causes of diarrhea

[mamamillet]

DD has had diarrhea for several weeks now. It started on day 3 of taking amoxicillin. We stooped on day 5. But her fever (from ear infection) returned 2 days after stopping. A second round of antibiotis, azithromycin and the infection cleared up. The major diarrhea--smelly, liquid and green-- did not return but neither did her normal poops. She has continued to have more frequent and looser poop since this all began. A week ago it got worse again--she has poop every 3-4 hours even through the night. After the intitialstuff started she really backed off solids and nursed all the time so i wasn't expecting her to have her more solid poop. We have been doing probiotics since the beginning. I am now starting to worry about other possibilities...
DD was born with gastroschisis-her intestines were on the outside of her boody. She had immediate surgery to correct it and was on major antibiotics for her first 3 weeks of life. She never had the "normal" breastfed poop-hers was always a bit greener and mucousy. She was eating lots of solids before this all started with no problems.
Any ideas?

She is also teething again--looks like #s 9 and 10 are coming in.

[tanyalynn]

I would look at a combination of a poor mix of gut bacteria and a food intolerance. Food intolerances can be subtle and then get worse/more apparent with stress, and I'd assume that the recent antibiotics were the culprit. It sounds like, from her health history and your description, her gut bacteria were probably somewhat out of whack before, and this exacerbated that. Gluten and dairy are biggies, in terms of upsetting digestion, though I realize they aren't easy to completely remove--we did it, but it was work. That helped with DD's poop (less frequent, not as squishy) but she needed more probiotics. For us, homemade kimchee is great, but there are high quality, allergen-free (common allergens, anyway) supps out there, often online.

[WuWei]

I would do whole food probiotics and request a stool be sent to the lab to culture for "C. difficile."


Pat

[mamamillet]

Thanks. I am going to ask for her poop to be cultured next week. I am hoping that a food intolerance is not the issue--especially cause it would be hard for me to cut much. I have a hard time maintaining me weight as it is!