NEED HELP QUICK!... Very Sick 8 Month Old....

I had to do this once and this is the advice my ped. office gave. Put on a (disposable) diaper on outside in -so it does not absorb any runny poop. After the one diaper is place, put on another diaper the correct way OVER it so there is no leaks. It worked for me - good luck!

I had to do this with mine and we just took it out of diaper. Can't imagine any other way. Good Luck!

Good morning,
I recently had to take stool samples from my daughter because of the same problem. My daughter had C-disk (bacterial infection), I forgot the spelling of the whole name.
The doctor said it was ok if she went in the diaper and then collect immediately. But if your lab is saying not to, I would try putting on a pair of training pants, the plastic ones. Hope that helps.

Good Luck
T.

Hi T.,
In case you haven't gotten a solution to your dilemna, I thought I'd send you the best advice I can come up with. I work in a hospital microbiology lab and have two children (teens). Whatever is causing your baby's diarrhea will not be naturally occurring in the diaper, so I would go ahead and collect the sample directly out of the diaper. Hopefully the office or lab provided you with a container for the sample. Do your best to scrape up as much not directly touching the diaper, if it isn't all absorded. Sending the whole diaper has been done before, but you are making the tech's job much easier by doing the best you can in your situation. I would make sure the doctor is looking to rule out rotavirus, a major cause of diarhea in very young children. For a stool culture and rotavirus detection, only a very small amount of stool (the size of a pea) is needed. If intestinal parasites are a concern a larger amount would be needed, but rotavirus is a bigger concern this time of year.
Hopefully you have already resolved your problem but if not I hope I was able to help. You and your husband have been thru so much; I admireyou both for your wonderful attitude!

All the best,
C. M

We needed to get one from my 18 month old, and they said it was fine if it touched the diaper... so make sure they don't want it to touch. If it really can't touch, you could try this. I know when a kid is really backed up and you have to help them go, they will have you place a small lubed stick/dowel (the size of a Q-tip, or just use a Q-tip) just gently into the rectum maybe about 1/2 inch at the most. This will instantly make them go. I had to do this 3-4 times for my daughter when she was that age, and it worked every time. I would only imagine it would work in this situation too since it just triggers the muscles down there. You may want someone there to help, since it's not the easiest to prod then collect, but it can be done. And make sure to wear gloves! Good luck with the littl guy.

T.,
This is what we do in the hospital. Now the bags we use are pre-taped but, you can make shift this with no problems. Get some paper tape so it won't irritate his skin and a baggie. Tape the baggie to his bum, careful to seal it well so no urine gets in it and once he poops you will have your sample in the bag. Hope that helps.

K.

We had to do this on my 4 1/2 month old. We fed her on piece of plastic drop cloth on the floor as she usually goes soon after she eats. We would hold a cup over her pee pee to catch the pee as we didn't want it to contaminate the stool. As soon as she went poo, we'd move her to another little square, just in case she wanted to go any more. This would ensure our first sample was good, and also so she wouldn't be run back on to her. Her's were pretty running and small, so we wanted to collect as much as we could. We'd then collect it with a plastic spoon & put it into the container we had to fill. it works much better with two people as one can hold the bottle and one the cup in case she peed and then once she went poo, one could work with her and the other collecting the poo. Good luck! we had to do this for two days. We tried the plastic wrap in the diaper and also a bag taped to her but they didn't work. Also, a drop cloth works better to lay them on than plastic wrap as the plastic wrap stick to them and the drop cloth doesn't stick to her.

Hi T.,
I'm a nurse and we always take our baby stool samples out of the diaper. You don't need to worry about contaminating it. Hope he feels better soon!!

Hopefully this is not too late. I can think of two things to suggest: 1) Use latex gloves when touching the diaper? or 2) put some type of plastic (saran wrap, shower cap, etc) inside the diaper to catch the sample)--I've heard of them doing this to catch urine samples for infant boys). Or perhaps just dipping the collection container in the diaper once opened without touching the diaper itself? Not sure of the specifics they're worried about in terms of contamination, but hope this helps....

Good luck,
J.

the only time we ever had to do that we just brought in a dirty diaper. I can't imagine how you'd do it otherwise. Good luck. Check with the lab again or your doctor.

Hi T.. There's nothing gross about motherhood or children's healthissues. I would suggest that you place a pair of plastic pants on your little one just long enough to catch a clean sample with an empty open ended syringe. Then you can remove it and have what you need. If you wouldn't like to do that, you can place a cloth diaper on their bottom with the plastic pants, and as soon as you hear it coming down still catch it with a syringe, since it's so runny. It can work. God bless. A.

Hi T.,
My only idea is to strip him down leaving only his shirt and put him in his crib. I'd do it after he eats because then he's more likely to go. You can put a plastic trash bag under his sheet if you don't have a waterproof mattress pad. Give him some toys and let him relax. If you can't "catch" it coming out, then you can scratch a sample from the top. Hope this helps, I know it's not easy. Good luck!

Hi T.,

The lab only needs a small smear to test. There may be enough left on his bottom when he "goes" so you can wipe what has not yet touched the diaper. Or you can "scoop" some off the top. I'm not really sure how a clean diaper can contaminate what the lab is doing....

Also if you see him going, put him in the tub,take his diaper off and try to get some.

If you are still having trouble I would say, call the pharmacist and see if they have a small syringe you can use to get some out...if you can stick a rectal thermometer up there, a very small syringe should do fine. Once again, the lab only needs a small smear to test.

If it's not a parasite or something foreign causing this, please let me know when you get the results. I had issues like this as a child and I can help steer you into handling this correctly the first time...

Regards,

M.

Try this ....

Can you grab yourself some gloves that you'd use over your hands to color your hair, or just some latex gloves that they sell at the drug store. Try to scoop up some of the stool into a medicine bottle with a child-proof cap. Of course, your hands are covered, so you are protected from whatever bug your little boy has.

That seems like it'd work, right?

Good luck,

E.

Would plastic wrap contaminate the sample? Could you line his diaper with plastic wrap, then scoop it into the jar, or whatever they need? It sounds messy, but it might work...? Hope he's feeling better soon! Good luck!

My 3 year old had to have a stool sample done when she had a bacterial infection a few months back. The infection was giving her bloody stool which was very loose and also full of mucus. With the diarrhea she was having a lot of accidents so we had a pull up on her, they said to feed her a bit of food, and leave the pull up on, and wait. They gave me a sterile cup for the sample, and a stick that looked like a Lg tongue depresser and some gloves. They told me to remove the diaper with gloves on (asap after she had the BM) then scrape or scoop the stool into the cup. They didn't need to much and we had the sample by the end of the night! (It was something called shigella). Anyway, hope this helps!