# how to stop diarrhea in 9 month old?



## lizziejean (Feb 8, 2003)

My little guy is 9 months old, and he's had diarrhea since Friday morning. It started with a fever, only for a day or so, 102 highest; since then he has seemed healthy, if a little fussy, except for the diarrhea, and reduced appetite. He's drinking breastmilk fine, and has tons of wet diapers, so I'm not worried about his health really... I'm just going nuts, I can't take him back to daycare until he stops with the liquid poop! I'm so gonna get fired / laid off / permanently assigned to the lamest jobs around...

So here's a couple of things I'm obsessing about:

- since he's been only eating rice cereal mixed with water, and breastmilk, do you think a 9-month old could go back to breastfed infant-type poop consistency? because that's what it's like, more soupy than watery if you know what I mean. Maybe I should start feeding him all the other stuff again and see what happens. I'm just terrified of making it worse.

- he also has bronchiolitis, and has been getting nebulized with albuterol and pulmicort 3xday since Thursday, the drs say this could not be causing nausea/diarrhea, have any of you heard different?

I've started giving him powdered acidophilous stuff which the ped said might help, gave him some today and will give him more tomorrow, hopefully that will have some good effect.

Any ideas of how to clear this up would be really helpful! I can't believe this... isn't breastfeeding supposed to make stomach bugs less severe?


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## applejuice (Oct 8, 2002)

Please make sure your dear child has lots of fluids, as that is what he/she is losing.

The acidopholous should work.

Maybe bind him/her up with some fiber (oatmeal?)

Watch out for a fever.


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## elismom (Dec 3, 2001)

Did it start out really watery and is now more soupy? Or was it soupy the whole time? If watery, I'm no doc, but my ds had watery diarrheal viruses twice around that age, which were most likely rotavirus. Once lasted 5 days, once 7. Both were hell. W/the 7 day one, I kept thinking it was never going to end!!! But it did. Interestingly, even though Sears and such always said that once they get diarrhea that it can take weeks to really heal/go back to normal, w/my ds, it went from this sick pure water (rancid smelling) diarrhea to normal with no in-between. Anyway, all this to say that if he has viral diarrhea it will end!

My day care's policy is if it's more than 2 a day they stay home. But 2 or less, and I guess they figure they're not sick, that it's teething or something similar. Is your day care's policy absolutely no diarrhea? And can you ask them what their def of diarrhea is (like pure watery vs. soupy?) Maybe they'll him back if it's gone from watery to soupy? Maybe getting the doc to say whether or not they think it's viral and whether or not they think he's can go back to day care, w/a note saying he's ok?

As to getting laid off, etc--what size is your place of employment? If it's more than 50, and you've worked there for at least a year (total time, doesn't matter if there were breaks for mat leave or the like) you're covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which includes caring for a sick family member. This means they cannot lay you off, or even reassign you to a lesser job (I'm sure about the first part, the 2nd is a little iffy, but I know that if they reassign you it has to be to a job at the same level). Depending on the way your company administers FMLA, what you may need to do is contact HR and formally log your sick days as FMLA and you may need a note from your ped, but it's worth it if you really need protection from getting laid off etc (which by the way sucks that they would do that to you regardless of the law!). If you want me to expand on this any more, let me know and I'll try to answer. I'm not a lawyer, I just know about this mainly from a) having to deal w/it for my mat leave and b) from being a supervisor.


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## sarahmae1 (Nov 11, 2002)

The BRAT diet - bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. hth.


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## lizziejean (Feb 8, 2003)

Thanks everyone for your help. He finally got normal poop back on day 8... I started giving him probiotics which I think really helped.

Thanks for the info about getting laid off / FMLA leave etc - I was kind of joking, but that is good to know that I can take leave without being subject to being laid off or reassigned. Particularly as my daughter vomited today, just once, but enough to make me freak out at the thought of yet another suck-up call to my boss!

Elizabeth.


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