that I am a FIRM believer in bag balm. It is the only thing that cleared up her very red bottom.

I can also tell you that my sister has a 3 month old that is going through the same thing and her ped told her that it is a virus going around young kids right now and that it will run its course. She too is washing her daughters bottom after every change and using bag balm as well and her bottom is completely cleared up and no more screaming during diaper changes.

I do hope that your son is able to get feeling better soon. There is nothing worse then a unhappy little one because of diarrhea. Good luck!

C.

Try giving him pure natural canned pumpkin. It works for diar. and being stopped up. IT WORKS!! I use it on kids and dogs. He could have a bacteria in his colon causing this, it could be any number of things. I would try the pumpkin. It should work the first day. Good luck!

I have found the best cure for "the runs" for my three boys (6,4,3) has been the A,B,C diet and no milk products until things firm up for at least 48 hours. A- applesauce, B- bananas, C- cereal. If you are giving him milk yet, replace it with formula he'll drink. No sugary drinks like juice or gatorade or even pedialite. Just water and formula and the A,B,Cs. With my oldest we had a terrible time with diarrhea. This diet finally worked like a charm and we reintroduced all other foods successfully, but every time I would transition him back to milk, the diarrhea would come back again so he was on soy milk until he was almost two. I'm told that this is not uncommon. Good luck!

Yogurt, Yogurt and more Yogurt. Yogurt has good bacteria in it, which causes it to go to the bowel area. When you have alot of diarrhea all of the good bacteria in your bowel is less. Or you can try a probiotic. It's capsules. You open it up and you mix it in something. They will bulk up his bowels. Yogurt and probiotics put good bacteria into the bowel and will help with the diarrhea. You can also try Jello, because Jello has pectin in it and bulks up the bowels and rehydrates them. Bannanas are also good. Well good luck and I hope your son gets better.

Possibly rotavirus.......

Wow. I feel for you. My daughter did the same kind of thing when she was around 2 yrs old. Except we had 10 total days of alternating vomitting and diarrhea. Our doctor told us it was rotavirus (sp?). And all we could do was keep her comfortable and let it run its course.

My son went through a similar diarrhea situation when he was 4 months old and ended up in the children's hospital with dehydration.

1. You may have to let it run its course.
2. Keep him hydrated.
3. If you think it is getting worse, take him to the doctor.

Well, if he's got the stomach bug that's going around prepare for it to last awhile longer. However, for his little red butt, go get Boudreux's Butt Paste. I have never seen anything work the way that does. My 7 yr old had a stomach virus awhile back and his little behind got firey red and this stuff worked wonders.

Hello! My name is T.. My son had problems with diarrhea when he was taking an antibiotic. Is that the case? A lot of juice can aggravate it. A friend of mine told me that her pediatrician told her to feed her child Danimals yogurt. You can mix it with milk also to drink. She said it seemed to work by the next day. Hope this helps.God bless.

if u are bottle feeding make sure his food is not too warm that could course it too.

Sometimes juices will cause diarrhea. I'm not sure what he is drinking, but if it is juices you might try giving him sugar water or something different. Apple juice is like a laxative to some.

Try the BRAT diet. bannanas,rice,applesauce and toast diet. If this does not work , it could be a parisite. You can pick those things up in water,meat,animals.Keep his hands washed frequently.Try this for a week.It could be a fungus or yeast also. Which requires antifungal med like flagyl.
If it is parisitical u can use a simple and cost effective treatment;papaya seeds , dried and crushed into a fine powder. Put in some type of formula. It is reccomended in dry measures to eat,but in this case it is immpossible. Dr.s in missionary fields use this to get rid of parisites.Try bottled water instead of tap also.
The dose is 1 tsp , so try your best to get him to take it. It is natural. Also you can try activated charcoal powder capsules-it absorbs toxins in the body and does not absorb vitamins. Good luck!

Hi C.,
There are a couple of things you could try, including feeding him a couple bananas a day. Bananas tend to harden the stool. You can also make him some peppermint tea (after you've steeped it for about 20 minutes, allow it to cool to warm) and mix a little honey to sweeten it up, put it in his sippy or bottle. Peppermint constipates so you don't want to give it to him on a regular basis as it is a medicinal type tea. Also, if you think it might be bacterial, a warm bottle of chamomile tea (steeped for 20 minutes, covered, and served warm) with honey, will clean out his system, as chamomile has natural antimicrobial properties. Then give him a banana cut into "wheels" about 20 minutes after he's downed the chamomile. As for his bottom, try wiping it with just a moist warm washcloth and grease him up with some coconut oil. You can get it in the baking aisle (where the rest of the oils are)at the commissary or in the organic section at Food Lion.
If it's nothing serious, either one of these should help.

We use Baby's Jarro-Dophilus By Jarrow Formulas. I get it at Wild Oats. It is a powdered form of probiotics. It can get mixed into ANYTHING. My son LOVES yogurt, so, I mix it in that. It can also go into his milk. My son got his back molers in right away. It seems like he had Diarrhea constantly. We use what my Pediatrician calls Happy Heiny Cream. It is all over the counter products. Desitin, lotrimin, cortisone cream, and mylanta. You mix equal parts of the creams and add a couple capfuls of the mylanta. I use a recycled babyfood jar to store it. It works like a charm. Once they have diarrhea for so long it can become a yeast infection and the anti-fungal products help to clear that up as well.

Good Luck!

Obviously you want to find the cause of the diarrhea but my mom and grandmother gave me the best cure for diarrhea. Bananas. Bananas are great for diarrhea and amazingly they are also great for constipation. My son is three years old now and I still use bananas for these two problems instead of medications.

First off, have you taken him to the doctor? Secondly, my older son had a case of giardia once (we never found out where he got it), and my second son turned out to be lactose intolerant. Both things cause diarrhea. I would definitely check with the doctor though, if it continues.

Try feeding him plain yogurt. It always seemed to work when my little ones had diahreah from cutting teeth.

Get out the bathtub toys. Soak him in the bathtub after each dirty diaper. Put Flanders Buttocks Cream on his bottom. You can special order it at Walgreens or other pharmacies. My sister in law worked in the neonatal intensive care unit and that is the diaper rash cream that they put on the preemies. It works great!

Sometimes too much juice can make it worse. When I have seen these severe cases before seems heavy heavy cream on the bottom helps the most. A good cream like Destin or Wanda's Magic Butt Cream, or your physican/nurse may be able to give you a homeade recipe. But use LOADS of cream, watch the juice (pediatricians recommend 6 oz a day), and look for other things that can be causing it. Bacterial causes usually last 7-10 days so if lasts longer look for other causes. And of course keep hydrating (I use gatorade a lot less acidic or milk if your kids have no milk issues)

I've read that you should avoid dairy products. Also, rice, bananas, and blueberries can help. My son just went through 2 days of a similar sounding illness. Good luck!

I would check you water. Also check the liguids that he is drinking. Something might be in them that is causing him problem. If he like any kind of cheese let him eat some of it. It will check it. It will help him with his problem. I do hope this will work. If not. Find a doctor who will listen to you.

he's probably picked up a virus or somehting and there really isn't anything you can do. jsut make sure to keep hime hydrated. have you tried the BRATs diet. bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast. in that order, they are very binding and may help harden up his stool. if reg wipes or t.p. are getting to rough for his little tale, try a warm wash clothe. it's softer. also you can let him sit in a little warm bath. A&D ointment is good to help protect and soothe a little raw tush and baby gold bond medicated powder. hope your little guy gets to feeling better soon.

my son is 2 he had the same thing for about a week it was terriable try giving him some yogert his ped says it is good for the dirrea said something with the enzymes are helpful also banannas and potatoes and lots of fluids oh and one more thing lots of desitincause his little butt will need it

C.-
Four days is too long for severe diarrhea! He can become dehydrated very easily. Be sure he is getting a lot of fluids, esp. water, and think about asking another pediatrician's opinion.

You can give him Jello water, too. Make Jello as usual, but with more cold water, then let him drink it. It will help to 'set things up' while he is getting over it. This was told to me by my pediatrician when my children were small.

Please don't give him honey, as someone suggested, unless it is pasteurized- it has been shown not to be safe before the age of two.

Also, be sure he gets good fiber, because after a bad bout of diarrhea, he probably will become constipated and you have the opposite problem.

DON'T be afraid to get another doctor's opinion- diarrhea can be very dangerous!

God bless.

I know exactly what you're going through!! Both of my boys got a really bad case of diarrhea right after we moved to a new house; but we believe it was caused by bad water in the pipes. They also had no fever and had a regular appetite; but the diarrhea was relentless! It lasted for a little over a week, which is a looooong time to wait, especially for the little guys. We gave them Pedialyte to help with dehydration, and used every cream out there for the rash. Bourdeaux's butt paste worked best, but it's a little more expensive than other brands. Gratefully the episode helped me potty train my oldest son b/c he got tired of his bottom hurting everytime he went pee or poop and realized it doesn't happen when he goes in the potty and not his diaper. I hope it's not bacterial, but if it doesn't let up soon, i'd take him to the pediatrician and voice your concerns. If your pediatrician's office has an early morning walk-in clinic, i'd make use of it. If anything, you're out a $25 co-pay, but your fears will be put at ease. I hope your son gets to feeling better soon!

Try making jello just as you would to put it in the fridge only let him drink it. It tastes good to them and it solidifies in the body and helps to solidify the stool. It really does work I have used it many times with my son and nieces and nephews.

If it continues, take him in and have them check him out. Also, here is a great recipe for Butt Cream. It works wonders and not only for diaper rash.

Mix equal parts of:

Neosporin or polysporin ointment
zinc oxide cream (get at a drug store)
corn starch powder

I mix the cream and ointment together and add the powder until it makes a consistancy I like. My kids are 13y, adn 7y twins and we still use it.

My little girl had diarrea from her first antibiotics (she was 13 months old), she needed to take them when she had an ear infection. We gave her bland starchy food, PLAIN yogurt with active cultures and pedialyte - NO JUICE. Plus we wiped her butt with wipes, patted it dry with a cloth diaper and lightly blew on it til it was very dry and then put Lotrimin on her. We also waited to bathe her until her butt was better, which didn't take very long. Everything worked like a charm. It was all the advice of the nurse at Randolph Pediatrics - Good Luck!

Both of my kids have had that several times.....sounds like a virus......switch to soy milk!! That was the only thing that helped my one year old boy. Even with a very bland diet, the milk is still too much for a while. Wait until he hasn't gone for several days before switching back. Keep him on the BRATY diet and some pedialite (my son liked the flavored ones ok)

I had the same problem with my youngest son. Since the pediatrician didn't offer any advice - other than what you mentioned - I went to our pharmacist. She suggested an anti-diarrheal medicine (over the counter stuff.) She told me what dose to give him based on his age & weight. It did the trick! Good luck. Kathryn

Well it is probably a little virus, there is not much you can do. I know it is hard to sit & "wait it out", but there are things you can do for his sore little bottom... put baking soda in his bath water, it works like a charm! At least he doesnt have to be raw. You can even have him just sit in the sink if you dont want to fill a whole tub.

If it is teething, try Hylands Teething tablets, they are homeopathic & quick dissolve. You can get them at any health food store, I have even seen them at WalMart!

Get a second opinion!!! Honestly...I took my daughter to the ER because of severe diarrhea and they just "looked" at her...the ER doctor said since she didn't have a fever or show signs of dehydration, she was fine......we got a second opinion-her bowel movements had such an odor, we knew something was wrong-ended up she WAS dehydrated AND had ROTO virus....up to 25 b.m's a day for 4 days until she had to be hospitalized for a week!!! Not to scare you, but if you, as a mommy, are worried, get a second opinion-for your ease of mind and the safety of your child!! (also-they told us to stop using wipes and just use warm washcloths, and to use Aquaphor instead of diaper cream because it helps with the irritation!) Good Luck!!!

Wow! I felt like I was reading an e-mail that I wrote. My one year old is going through the exact same thing right now--its so miserable! She could barely sit b/c her bottom was hurting so bad. Its almost been a week, and our nurse said the same thing, probably teething. She said bland, starchy foods (rice, potatoes, white bread/pasta, bananas, yogurt, etc). She also said Pedialyte to help replace fluids, and she recommended equal parts Maalox, Cortaid cream, and Desitin/Balmex for bottom as well as Aveeno oatmeal (flakes) bath to soothe. She said if it doesn't clear up, then to call them and give them a stool sample to make sure its not a bacteria. I've been asking a lot of my mom friends, and they all say their kids went through this with teething. I hope it goes away soon!
T.

Hi C.,
Have you started feeding him anything new?
My son had the same thing happen when he turned about 1 year old. It was about that time we had introduced some new foods into his diet (like waffles and muffins). It wasn't long after that the diarrhea started. He also has eczema which began to flare horribly. He never ran a fever, vomited, or lost his appetite throughout all of this either. He did have some other tell-tale signs of allergy though- runny nose, allergic "shiners" (purple circles under his eyes). Come to find out, he has a severe egg allergy.
Anyway, it's something to consider...Esp since a lot of folks introduce milk around this age.
I sure hope he feels better soon... Poor little thing!

What are you feeding him? Rice products are supposed to help with diarrhea. Sounds like he picked up a virus. I would call the dr back if it went on many more days.
I feel for you. You are going to have a mess with the red butt. I went through that too. Also call the dr and ask if you can give him a little bit of some kind of antidiarreahl over the counter medicine, and how much.
I hope he gets better soon.

Hi C..

Around the time my daughter turned one, she did the same thing. It was something that would last a few days and then stop. It would happen every month. We had test run on her and she was finally diagnosed with "Toddler Diarrhea". It is not uncommon and I was told that usually by the time they are 3-4 it will stop. Well my daughters finally stopped at around 3.5 years old. It was such a pain and I felt it caused her to potty train late.

My pediatrician has always recommended the B.R.A.T. diet. It stands for Banana's, rice, applesauce and toast. These are all things that stop diarrhea. Good luck!

My little girl went through this at 3months. I had to keep her on pedialyte, the doctor said she couldnt have any formula for a whole day. poor thing was so miserable. It seems you are doing right keeping his foods light. Im guessing try pediasure or gatorade, something with alot of electrolytes are good for diarrhea.
I hope I helped.

I agree with whoever said to give him pro-biotics. Good bacteria in your system helps to digest food, and it sounds like he might be low on that.

I am a mother of 5 children ranging from 15yrs to 5 yrs. I wanted to let you know what works for us. We buy milk with acidolphilis and also eat yogurt with this same probiotic bacteria. If the diarrhea is from a bacterial source, it will respond well to use probiotic products. You can also buy it in capsule form and add it to applesauce or pudding, anything to get your child to take it. It works really well!!!!

Chrsitina,

My daughter suffered from the same thing when she was about 6 months. I took her to Preby and was told to give her a probiotic called Culturelle CG. You can buy it from any healthfood store. This probiotic places good bacteria back in the intestinal tract--which is where most things begin. It worked in just two days. Good Luck!

A.

He could be cutting teeth, which will often cause diarrhea. Try giving him some bananas (baby food)-- I have been told they will help with the diarrhea. Boudreaux's Butt Paste is excellent for the red bottom -- it's VERY soothing and usually clears the rash/redness quickly.