Help! Diarrhea & Vomiting for 3+weeks in 3 yo

[Michigan Mama]

Help! I'm feeling desperate. My ds1 started with diarrhea & vomiting about 3 weeks ago, more or less. The diarrhea is daily, explosive. He isn't going that many times in a day, maybe 2, but it's totally liquid. The vomiting started, just at night, not daily, just every couple days. Sometimes goind 3 or 4 days in between vomiting. But the last couple days he's been vomiting daily. He was up for a while last night puking, then again this morning when he tried to eat a little oatmeal.

He has multiple food allergies and I'm starting an elimination diet, but I'm really not convinced if that's the issue. We haven't really changed anything in his diet lately that I think should cause such a dramatic problem.

Of course, we thought it was just a virus at first but can that really go on that long?

Could it be a parasite or something?

Any other ideas? My poor baby. I'm worried.

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

My one year old had this EXACTLY back in November. He got it for his brithday, and it lasted til a week before Christmas!!!! I thought parasite too, I even brough some really awful nasty diapers to the doctors office with me. He said, no, and within a few days, he was finally on the mend.

I would take him to the doc to rule out anything OTHER then a virus. But yes, they CAN last this long. Sorry. HUGS!

[Michigan Mama]

I did take him to our family doc on Tues and the allergist on Wed.
Neither really knew what to tell me. : (

[deditus]

Yes, viruses can last this long and so can parasites and giardia is really common. Did the doc not do a stool test? I would insist on one if not. Otherwise, Culturelle was super helpful when dd had rotavirus, cleared up the pooping in 3 (double) doses.

[bean-e]

Our doctor said the worst he has seen is 6 weeks, and I think he was talking about a child who had allergies to begin with. Maybe their gut is more sensitive so it takes longer to go away.

Hang in there.

[Michigan Mama]

ok thanks for the replies. i called the dr again today and they agreed to do a stool sample, so hopefully we can do that soon & get some info.

if it is a virus, would he be contagious still?

[sbgrace]

In my experience stuff that goes on that long was parasitic. Unfortunately, we didn't catch them in pediatrician stool samples. They only tests for certain ones. Not the most common actually (b. hominus, d. fragilis, etc.) that continue indefintiely, not generally cryptosporidium, etc.

If you don't "catch" it and this goes on (note: many/most of the lasting parasitic infections are acute initially and then form a come and go pattern) I strongly recommend metametrix comprehensive stool test. It will catch it as they use DNA and test for all of them including b. hominus, crypto, fragilis, etc. Genova also tests for all of them but they don't use DNA so you'll want two samples to be sure to catch anything. Whatever stool test you use collect from beginning, middle, and end of stool. Some are only carried in certain portions. This is especially important with the culture types (all except metametrix).

[Michigan Mama]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

In my experience stuff that goes on that long was parasitic. Unfortunately, we didn't catch them in pediatrician stool samples. They only tests for certain ones. Not the most common actually (b. hominus, d. fragilis, etc.) that continue indefintiely, not generally cryptosporidium, etc.

If you don't "catch" it and this goes on (note: many/most of the lasting parasitic infections are acute initially and then form a come and go pattern) I strongly recommend metametrix comprehensive stool test. It will catch it as they use DNA and test for all of them including b. hominus, crypto, fragilis, etc. Genova also tests for all of them but they don't use DNA so you'll want two samples to be sure to catch anything. Whatever stool test you use collect from beginning, middle, and end of stool. Some are only carried in certain portions. This is especially important with the culture types (all except metametrix).

Thanks for the tips mama.