Our first stomach bug...advice?

[buddyleebaby]

At 21.5 months old, dd1 has her first stomach bug. : (

She has only a low grade fever but is vomiting everything she eats/drinks, even breastmilk. She is acting fine...playing, dancing, running...then she'll pause, vomit, say "oh no! Gross..." and continue playing.

She wants to eat...should I try to feed her even though she's not able to keep it down?

Any advice on how to manage would be appreciated. New territory for us.

TIA!

[SnuggleBuggles]

I read in the past year that if they want to eat that you should let them eat what they want. Basically that the BRAT diet doesn't need to be followed unless those are foods your dc wants anyway.

Barring anything too messy (like red pasta sauce that could stain) or something that can sting on the way up (OJ...) I would probably let her eat. She will self regulate, I bet.

Be sure and get some Pedialyte in her.

The 1st (and only) time ds had a stomach bug it started in the middle of the day and I had no sick kid staples around or Pedialyte. I am fully stocked now.

I hope she feels better soon! And that you don't catch it!


Beth

[megs4413]

no do not try to feed her while she is vomiting. you can start by offering pedialyte 1tsp at a time if it's been at least a half hour since she's vomited. continue to offer small amounts of pedialyte if she is able to hold it down, but if she vomits, wait again. i think dr. sears has a good guide on this...if i can find it i will link it here for you.

you're a lucky duck to have made it this far without a tummy bug!

practical advice:
-towels everywhere--keep em handy and lay her on top of them in her bed so you don't have to change sheets each time

-unflavored pedialyte is less gross to clean up

-throw things in the wash right away...just excuse yourself for wasting the water and energy on less than full loads....it gets grosser and grosser the longer it sits there.

[mudder17]

Kaya had it at about that age and besides the vomiting, she wanted to sleep more. Initially, I only let her nurse, even though I knew it was being vomitted right back up. But eventually, it stayed down. At that point, she started asking for more food, so she ended up with crackers (unsalted saltines), TJ cat cookies, and low sodium goldfish. She ended up snacking on that and BM for about 36 hours and then felt much better after that. I let her do the BM to help her keep hydrated since she was throwing up both BM and water at the time. She eventually stopped vomiting on her own (lasted less than 12 hours, fortunately) and subsisted on BM and crackers.

If she wants to eat, I would offer her some simple foods like plain crackers and see how she handles it.

I hope she feels better soon!

Eileen

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[kristenk]

I agree with Megs' advice. I would make an exception for breastmilk, though. If she wants to nurse, go for it. She'll absorb some nutrients before she throws up again. I would definitely wait on other food, though.

DD had a horrible stomach bug last fall and she started out feeling fine and fairly high energy at the beginning, but she just kept vomiting and, eventually, she got way run down.

If she wants food other than nursing, start with clear liquids, if possible, then progress to rice/crackers/etc. At least, that's what we did and it worked okay. I wish she had still been nursing when DD got that tummy bug; I think it would have helped.

[noahsmommy]

I just have to say, she sounds soooo adorable! My DH just got his second stomach bug today and he's a miserable little 2.5 year old. The good news is that your DD sounds like she still happily active, and not miserable! This is what we found works for us: Light foods first...saltines, toast, applesauce, bananas, jello, steamed rice (BRAT). Stay away from dairy, even BM (since she's throwing it up), soymilk, OJ. Just stick with water, light colored juices, even pedialyte, clear broths. Then if that stays down, you move to BM, soy, light protein, boiled pastas. Stay away from dairy, veggies, and citrus till your positive that the bug is gone.

Important thing is to keep her hydrated. My DH got dehydrated, and it's been a hard day trying to get him to drink.

Ann

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[JTsMom]

Sometimes I think our kids were seperated at birth- we always seem to go through the same things at about the same time.

We just did the first stomach bug thing over the weekend. It wasn't fun, but we survived. Definitely check out askdrsears.com That method worked well for us. Basically, it's what Megs said. Jason was able to keep breastmilk down, but nothing else. It lasted basically 2 days- lots of sleeping.

Feel better!

[Lovingliv]

good advice so far.....i would continue nursing!

hope abigail is better soon!!!! nak

[shilo]

heh, well we just spent most of this week in your boat with our first real stomach flu too. here's what my pedi recommended to us, YMMV:

"fluids are your priority. since he's otherwise healthy, he has the fat stores to see him thru a few days of fewer absorbed calories." so if you have to make a choice (ie. you find yourself thinking 'well, she's kept down the BM/pedialyte/water for 30min, maybe we should try some solids?") it's ok to pass on the solids and prioritize on keeping the fluids down.

he recommended trying 1oz. at a time, if he keeps that down >10min, he can have another 1oz., lather, rinse, repeat. give 20 or 30min for the tummy to settle after vomiting before offering again (other than rinsing out the mouth if she'll tolerate that w/o puking). he said "if it's meal time, or he's saying he's hungry and he hasn't vomited in the last 30-60min, you can give him anything he's willing to eat - let him graze/self regulate at this point. no need to follow BRAT, all those things are fine if that's what he wants to eat, but no reason to limit to that."

i've now tried every available flavor of pedialyte, liquilytes and the generic brand, as well as 6 flavors of gatorade as a last resort - he'd have nothing to do with any of them (we don't do juice, so maybe that explains it?) so we did wind up just offering water in small/frequent amounts - pedi said that was fine as long as he was getting a little salt and sugar from solids, but to let him know if the only thing he was keeping down was the water. if we gave water to him ad lib, he'd guzzle it and then it would all come back up sometime shortly later. he also asked me to keep tabs on diaper counts to make sure he was peeing still.

in our experience, sam was having a really hard time with dairy (even tho he wanted it), so i did have to start limiting that - we've weaned, so he did ok with small amt. of cows milk or hard cheese as he started to recover, but not so good with yogurt (one of his favorite foods), ice cream (daddy brought him a milkshake - how cute - until he puked it up all over mommy :P). he was unusually interested in and kept down eggs - i think maybe b/c they are so easily digestible and pretty mild? and they gave him a decent source of protein when he wasn't keeping anything else down, so might be worth a try?

anyway, hope that helps. the ultimate crib sheet things were lifesavers this week, altho starting laundry at 3am so you'd have a spare clean before the next round bites :). hope your DD's better soon!

lori
Sam 5/19/05 How lucky I am that you chose me.

[chlobo]

Defilnitely keep offering the breastmilk. One other thing you might want to start now so you have it for later is good chicken stock. You take a brunch of chicken bones, either a whole chicken or bones you have picked of the meat, put in a bunch of veggies and garlic. Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Simmer for 12 hours or longer. The vinegar helps draw out minerals.

When you think its ready, run it through a strainer & just put in a cup and give it to her. My DD will actually just drink it straight, not as a "soup" or anything. Its very nutritious & also has a good mix of electrolytes.

[buddyleebaby]

Thanks all for the advice, and hugs Lori and Lori for just having gone through this!
We're doing pretty well (knock on wood). I have continued nursing her- she has been quite insistent on it. She hasn't brought anything up since 1am and has nursed twice since. So that's good, I think. She is still in high spirits and playing so I am going to hold off on solids for the morning at least.
We'll just take it one day at a time.
Carren, I was planning in making chicken stock but didn't know about the ACV- thanks for the tip!

[o_mom]

The standard advice is only clear liquids one ounce at a time until they stop vomiting, as PPs have said.

<<<WARNING TMI COMING AHEAD>>>

Now, having had vomiting type stomach bugs many times in my life (I tend to vomit easily), I will say that taking that advice as a patient sucks. I have never seen any research that backs this up and it really seems to be something is just there to keep the mess down and make parents feel like they are doing something. Kind of like the BRAT diet has been shown to have no effect at all on diarrhea, but you feel better about giving it.

I personally find that vomiting after only a small amount of liquids is painful and basically ends in dry heaves. OTOH, crackers and toast with the water/sprite/gatorade comes up much easier. It doesn't seem to make the vomiting stop any sooner to not eat or drink - it just has to run it's course.

I tend to let them snack on saltines or dry toastif they ask to eat and give them water or pedialyte in a sippy with ice (the ice helps them to drink slow, which I do think helps a little) or offer to nurse. We keep away from anything that might be staining or not so nice coming up, but I don't like to keep them from eating if they are hungry. Sweet liquids can calm the stomach a little, but if the virus is still going it will come back up regardless.

[ctmom]

Alicia,
If you have any in the house, or are going shopping, try putting some fresh grated ginger in the chicken stock. It helps calm the stomach. My local chinese restaurant actually makes a delicious stock, that has ginger in it, which I buy by the quart and freeze so we always have some on hand.

Hope she feels better soon,

Mary
dd#1 2/01
dd#2 12/03