Home Treatment For Toddler Diarrhea

My 25 month old son suffered from severe diarrhea (his very first)  that lasted for 5 days. I am sharing here the helpful home remedies I read online. We wanted to bring him to the hospital on the fourth day (that was Thursday) but his paedia is only available during office hours. So we had to wait two more days before we can see the doctor as the hospital is closed on Fridays.

Diarrhea is defined as watery stools that occur for about 8-10 times a day. I actually lost track of our trips to the bathroom. The two pack of 81-piece Bambi was gone in the the whole five days. If there is no blood in his stool, no fever, no vomiting, no foul smell in stool, and there is appetite, you can hold off calling the expensive paedia consultation (here, it costs AED 500 or P6,250 per session) and try the following.

1. Refrain giving him from dairy products except for yoghurt. Just give him plenty of water and grape juice so his body will flush off whatever his sytem is rejecting. No apple juice either or any sugary drinks. Some even recommended regular Coke for them to sip but we stick to grape juice. And the Kiddie Pharmaton. I do not give regular vitamins to Andreas. I only do so when he is sick.

2. The liquid diet can last up to 6 to 24 hours. I had my son on this diet for 12 hours before giving him BRAT - banana, rice, apple, and white toast. Give it in small amounts because he probably still cannot digest them as his intestines are still sore. If his stool is still chunky after feeding BRAT, you might want to go back to liquid diet and try including soya milk.

3. Andreas clearly lost weight on the third but i still did not give him his regular Gain milk. Instead, we gave him Kaptin, an over-the-counter anti diarrhea oral suspension. It takes effect after 48 hours - and even longer for younger kids. Parents are encouraged to address diarrhea through the child's diet. But I was on panic mode now since this is the first time it happened and because we cannot see the paedia yet, i had to consult the nearest pharmacist at least.

4. On the fourth day, we gave him Wyeth Nursoy, a lactose free milk formula which we found cheaper than any other lactose free milk.  It took a day before Andreas actually swallowed his new milk (from 6 months, he was devoted to Gain) but maybe he so wanted to suck on his Avent that it really didn't matter what kind of milk he was available for him.

5. He was very weak on the fifth day but by then, his stool started to be solid. I guess Kaptin was working by now. Since there was no fever the whole time and no foul smell, we opted to cancel our Saturday appointment to the paedia. I took him to Zabeel Park for some sunshine. He was weak but he managed to enjoy himself on the slides and sand play area. When the ice cream man passed by, Andreas went over and so I bought him a  London Dairy drumstick which he happily devoured.

6. It's been three days now since he got better and appetite is back.He is eating everything again from chicken biryani to avocado milk shake.  I also stopped giving him his vitamin. But toddlers develop lactose intolerance while suffering diarrhea, so we decided not to give him yet his regular milk. He is now sucking on Nursoy without fuss so i figured we finish the small can first before going back to Gain.

We will never know what caused that diarrhea. It could be part of his teething - back molars are erupting. It could be something he ate, or just chronic diarrhea. The condition is actually very common with toddlers and they outgrow it around five years old.