What causes diarrhea in a child?
Patient: My 3 month old son has had awful diahrea for the past 5 days. It s very stringy and mucusy with white chunks which I m assuming is I digested milk. He is bottle fed. The poop has no odor and is leaving a very bad diaper rash. He has had no fever. What could it be? What can I try? Doctor: Thanks for posting on HealthCareMagic. For infants, formula feeds are not easy to digest and often semi digested portions appear in the stool. Semi digested milk can also give rise to substances that may cause loose stools to be passed. However, rotavirus is a very common cause of diarrhoea in infants and probably that is the cause of diarrhoea in your child. Unless associated with bloody stools, even without treatment of the cause, such diarrhoeas generally resolve spontaneously within 5-7 days so antibiotics are not required. All you need to do is to replenish the salt or water loss by the use of ORS. Had he been exclusively breast fed, I would have insisted you to continue breast feeding however.Hope that helps. Feel free to revert back in case of further queries if any.