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baby illness

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loza | 13:14 Mon 22nd Sep 2008 | Parenting
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Hello I hope someone can help. I have a 10 month old baby girl, she is constantly having diarrhea and has done for the last 5 and a half weeks! I have taken her to the doctors 3 times and last week her belly was swollen and she was screaming, so took her to the hospital and stayed over night whilst they monitored her.
They then came to the conclusion that she had a tummy bug and developed slight lactose intolerance with the bug.
She has now been on sma soya milk for 1 week, in which time only one nappy was slightly more solid, but now there is still no improvement...still watery nappies, sore bottom and she develops a temperature at times. Also i dont know if this has anything at all to do with her illness but she keeps grabbing her right ear and vigourously pulling she also rubs her ear as though something is hurting...please help and give me advice. What can i do!!??!! An appointment has been made for her for two months time!! But should i wait that long? x
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Her symptoms are an indication of lactose intolerance, so keep up with the soya milk.

If your GP is not helping, have a world with the midwife for your area, or drop into the nearest baby clinic and ask for some advice - you can;t leave the poor little mite to suffer without some positive attempts to isolate what is causing these symptoms.

Be persistant, and if she screams in the night, take her to your local A & E, they will have a good alook, and may admit her for some proper tests, wounds like that is what is needed here.
2 months? thats disgraceful ! just take her to A & E
Question Author
I know it's disgraceful and beleive me i am always on the phone to nhs direct, hospitals, doctors! x I did take her to A&E and they monitored her over night and then said she was fine to go in the morning even though she was still having wet nappies... I don know what to do to be honest. I wish i had money to do private tests myself!
I'm having a similar problem with my 3month old baby, she is constantly sick and was put on sma wysoy too, it gave her diarrheoa, so it could be partly to do with the change in formula. I was told by a doctor that most babies who are lactose intolerant are also intolerant of soya milk. It also doesnt contain much (if any) calcium.

You definately shouldn't have to wait 2months, keep taking her back to the GP every few days untill they do something because thats a long time to have diarrhoea for someone so small! If you're still worried after that I would take her back to A&E.

Have you spoken to your HV?

You know your little one best, trust your instincts. Good luck and I hope she's feeling better soon!
Question Author
Thankyou very much. I will take her to see GP tomorrow I think. The worst part is that I work full-time and I dont want to lose my job as that would result in losing my house! I have taken a week last week due to her illness, and am afraid if i keep taking her to hospital at times they keep us there (we waited from 7:30pm until 1:30pm to finally tell us that she was to be admitted, and that was only because it was late otherwise they say they would have still sent her home) i will take too much time from work and lose my job! x I will have my mum take her to gp tomorrow as that is who looks after my little girl whilst i work.
Thanks for your advice.
I'll let you know how they fob me off again tomorrow ;-( x
Our youngest was diagnosed as lactose intolerant, and they prescribed something called 'chic mix', which is liquidised chicken which we mixed with a load of chemicals to give her all the nutriants she needed. her nappied were horrendous, but she thrived and put on weight, so see if they can sort that out for you.
Sorry to hear that you and your little girl are having such a horrendous time.
The hospital can perform a stool acidity test to see if your darling one is indeed lactose intolerant. If they do, just to warn you they need a fresh stool sample so they will probably do the test at the hospital.
If your baby is failing to thrive, ie lose weight, your GP will be able to request an emergency appointment to see the paediatrician. You could always try pushing your GP towards getting you one of these appointments?

My seven month old is currently teething and is exhibiting the same symptoms of pulling/rubbing at her ears. Last night she had a fever to accompany it as well as some very nasty dirty nappies. Perhaps her teeth could be troubling her too?
I look forward to hearing how you get on. Best wishes xx
Question Author
aww thankyou all so much x My mum has just called me at work to say she has gone much worse, so she's taking her to a&e and i'll be leaving to accompany her in half an hour as work won't allow me to leave just yet due to dinner hours and stuff!! x
She has done six very wet nappies since half seven till now and they are absolutely putrid and smell disgusting! Also she has been sick twice, and her soft spot is one minute dipped and the next back to normal! God knows whats happening but beleive me I wont be leaving that hospital today without some facts and answers, my daughter is ill and something must be done about it xx thanks again for all of your comments will let you know how it goes x
Stand your ground at the hospital , please dont let them fob you off , let us know the outcome , hope shes better soon , take care x
Hi Loza I hope you are with your little girl now and on the way to getting some answers, it must be so hard for you right now.

I can't help re the wet nappies but my 5month old daughter has a little cold and cough at the moment and she pulls at her ears if she is upset, she does it when she is well and just overtired so I would think that they might just do that when they are uncomfortable maybe?

(P.S. If anyone is wondering I am checking to see if the cold turns into an ear infection but I don't think that is the cause of the ear pulling as she has done it for ages!)
Question Author
Hello all, spent a night in the hospital with Elora, she's not fully recovered yet. whilst in hospital she did a whopping 17 diarrhea nappies! she was in pain and no ear infection so think that the ear pulling is about showing us that she's irritated and uncomfortable. Unfortunately after taking yesterday off work i have had to return back to work, she stays with my mum so i rest assured she is very well looked after.
The hospital (after prescribing sma wysoy, 10 days ago!) now think that not only is she allergic to lactose, but also has an allergy to soya too. She still has diarrhea at the moment but am continuing with the new soya free and lactose free milk and concentrating on her strict diet that we have to stick to. They have re-arranged an appointment for her to see a paediatrician on 7th october, but i'm thinking if there is no improvement with her diarrhea by weekend that i should return to hospital with her??? can i have opinions on the time limit i should give it? x It's her 7th week now with the illness.
Thanks for all your messages and support x
I'm sorry I didn't check back earlier! Poor little babe, sounds like she's really been through it, and you too!

Apparently it's quite common to be lactose and soya intolerant, my daughters paediatrician was surpried my GP has bothered to prescribe it, its used more for babies who's parents are vegan or have strong religous views regarding food.

I hope Elora is feeling better by now, all you can really do is keep an eye on her for signs of dehydration, dry mouth, lethargy, sunken fontanelle and also try the skin pinch test to see if the skin is slow to go back etc.

It will take about a week - 10 days to see if the new formula is working for her, so I hope you're seeing a change for the better by now. If by day 5-7 on the new formula you're not seeing any difference at all, you should probably try and bring your paeds appointment forward a bit.

It's such a shame that the docs are so slow to act, I'm still having problems with my little one being sick constantly. They've given her medicine which only seems to make her uncomfortable and miserable, so I do kind of understand what youre going through, she's been in hosp twice in a week as an emergency admission, and we're going back again 2mrw!

Have they done any tests at all? Has she lost any weight? they don't want to do any tests on my daughter untill she's actually lost weight, it's not good enough that she doesn't put any on!!! Did she need IV fluids when you took her to hospital?

I hope you're both ok, (and your your mum too!) good luck, let me know how you're getting on! k8.x
Question Author
Hi Kate,
Thankyou for your reply, what a shame about your daughter, it gets me more mad that other babies are being fobbed off by the nhs too, as your little one is going through a tough time and still they are slow to act!
I'm seeing sort of an improvement, she has been only having at the most two dirty nappies a day and more wet nappies since she started on the new formula which was good, but the last two days have been green diarrhea and the most horrible smells I've ever smelt from such a young baby's rear end! ;-) Still I am holding on as long as i can as i dont think it's too bad yet, we did however have a bad night with her last night were she started to wake every couple of hours crying. (this had stopped when she went on the new formula)

I am sticking to her new diet plan, however she seems to be a little off solid foods still and tends to just pick at fruit or rusks when she's hungry.

Elora hasn't lost any weight but however hasn't put a great deal on, she usually puts quite an amount on every 3 months but from march to august this year she had put on just over a pound. The hospital dont think that this is cause for concern, and i have to go along with that.
So at the moment we are all doing quite well and fingers crossed she might be getting better.

I hope your little one gets the deserved dedication from the 'professionals', my daughter has suffered 9 horrible months and had to learn to cope with the pain of having an allergy to the formulas she drank. If only at 6 weeks old the doctor had listened to me and done one simple test instead of guessing the problem himself!! x

I hope the hospital appointment goes well today at that your well on your way to solving whatever is causing your daughters sickness x

Love to you and your little one x
Lauren and Elora x
Hi lauren, glad you're seeing an improvement! It's such a shame that your little one has been suffering like this since she was 6wks old.

Nancy has now been put on Nutramagen (sp?) and been booked in for an ultrasound to see if she's got anything physically wrong with her. So now it's just a case of waiting (again) to see if she can keep this formula down.

I hope Elora starts eating properly again soon! (Love the name Elora BTW!!)

Take care
Love Kate & Nancy.X

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