PLEASE HELP!! Bad Nappy Rash and Diahorrea

[Ange&Seth]

I'm hoping someone out there can help me out here. I don't know what to do. DS is nearly 10 months old and about 2 weeks ago we finally changed him to the Setp 2 formula. About the same time we bought him baby food, and got the ones that are for 10-15 months. So the problem we have now is that about a week ago he had really bad diahorrea, which I thought meant that we would have another tooth along shortly. But the next poo was a normal one, then the next was diahorrea again. Now it's constantly diahorrea, and it seems like it's almost burning his bottom. He either has a bright red bum or his scrotum is bright red, and/or there's red dots over the top of his legs.

We're putting bepanthen on him at every nappy change and making sure he's really dry after his baths at night, we've even changed to the next size up in nappies, thinking that maybe the other ones were sitting too tight on his bum, but nothing seems to be working. He hasn't been whingy or anything while this has been going on, and he's eating the same as normal. I'm making sure he's having water to try and keep him hydrated, but I was just wondering if someone could shed some light on what they think the issue might be? I feel really stupid cos I should know what to do, but I don't. Should I take him off the formula for a week and put him back on the step 1, see what happens?

[Chickadee]

DD just went through a week of diarrhea and got a nappy rash too. Not as bad as your little mans' though. I use Desitin cream quite liberally. It's thicker than bepanthen and I think a better barrier so that the skin has a chance of healing.

The first thing I do when diarrhea appears is to cut out all dairy. It's hard on their gut and can prolong diarrhea. So I'd suggest cutting out all formula for a few days, or if you're concerned he won't get enough fluids then make it much more dilute than usual. Bread, rice, potatoes, pasta and cereals are all easy to digest and are recommended when kids have gastro or diarrhea. You could also try some broth, maybe boil a handful of rice in the broth so that he gets some of the starch from the rice in it. Fruits and sweets aren't recommended.

You might also want to go to the dr to get some of his poo tested, just to rule out any bacterial cause.

Once the diarrhea clears up, then introduce formula back. I never used Step 2 formula, it's not really necessary I think if they're eatting well. So if you're comfortable with the step 1 stuff then I'd go back to that.

[Ange&Seth]

Thankyou MarthaM - We've decided to put him back on the Step1 Formula to see how he goes, and if that doesn't work within a day or two then we will take him off the formula completely to see how he goes.