Vanco not working - Toddler

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Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Thu Jul 07, 2016 11:09 am

His stools are very loose, as it practically water. This is venturing pretty close to the TMI line, but his stools are the same consistency as a vegetable soup, not just liquid, but liquid with bits and pieces mixed in. Sometimes they're brown, light green or dark green. Sometimes they're foul smelling, sometimes they're not. Sometimes they have mucus and sometimes they don't. Everything from the texture to smell to color to frequency is very inconsistent. One day he may have five, the next he may have 15. We even had a day or two with one or zero. He has never had and blood, and his appetite has been good for the most part. There was a day or two where he didn't want to eat much.

His gastro appointment is confirmed for tomorrow (Friday) so we have at least another day to wait.

beth22
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby beth22 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 12:29 pm

I would really ask to have him tested for celiac and ask about other intolerances. Have you tried stopping probiotics? They used to go right through me as well.

Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Thu Jul 07, 2016 12:32 pm

beth22 wrote:
> I would really ask to have him tested for celiac and ask about other
> intolerances. Have you tried stopping probiotics? They used to go right
> through me as well.

We cut the probotics in half, only doing 1 dose per day now. Also going to stop yogurt to see if that helps. If not, we will completely stop probiotics.

beth22
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby beth22 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 12:35 pm

I was never lactose intolerant, but with the c diff and taking vanco, yogurt went right through me. ID doctor told me to stop and when I did, things greatly improved.

Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Thu Jul 07, 2016 12:39 pm

Hopefully the same will happen with him as we stopped the yogurt.

I'm doubtful it's Celiac as one of the symptoms is failure to thrive. Since he was born he was always in the 90% percentile for his weight, but it's definitely something I can ask about tomorrow.

amyc
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby amyc » Thu Jul 07, 2016 1:22 pm

The D started and then you got a positive C diff test, and it all happened after two different antibiotics. Sounds like C diff.

One of our good friends' middle son has celiac and his symptoms didn't start suddenly like your son's. They can test for celiac with a blood test, but if they aren't sticking him already it wouldn't be something I would want done, but that's just my opinion. The best way to test for celiac is taking biopsies during endoscopy, but I wouldn't jump into anesthetizing a toddler.

He is on a big dose of vancomycin, and since he's on the liquid I would ask the GI if you could drop to 3 doses a day, or stay at 4 doses a day but cut the dose strength to 80 mg per dose or something. I know nothing about pediatric medicine, but that would be a question I would ask if he were mine. Vanco isn't absorbed from the gut so maybe they just use the adult dose in kids routinely, but their GI tract is smaller than ours so a smaller dose four times a day might work? Again, not medical advice, just a possible question?

jds0870
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby jds0870 » Thu Jul 07, 2016 3:31 pm

Whammy I am so sorry your sweet baby has to deal with c diff. Ugh I just wanted to say every time I was on Vanco I had multiple loose stools per day and even for more than a month after I stopped Vanco. I was testing negative while having the loose stools. Vanco is so strong I know I've read of many people having loose stools while on Vanco or after finishing Vanco. I know I'm not a child but just wanted to chime in since I had loose stools while takin Vanco and after treatment. Prayers for you and your family that this will soon be in the past.

Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:36 pm

A quick update. We met with the gastro today and he was great with our little guy. He suggested that all of the watery d might be coming from "toddlers diarrhea." We are to stop all juices and only give water and pedialyte. We should know if a few days if that is what is causing his d.

Also, he took some blood to check for celiacs and other stuff. We will also be submitting a 2nd stool sample for additional tests.

Lisa33
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Lisa33 » Fri Jul 08, 2016 1:41 pm

I hope his D stops soon. I'm glad you liked the gastro today. I will keep my fingers crossed that things improve with the diet change.

Lisa

amyc
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby amyc » Fri Jul 08, 2016 7:15 pm

So he stopped the vancomycin, or do you have to finish it?

Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Fri Jul 08, 2016 8:13 pm

amyc wrote:
> So he stopped the vancomycin, or do you have to finish it?
Since the cycle runs until september, he recommended continuing as we were and if his stools firm up over the next few days to call our ID and go over that with him.

He hasnt had any juice or formula today and has only had 1 bm, it was loose but not diarrhea. We had 1 other day like this since this ordeal started, so were not getting our hopes up yet.

Sweet
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Sweet » Sat Jul 09, 2016 2:52 pm

Sorry your child is going through this. I am on second round with tapering this time with Vanco. I do not believe it is working. I am still having issues and been on it for 15 days second time. I have another 20 or so to go yet. I went to see a new GI doctor and he said my gi now should have put me on Dificid. But if i have another positive, then I am going to that. Wishing your son the best.

Whammy
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Whammy » Mon Jul 11, 2016 7:58 am

Good Morning,

I'm going to continue to update this thread in hopes it may answer some questions any other parent may have. I know I hate it when I find a thread that is talking about a topic I am interested in and abruptly ends with no resolution.

7/11/2016 update:
Since we met with a Pediatric Gastroenterologist on Friday, our little guy has been doing much better. The PG suggested he might have something called "Toddlers Diarrhea" which is something neither my wife or myself had ever heard of. Below are the common symptoms:

"Toddler’s diarrhea is also known as chronic nonspecific diarrhea
of childhood, and it affects children from 6 months to 5 years of
age. Children with toddler’s diarrhea will have 3-10 loose stools
per day. These stools typically occur during the day when the
child is awake and sometimes immediately after eating. The stool
is frequently watery or loose and may have food particles in it
although the stools should not contain blood. The child may
have days when stools are more formed. Despite the diarrhea, the
child continues to grow and gain weight appropriately as long as
the diet contains enough calories. "
http://www.gikids.org/files/documents/d ... ddlers.pdf

These line up pretty well with the symptoms our son had/has. He has waving multiple loose stools a day, some had M but never blood. He never lost his appetite, and was never "down" or low on energy. Although he didn't gain any weight, after 6 weeks of constant D, he maintained his current weight.

The only changes we made since our meeting was to eliminate all juices and his formula (Alimentum.) We have also increases our son's fiber intake with whole grain bread/waffles etc. to try to add some substance to his stools. After meeting with the PG and reading over this literature he provided about TD, I recall listening to our sons belly rumble as he was drinking his bottle of formula. I also remember his D seeming to get worse after a bottle of sports drink (higher sugar than pedialyte.)

These changes have allowed our son to have only four bm's over the weekend. The first was still pretty loose, but better than before. His second, which came on Saturday afternoon, was 180 degrees from what it has been. It was actually a little too firm for our liking. If he would have had this BM three months ago, we would have been increasing the prune juice in his diet. Third BM was perfect size and texture, but the 4th was a beast. The texture was good, but the volume was too much for his diaper to handle. Although it was large, we are still happy with it.

Needless to say, this weekend has given us hope that w have turned a corner.

These drastic changes have us questioning if the C-Diff diagnosis was a false positive. Like some have suggested in this thread, some children under the age of two, have C-diff in their flora normally.

Either way, we are still giving him 125mg x 4 for another four or five days until we start a the taper. We will then do 125mg x 2 for seven days, 125mg x 1 for seven days, 125mg x 1 every 2nd day for 14 days, then finally 125mg every third day for 21 days. The entire cycle will end on 9/9/2016.

We will be calling the ID in a day or two, assuming his BM's stay "good" to see if he wants us to continue with the above schedule.

That's all for now

Ril
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Ril » Mon Jul 11, 2016 8:20 am

This is really interesting. Thank you for posting.
Unfortunately since your son has already had so much Vanco I assume we will never know for sure if he truly did not have a c diff infection but it certainly does seem suspect.
The most important thing is that he is getting better.

Please keep us updated and also let us know what the ID dr says as well.
Rita

Lisa33
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Re: Vanco not working - Toddler

Postby Lisa33 » Mon Jul 11, 2016 11:21 am

Thanks for the update! I'm so glad you are seeing some improvement. That's great news. It's amazing how excited we all get over semi-normal poop! :-)


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