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Tue 17 Jul, 2007 07:46 am
Yes, that's what I said.
OK, my kid has gotten mad at me for "blabbing" so let's say this is about my young friend Kate. Kate is 6. She ate something recently that didn't seem to agree with her and she's had to visit the bathroom more often than usual. It's not diarrhea, it's just much more frequent. Small amounts when she does, but otherwise fairly normal. As in the BM itself (ahem) isn't that abnormal, and it doesn't seem to be more total, just smaller amounts much more frequently.
Other than this one thing she's totally fine. No fever, says she feels great, lots of energy, etc. It started to be an issue yesterday afternoon, then she slept through the night just fine (no bathroom visits), then happened again this morning. I just had to pull into a gas station on the way to drop her off somewhere because she had to go NOW. (That kind of urgency is unusual for her.)
It's not doctor's-visit level, but I'd like to feed her something (um, when she visits) that will make the problem go away sooner rather than later.
I've tried yogurt, that seemed to help a bit, but she can't live on yogurt.
She had cereal with milk this morning -- that's all so far today. Worried it was too fiber-y, but then maybe fiber's good? I dunno.
Any ideas? I'm more familiar with pampering tummies in terms of nausea, this seems a little different.
Thanks.
Can you narrow down "something that didn't seem to agree with her" in any way? If not, how do you know Kate's problem is food dependent at all?
I don't. It's conjecture.
She had a bite of a sandwich with some slightly suspect meat on Sunday for lunch, and didn't want more. I tossed the sandwich. Didn't have any myself.
She had ravioli and salad (washed) for dinner Sunday night.
She had a Mexican quiche (from Trader Joe's) with strawberries (washed) on the side on Monday morning.
She had a hamburger for lunch on Monday afternoon.
Those two last things together aren't particularly tummy/ bowel-friendly.
I wasn't really paying attention Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon -- Monday PM was when it became marked in terms of frequency (every 45 minutes to couple of hours).
I don't know anything about the cause for sure, though. Mostly just want to know foods other than yogurt that would be most likely to ease her back to normality, bowel-wise.
Try giving Kate some banana, or rice and cheese.
For severely irritated bowels, my mother's tried, tested, and successful remedies were rusk, chamomile tea, and dried blueberries. For milder irritations, one thing she gave us oatmeal porridge; another was skinless chicken breast. I have no double-blind, peer-reviewed evidence that this works for every child, but it always worked for my sisters and me.
Cola in moderate quantities also used to work, where moderate means a can or two a day. I don't know if that works anymore, though. Both Pepsi and Coke used to contain Pepsin, a chemical our body uses to digest protein into peptides. But judging by a websearch I just ran, they removed it because Pepsin is unacceptable for Muslim consumers. (One way of deriving it is from pig blood.) Still, the next time you go shopping, it may be worth reading the ingredient lists of Coke and Pepsi, and try it if Pepsin is still on one of them.
Agree with Chai's suggestion. Oatmeal is good too. What kind of yogurt? The stuff with the live cultures works wonders on Ducklet's tummy -- and she's prone to tummy issues.
Thomas wrote:For milder irritations, one thing she gave us oatmeal porridge; another was skinless chicken breast.
Correction: Skinless chicken breast with rice. (I meant to correct, but FreeDuck was faster.)
Is she lactose intolerant perhaps?
It can come on suddenly (or seemingly so) and even if she didn't eat a lot one day, if she ate a lot the previous day it can "build up" and cause trouble after the fact.
The urgency suggests to me lactose intolerance (more likely) or perhaps a thyroid issue (less likely). I had that kind of urgency before I got my thryoid under control but also had that kind of urgency with the lactose intolerance. And it wasn't really diarreah all the time but sometimes, eh, uh, soft serve.
Try cutting out dairy for a few days and see if that helps.
Here we go... thanks guys!
Do you know if the blueberries had to be dried to be useful? I have some fresh ones, maybe oatmeal with fresh blueberries and bananas would be good...?
The yogurt we have has live cultures, yep.
Are dairy products in general good? (Cheese, milk, etc.?)
Rice makes sense, that could be dinner maybe.
Anything to be sure to stay away from? Like, spiciness I figured out, but anything non-obvious (like meat, in general?)
re Coke: it worked in the old days - and as far as I know, even today (though perhaps more by auto-suggestion, perhaps).
I got 'Pepsin-wine' on those occasitions as well (grandparents/aunt had a drugstore).
(Might be THAT's the reason I became an alcoholic? ..
... :wink: )
Oh, missed you there Bella.
I'm really not thinking it's a Big Problem at this point since it's the first time it's happened and it's been such a short time so far -- I'll be more worried if it drags on or if it recurs. Just want to be prepared and help things along if I can.
And chicken, right, so at least that kind of meat would be fine. Skinless chicken breast with rice sounds like a good dinner for her.
sozobe wrote:Are dairy products in general good? (Cheese, milk, etc.?)
That's easily possible. Kate's frequent, small-yield toilet visits could come form a mild constipation. Milk products, on the other hand, all contain lactose, which is a mild laxative.
Bella Dea wrote:Is she lactose intolerant perhaps?
That's what I suspected in the beginning, too. Sozlet is about the age when many Asians develop their lactose intolerance. But if Sozlet was lactose intolerant, I'd think yogurt should make the problem worse, not better.
Well it's not all small-yield (good way of putting it). It started out normal in terms of amount, then less each time, until the last several were very small. It seems like something happened that made her need to go just as soon as anything was digested, rather than the usual build-up.
I guess about what would happen if she HAD taken a laxative. So would that mean avoid dairy products? (Maybe I will call a doctor. I'll give it a bit more time though -- as far as I know, she's only gone once in the past 15 hours or so, which isn't bad. I'll find out more when I pick her up.)
sozobe wrote:Do you know if the blueberries had to be dried to be useful?
I don't know if they had to -- they just always were. My mother always kept them ready to hand in her medicine cabinet, which wouldn't have worked with fresh ones. Chemically, dried blueberries are the same as fresh blueberries without water. Water shouldn't make a difference, so I see no reason why fresh blueberries wouldn't work.
sozobe wrote:I guess about what would happen if she HAD taken a laxative. So would that mean avoid dairy products?
This does look like further evidence for Bella Dea's lactose intolerance hypothesis, and for reducing dairy products. Contacting a doctor sounds reasonable, he can tell you about further symptoms to look out for.
Dried blueberies (otherwise, it seems, there's not enough Pectin in them).*
(Though I think, it should be 'huckleberries'.)
* edited: which sounds a bit stupid
If there's any kind of diarrhea, don't drink milk or dairy products!! It only makes the problem worse.
happycat wrote:If there's any kind of diarrhea, don't drink milk or dairy products!! It only makes the problem worse.
An old wisdom as well.
Black tea was what we took and take.
happycat wrote:If there's any kind of diarrhea, don't drink milk or dairy products!! It only makes the problem worse.
Kate doesn't have diarrhea though. (And I have no idea why I mixed up her name. How silly of me!)
In her initial post, Sozobe wrote:As in the BM itself (ahem) isn't that abnormal, and it doesn't seem to be more total, just smaller amounts much more frequently.
Walter - My son has Crohn's (an IBD.) The gastroenterologist was adamant about that. (I know more about bowels that I ever thought I'd need to know.)
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