Question
What should I do if my child has been suffering from diarrhea for 4 months? He has diarrhea about 5 times a day. We’ve seen a pediatrician and taken the prescribed medicine, but there’s no improvement. The child is breastfed. What should we do?
Answer
The cause of a child’s persistent diarrhea may be contaminated breast milk, or unclean nipples and bottles used for changing diapers. Even with good household hygiene, if the mother or the caregiver is not careful about cleanliness, they may become carriers of bacteria. Newborns with serious illnesses, such as neonatal sepsis or pneumonia, may have bacteria spread through the bloodstream to the intestines. Fever can also introduce viruses into the intestines, causing vomiting. The symptoms of vomiting caused by different bacteria and viruses vary; mild cases may only show simple gastrointestinal symptoms, such as diarrhea 5-6 times a day up to over 10 times, and may also be accompanied by fever, decreased appetite, vomiting, weakness, mild abdominal pain, crying and fussing, dry lips, and sunken fontanelle. In severe cases, the stool may be watery and occur up to 10-20 times a day.