Recurrent Diarrhea

Take all dairy products out of the diet, you can find non dairy high calcium products in the health food section of the store. Hope this helps.....I too have been lactose intolerant for many years, and I had the same symptoms..
Good luck Mommy

Is it too much juice or maybe take him off of juice period.

Hi S.,
Whether it is a bug or a chronic problem probiotics could help. Shaklee makes the best one if he could swallow a small pearl. You can find it at http://www.shaklee.net/healthforlife. If he can't do that, ask your pharmacist for the next best thing. Yogurt is a source but if the probiotic is not somehow protected as it passes through the the digestive system not much is left by the time it gets where it needs to go. And if he is sensitive to dairy that might be a poor choice anyway. Even a good probiotic will take some time to straighten things out.
Hope he is better soon.
V.

I would also have him tested for a gluten allergy. This has the same symptoms as IBS, but what they are discovering now is that gluten allergies have been grossly miss diagnosed over the past 10-15 years. Its a blood test. This is when IBS became so popular. IBS has no real causes... dr's can't really explain it. Its not an accurate diagnoses (sp?).... there is a reason for it. My son had a month long bout of diarrhea once and after a couple of weeks my ped ran a few tests and tested him for lactose intolerance, gluten and some other things. All tests came back negative, I was told to give him yogurt for the probiotics and was told that it could take a couple of weeks to replace the good bacteria in his intestine. For us, this was true. After 1 month, it went away. It was very strange. Hopefully, you can find what is causing this. Something is causing this. Good luck.

Get some acidophilus bifidus from your local pharmacy. It puts the good bacteria in the gut that will prevent diarreah and constipation. All you need is about a 1/4 teaspoon a day and it is available powdered. You can add it to anything and is tasteless. We use Metagenics Ultra Flora. You can look up info on it online.

Try Culturelle...it's in a pill form, but it's the kind that you can open up, and it's powder inside...I just put the powder in my son's milk/juice/water. It helps the balance of bacteria or something in the stomach. You can give it to him once a day, every day...or I think when he's got diarrhea, I think you can do it every couple hours. It works for us, and your situation sounds familiar to ours. Its worth a try, I think....

hi -
i agree with tamara - it is not normal to have diarrhea for 4 months. I also wonder about fool intolerances (possible to dairy still - try switching him to a non-dairy alternative (if you are worried about calcium - vans foods makes a potato based milk substitute) or you can try rice milk - many people who have an allergy to milk also have an allergy to soy so you may want to avoid it and see if the symptoms improve. I would also definitely recommend seeing his regular pediatrician

good luck!

I doubt it's it, but is it IBS? I don't if kids can get it that young but it's worth researching i suppose.

My friend's daughter (my friend is quite reasonable, not at all prone to pull food out of a child's diet unless it's really necessary) developed a rather short term allergy? intolerance? to milk. She was probably 6 years old and very suddenly had diarrhea. They went to the doctor, who recommended cutting out dairy. They did, and she was fine. They reintroduced it a number of months? a year? later and it was fine again.

Irritable bowel syndrome? I have it and it's an ongoing problem. Adding fiber supplements to his drinks and adding probiotic filled yogurts (greek yogurt is super) to his diet can make a huge difference. The fiber alone worked wonders for me.

It could be the dairy, he might not have grown out of it. I would consult your original pediatrician. Because recurrent for prolonged period of time is not normal.

Is your son in daycare? Was his stool tested for parasites? Giardia (spelling?) is a parasite that commonly makes its way through daycare centers. I would take him back to your regular doctor. They should test for parasites to rule that out. Food allergies and sensitivities can be difficult to detect. They might want to follow up on that even though it sounds like you've started that. Good luck. I have IBS, and I don't think it sounds like IBS. I assume kids can get IBS, but I'm not sure I've ever heard of it in someone so young. Good luck.

You may want to check into celiac disease. I have a friend who's daughter was having recurrent diarrhea and they discovered that she improved on a gluten-free diet. Just a thought. Good luck!

If he had been on an antibiotic prior to the diarrhea starting, that could be the culprit - even this far out from it. Start with lots of probiotics for a few days and see if that improves it. For my little ones, I like the powder capsuls that can be broken open and dumped in a drink or onto food unsuspectingly. They sell them in the refrigerator/organic section (by the soymilks) at Cub and in a refrigerator case in the Pharmacy at Byerly's. Target doesn't carry this type at all. It is expensive, but lasts a very long time in the fridge. You can't take too much - so start with one capsule with each meal. Yogurt has probiotics too, but not as much so it will take longer. Plus, if dairy is an issue...
If that doesn't work after a few days, it may be dairy again. Sounds like the diarrhea started not long after you reintroduced it. My daughter is lactose intolerant and that is her main symptom. That, and itchy skin. Good luck.

Perhaps after trying to add fiber and yogurt for a little while--seeing how that works, not trying to scare you, but I would really insist on doing a urine test for neuroblastoma. Diarrhea is one of the symptoms. Diarrhea is caused by a substance produced by the tumor (vasoactive intestinal peptide or VIP). http://www.cancer.org/docroot/cri/content/cri_2_4_3x_how_... . Your doctor may imply that your dumb, but you pay his/her bills so he does what you request.

Recurrent diarrhea isn't normal and for the on-call pediatrician to say it's just a bug is plain irresponsible.

have you tried increasing his fiber in take?