My son (age 13) came home from a short camping/hiking/climbing trip of three days on Saturday. They were gone Thursday-Saturday. They took drinking water, but swam in a local creek/river?. He told me he swallowed some water while swimming. Not a lot, but a good mouthful. Today he is VERY bloated and has started having very greasy, floating, foul smelling diarrhea. He says he doesn't feel too bad, just crampy and not hungry. I immediately thought giardia, but all the info I have found says that it is too soon for that. Anyone had it before and how soon after exposure did it show up? Edited to add: I will definitely take him in to the doctor if he still has this going on in a couple of days. Not looking for medical advice, just curious.
Oh my, I have no experience with it. Poor baby, though! Not a fun souvenier from what sounds like a great camping trip.
I've had it, twice. First time I didn't know what it was and lost 6 kilos, 10% of my weight in a week. Second time I knew what it was straight away and it wasn't such a trouble. Black, foamy, stinky poop is a good indicator. Cramps, not hungry sound right too. Check out Cryptosporidium as well - another fecal-oral monster. Whatever you suspect, get him on buckets of fluids and electrolytes and a trip to the Doc. eta : Sorry, missed the bit about how long it takes to present symptoms. I don't know because I don't know when I got infected. That's part of the problem with these little devils, you can get them from anywhere where someone has not been too clean in the butt dept.
He might have eaten like a teenaged boy. Pringles, hamburgers, icecream & Doritos all make me sick like that. If he was my kiddo, I'd feed him Pepto Bismo, a couple cups of yogurt and some oatmeal...
We have had an outbreak of e-coli here in Maine. Many of the lakes have been closed. No swimming. The beaches are shut down. I guess the influx of tourists combined with hot weather and little rain has made it bloom. Could your son have e-coli? Just a thought.... Hope he feels better soon!
