Diarrhoea

What causes diarrhoea and how do you treat it?

• It is quite normal to see some variation in a baby’s stools, depending on their diet
• There are also significant differences between the stools of breastfed and bottle-fed babies; on average breastfed babies have softer stools and pass them more often than bottle-fed babies

What is diarrhoea?

Diarrhoea is defined as the passing of watery stools more than 3 times in one day.

What causes it?

Diarrhoea is classed as either acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) and the two can have different causes;

• Acute diarrhoea can be caused by viral infections, food poisoning, or sometimes as a side effect of taking antibiotics or other medicines
• Chronic diarrhoea (lasting longer than two weeks) can also be due to bacterial infection, but may also be due to conditions such as lactose intolerance
• Toddler diarrhoea is a type of chronic diarrhoea which often affects toddlers and is merely the result of the ingestion of certain foods and a rapid transit time through the gut. It normally goes away by 4 years of age

What to do if a baby has diarrhoea

• Diarrhoea usually clears up quickly and is not serious
• If a baby is between 3 months and a year, diarrhoea should last no longer than 48 hours; if it persists beyond this, or there are any other symptoms, recommend that parents contact their GP
• Young babies are slightly more at risk of dehydration, so you should instruct parents to closely monitor them
• Signs of dehydration include: passing little urine, drowsiness, unresponsiveness, glazed eyes and a dry mouth and tongue. If a baby is showing any of these signs, parents should contact their GP immediately
• If the parent is breast or bottle-feeding, recommend that they continue to offer their baby their usual milk
• Prompt parents of older babies to offer them frequent sips of water or well diluted juice. Advise them that their baby should eat as normally as they can
• If the baby refuses to eat, tell parents to continue to offer drinks until their appetite returns
• You can also recommend rehydration fluids if necessary