Diarrhea for Two Weeks

Drs get on my last nerve sometimes. But as long as she stays hyrated, that is the most important thing of course, and that her condition does not deteriorate. Elecrolytes COULD make the diarrhea worse, but are in order to at least try- i.e. pedialyte for example. Probiotics are helpful too. She could work through it on her own, but a little outside help can be a good thing too. Has she had any antibiotics lately? The will of course mess up her gut flora and then the probiotics are DEFINTELY in order to get them back in balance. Again, she will do it on her own eventually, but with the young ones, why wait? You know? When there are simple things we can do to treat the root cause alot of times, like the probiotics, instead of just the symptoms. I'm not real big on symptom reactions, like lomotil and the like. I prefer causal solutions, or nothing, letting nature fix it, to symptom treatment, unless it just gets ridiculous and you and she MUST get some relief. But you gotta do what you feel is best even if the Dr doesn't think it is a big deal. Drs DON'T always know best!

And after glancing at some of the other responses, looking into an allergy thing is definitely a good idea too. Alot of kids end up being allergic to cows milk and other things like peanuts and wheat gluten, and diarrhea is certainly a symptom of a food allergy! And I think it is Kaopectate that is the OTC thing that works so well if you decide to go that route. Isn't that right gals? Kaopectate?

Good luck! T.

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Diarrhea can "self perpetuate" b/c the balance of the bowel is off. A small viral episode can drag on. Try giving her some yogurt labeled "live active culture", which is most brands.

Hi H.,
I know you said you haven't changed her diet, but what kind of milk is she drinking. My little boy did the same thing around that age and it took me forever to figure it out. I also asked the Dr. with no good answer. And one day I was talking to a friend on the phone and we went through his whole diet. She asked about his milk and I remembered I had went from 2% milk to 1% milk. I switched back and sure enough the diarreha went away. When I talked to the Dr. the next time she said that 1% has more fatty stuff in it the his stomach probably didn't tolerate. I hope this might be the answer for you to. If not you may have to work with her diet and see if it's something she is eating. Good luck!!

When my daughter who is now almost 11 years old went through this at about this age I insister on taking her to a stomach specialist. I still had my daughter on formula because she had so many problems with her stomach I was afraid to change her diet at all, however, the specialist said that her body was craving fat. Once I put her on whole milk this went away. My advice would be go with instinct if you feel that something is wrong then force the doctor to push further into the issue.

AI don't know why but is it just loose or really diarrhea? Too much apple juice can give them really loose stool or diarrhea so don't let her have more than one glass a day. Also, you can get a chewable pro biotic that will balance out her colon and stop the madness. My kids ate lots of fruit and fruit juice and that gives diarrhea as well. Go to Wild Oats for the pro biotic.

My friend had this problem. Her daughter was allergic o milk. The switch to cows milk from breast milk set it off. It took her about two months to figure it out. Try her on soy for a few days and see if it clears up.

Hi H.,
I have a 13 month old that just got over that same problem. Our doctor said the same thing. It eventually went away after about 3 weeks. When she has a bowel movement now it is completely solid and I haven't changed anything. So it may just be something they go through. She is my first also so I was unsure about it all at first. Just make sure right now that she is staying well hydrated. More water than anything. good luck for you and the little one. Oh yeah if she is keeping a diaper rash it may very easily turn into a yeast infection. If you have any corn starch it works amazingly!!! I just used it like you would use powder. In one time the rash cleared up. Hopefully something i have mentioned will help. have a good one.

H.--We went through the same kind of thing last summer when our son was 18 months old. He had weird looking diarrhea for two months, and after several trips to the doctor's office we found out that he has a peanut allergy. We'd never even given him peanut butter, but other things he was eating/coming in contact with that had peanut products were triggering the diarrhea. We eventually saw Dr. Moulton at Vandy just to be sure there wasn't anything going on with his digestive system, but X-rays/etc. showed everything to be okay. All that to say--don't panic. As long as she's eating well, drinking lots of liquids, and seems to be happy, she's probably okay. I would ask the doctor next time about the possibility of food allergy, though. I hope you get some answers soon! ~S. H

If the dr says it is alright, don't worry. It may make her little bottom raw and red and hurt. If it goes on for several more weeks I would take her back but as for now I wouldn't worry about it, especially since the dr said it was alright.
One thing that you can be aware of is that my little girl is 20 months and if I give her too much juice she will get diarreah. So watch what she drinks. Drink more water. I will give mine coolaid occassionally and milk at meals. But if she drinks juic alot during the day.. she will get diarreah in a heart beat and her little bottom will be one big pain.
I hope she gets better

Even though you haven't changed her diet, she may be exhibiting the symptoms of a food sensitivity. My oldest (now 4.5) gets diarrhea if she has too much dairy in her diet. She will have lots of diarrhea and it seems like there is nothing else wrong with her- no fever, no sickness, didn't slow her down any, just diarrhea. She didn't seem to be sensitive to it when she was little (or I didn't recognize it). I limit the amount of dairy in her diet, especially cow's milk. I give her rice milk or almond milk or even goat's milk (I don't do soy because there is a lot of research out there suggesting that soy can cause developmental delays among other health risks). She gets her calcium from calcium-enriched oj, tomatoes, leafy greens pureed that I have snuck into her other foods. You might try eliminating the milk for a week and see what happens. Even if it's just some stomach virus, cutting down on the milk should help that too.

Babies can get viruses, cold, coughs that can last several weeks, so this may just be one of those things that she gets and will go away on its own. Since she's eating and playing fine, it's probably not anything to worry about. Is she sleeping okay? Viruses can cause diarrhea in kids and as long as she's not dehydrated it's probably no cause for concern. Trust your judgement though, because you know your baby better than anyone and if you feel she's not right take her back to the doctor! In the meantime, you can try to change her diet to see if you can get it to stop, and maybe also try pedialyte.

My daughter did the same thing....no fever, no change in demeanor, but definitely sore in her diaper area! We ended up having her allergy tested. It gave us great answers, and her diarrhea came to an end. Allergy testing is not fun, but certainly NOT as scary as it sounds. We found a great allergist/immunologist and his nurses were GREAT with our girl! The answers it provided were great! Best wishes to you....

jess

Try feeding bananas and/or cheese, as both are 'supposed to' help firm up stool. Withold spinach, oranges, prunes and other super-fibrous things for a few days. Make sure she drinks plenty, etc. If she's feeling well, not fevered and being active, it must not be anything serious.

Hi H.,

One of my kids had diarrhea that just wouldn't go away too, even though his initial fevers and sickness had resolved themselves weeks before. My daycare wouldn't take him until the diarrhea was over with - I was desperately getting all my different family members to keep him for me so that I could work. (I'd already taken two weeks of sicktime off.) So I asked the doctor if there wasn't something I could give him to help the diarrhea to stop. I almost felt like it was just a vicious circle that his body had gotten used to. She told me to buy an over-the-counter medicine (can't remember the name now) and told me how much to give him. I did it, and after just one or two doses, no more diarrhea! Wow! If this persists, you might ask your doctor about it. I really think he just needed a little help to break the cycle.
Good luck! D.

Some toddlers get diarrhea from even a little bit of juice. My son had it as a toddler and we could not figure it out. Then we took away even a cup of juice a day and gave water instead. It not only went away he is now almost 4 and loves water.

Very well could be viral. Consider if you have changed your water source at all or if she was around anyone that has been sick or an elderly person that may have been sick etc... If it gets too much you can try a Brat diet which is bananas, rice applesauce and toast for a day and see if that helps slow it down. As you return to regular diet see if a particular item makes it worse. Make sure she stays well hydrated preferably with water but if needed pedialyte. Good Luck!

maybe she's cutting her 2nd set of molars (typically at 2 years - called 2 year molars!) ??

when those were beginning to errupt with my son he had TERRIBLE diapers!

good luck!

We dealt with this at 14 months, and it was soy milk that did the trick. I hope this is all it takes for you!!

Our son had a bout with diarrhea for about a month in the fall. What I eventually did was to give him soy milk instead of cow's milk for a while. I think that his little tummy was just too upset to handle anything else. You might want to try this for a little while to see if it helps. I did eventually switch back to cow's milk and he does fine but had a bout with they stomach bug again this week,so I did the same thing again. I hope this helps.