First stomach bug, what can DD eat?

[sarahsthreads]

DD is 3.5, and for the first time in her life threw up early this morning. (I have no idea how we managed that, especially since it seems like every week at least one of her school friends or playgroup friends has a tummy bug.) A couple of hours later she started begging for breakfast, so I gave her a slice of plain toast, which she did eat about a quarter of. So far so good, but it's only been about half an hour.

Assuming she keeps that down for a while and is hungry again in a bit, what are the current recommendations about what to feed kids after they get sick? I just remember my mom giving me flat gingerale and saltines, but I must have been closer to school-age for me to remember it!

Also...any tips on how to minimize mess if she gets sick again? She's currently cuddling with an old bath towel while watching Sesame Street, but I have no idea how to "teach" her to try to make it to the bathroom - is that even something that they can do at this age? And let me just say, that being pregnant I'm really glad DH was around to clean up the initial mess while I cleaned DD up and got her calmed down!

Sarah

[kedss]

When DS has a stomach bug, we put a plastic trash can by his bed, its one we use only for that purpose.

We also keep powerade on hand, and when we think he's feeling better, let him have sips of that then move to saltines if he keeps the powerade down.

Mostly we try to keep him hydrated, if we can-

hope she feels better soon!

[JTsMom]

Sorry about your daughter- hope she's feeling better soon. Vomitting is one of those things that different people handle differently. My mom swears by the "give them nothing, then start with a few sips of water, then a little more, then a cracker" method of eating very little, and seeing what they can keep down. Some say let them eat what they want within reason- it's not going to matter, and they'd rather puke something up than dry heave.

When DS has been sick, I'm kind of somewhere in the middle. I try to stick with mild things, somewhat slowly, but he is adamant about drinking a lot of water, and if he wants food, it's pretty hard to say no b/c he is really insistent about it, so I kind of go with it, unless the pukiness is really severe or something. You know how when you're sick, if something sounds good, you can usually handle it? I figure maybe that's the case with him too. The only thing I try to steer him away from is dairy. Once I let him have yogurt after he'd been puke free for about 12 hours- BIG mistake.

I found this really helpful:
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T083300.asp

Good luck!


Oh, and on the where to actually puke issue- we get a big bowl. Just be prepared to do a lot of laundry/bathing, and try to protect your furniture with towls/blankets.

[bubbaray]

We've had quite a few episodes of vomitting with DD#1 through the years. We've had success with the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast), though many say its not necessary. We find with DD#1 that if we skip dairy for a couple of days, it seems to help. We use pedialyte (5ml/15 min), then move on to Gatorade once she's keeping the pedialyte down (she d/n like the taste of pedialyte, so its hard to get her to keep taking it).

We let her keep a large, stainless steel bowl beside her, but encourage her to throw up in the toilet. When she was really little, we let her puke in the tub.

[sarahsthreads]

Thanks, everyone. So far DD has eaten toast, applesauce, a graham cracker and some water, with no issues. And she's requested (and been denied) yogurt, milk and strawberries. (The tantrums she threw over that...apparently I'm starving my child!) I think we'll avoid dairy and berries for the next day or two if we can - I'm actually wondering if it was the blueberries she ate yesterday at breakfast that were the culprit. I ate them too, but proportionally she ate a lot more than I did, and (sorry if TMI) that was a lot of what came back up. That plus no fever and only getting sick once makes me think it's something she ate rather than a virus.

Now I just have to figure out what bland-ish foods she'll be willing to eat for lunch. Somehow I think it's a bit too soon for her beloved PB&J sandwich...

Sarah