persitent infantile diarrhoea

Hello: my 12 month daughter has had diarrhoea for the last 2 weeks. She is opening her bowels up to 10 times per day and is having really terrible stomach pains. She also has severe reactions to dairy produce. Could you advise me on the cause of this?

Dear Kerry,
This sounds like she has lactose intolerance probably brought on by a gastro bug. She needs to go on a milk product-free diet. This means no milk, no cream, no cheese, no icecream and no commercial products that contain milk such as bread, biscuits,most margarines and yogurts. Check commercial products to make sure they don't contain "milk products or "casein"-this means you will have to do a lot of home cooking. She should stay on the milk-free diet for 2-3 weeks to let the gut heal although you should see an improvement long before that time.
If this does not work ask your doctor to look for Yersinia and Giardia in a faeces specimen and treat her for Giardia anyhow as it is sometimes difficult to detect. Uncommonly diarrhoea can be due to a urinary tract infection but it is so difficult to collect a suitable urine sample, I would wait until all the above have been done.
If none of these work ger back to me as there are further things that could be considered. I would be interested in what happens in any case.
David Robinson.

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