Diarrhea: what foods help?

I never thought that poop could explode out of a diaper and arrive as far up a baby's back as the shoulder blades. Wow! What a rough week! Talk about a bad spell of diarrhea and diaper rash. Here's what I've learned from this experience.

Day 4, I try specific foods:
On day 4, I realized that the diarrhea was not going away by itself, so I had to do something. I changed Mikey's diet to foods that I read help relieve diarrhea (he has no other symptoms). His poops solidified after 24 hours, but he was still pooping four or five times a day. He normally poops once. Here is a list of foods recommended by The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods:

• herbal teas
• vegetable broth
• fruit juices
• electrolyte replacement drinks
• equal parts of sauerkraut and tomato juice
• pears
• apples
• grapefruit
• carrots
• potatoes
• beets
• blueberries
• carob
• mango

My pediatrician recommended the BRAT diet:

• bananas
• rice
• applesauce
• toast

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that most children with mild diarrhea can continue to eat a normal diet. Given all this information, I am keeping to his normal diet while emphasizing these specific foods.

A 48 hours glimpse of Mikey's diarrhea diet:

Breakfast: pear juice (juiced at home), potatoes and eggs
Lunch: blueberries, yogurt
Snack: smoothie (milk, bananas, carob).
Dinner: rice cooked in chicken broth

Breakfast: I made him cream of wheat but he wouldn't eat it because it was too hot (even when it was cold!). So, he ate a slice of bread with almond butter.
Lunch: raisins, pasta with olive oil
Snack: smoothie (blueberries, rice milk, kefir, carob)
Dinner: apple juice (juiced at home), potato and onion soup over rice

Day 7, I try probiotics:
Hmmm. Diarrhea is persisting. There's no other sign of a cold. The advice nurse says it's a bug that we just need to wait out. In the back of my mind, I believe that the reason for his diarrhea is the antibiotics that he finished two weeks ago. The antibiotics cleared his cough and I am grateful, but it is no secret that they also wipe out the good bugs that help with digestion. I called my doctor to see what he thought about probiotics. He had the nurse call me to say that there is no proof that they work. I decided to bite the bullet and sprinkle a little probiotic powder into his smoothie. Now this might be coincidental, but his diarrhea cleared the next day.

Diaper Rash Remedy
Through all this I learned that sometimes common sense is the best solution to diaper rash. The last time I went to see Mikey's pediatrician for a diaper rash, he wrote a prescription for a $50 diaper rash cream and gave us a sample of a $250 diaper rash cream (both not covered by insurance). Our former, adored nanny recommend that we wash his butt with a little soap and water after each dirty diaper. She told us that her son's pediatrician recommend this for his diaper rashes. Racing for the kitchen sink with a squirmy 18 month old is not ideal, but the diaper rash was gone even when the diarrhea persisted.