What can the doctor do for the intestional flu?

Question

My son has had the intestional flu for two weeks. We have tried immodium, but it wears off after 24 hours. The last time he took it, it didn't even work. Over ten years ago, I had another child with the same problem. I took him to the doctor and he prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics to treat diarrhea! It did not help at all. What do other doctors do for this?

Answer 1

With the flu, most care is supportive. The biggest concern is to replenish fluid losses to prevent dehydration. I'm not sure your son's age, but he should be given pedialyte or gatorade if he is not making urine. Usually a flu will not last much longer than 2 weeks, so I would be concerned if he continued to have symptoms. Most causes are viral, so antibiotics are ineffective unless there was a verified bacerial cause. He should be taken in for a further work up if he's not getting better or if you are not able to replace fluid losses at home.

Answer 2

Diarrhea can have any number of causes, therefore varying means of addressing the problem.

Food Poisoning or botulism -- an organism
Guiardia - contaminated water, takes 6 mo.or so to treat
C-Dif - a serious intestinal infection treated with antibiotics
Common intestinal / stomach viruses -- usually wait it out
Excessive fruit intake - stop fruit intake
Allergic responce to milk products - eleminate all milk sources

Certainly there are other causes, but these could each be serious, and would be treated differently. Get your son to the Dr. or ER. After 2 weeks he may be seriously dehydrated. (Some people are after only a day or two of diarrhea)

Answer 3

If he just has diarrheal symptoms than a prescription strength anti diarreal. If he has vomiting than a rectal suppository to make him stop throwing up and lower his fever if he has one. However sometimes an antibiotic is given because there may be bacteria. In order to know that they would need a stool sample.