Quote:
Originally Posted by Mirrormonkey  "Another cause of malabsorption in the intestines can be teething. The profuse saliva of a teething baby can cause irritation in the intestines interfering with proper absorption. When babies teethe, we can see lots of drooling. Large quantities of saliva is swallowed which can irritate the intestines causing runny, acidic stools. This can also cause a rash in the diaper area."
Taken from the link you gave me. I know he is teething becasue I can feel a tooth when he is gnawing on my knuckle.
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A friend of mine who's a paediatric dentist said that after the age of 6-8 weeks all babies will salivate excessively and in increasing amounts, decreasing when the baby is older and able to start swallowing their saliva (i can't remember what age he said that was but i feel like it was closer to 12months...not sure though). While the above is commonly thought to be true he said that the diarrhea may actually be caused by increased acid secretion into the stomach from the stress of the irritation in the mouth. He also adds that for the amount of saliva being swallowed you probably couldn't get enough entering the stomach to cause that kind of irritation, especially when the child is so young (and by young, at the time, he was referring to my son when his first tooth erupted into the mouth at 4.5months). So when we were initially having this conversation he told me, amongst many things, that we could expect some diarrhea that correlated with the amount of fussiness. We never did get any symptoms of teething with any of the 4 teeth our son now has.
Anyhow, i just asked my paediatrician friend if our paediatric dentist friend was correct but all she said was "hmm...yeah, probably".
ETA: With best friends that include a paediatrician and a paediatric dentist (and a pharmacist and a psychologist) you'd think i didn't need to be on MDC...*scratching head*.
