Toddler Sick Toddler

I have done this in the past and it has worked for both of my daughters 2 and 4. I have made some chicken noodle soup and made them drink small amounts of the broth and given them one cracker. I did this at lunch time and at dinner. For breakfast, I gave them fresh juice from and orange and cracker. Not much juice from the orange. Then I let them sleep. It seemed to help them. Something about the broth helped my 2 girls.

the key is small, small doses of liquid. Try watered down Gateraid or chicken broth. Do NOT overfeed! If the tummy swells at all, take her to the ER and demand she be hydrated nd remove her from anything oral. Don't let them give you the "does she have tears" gig. They sent us home the first time i took my son to the ER and we ended up going to a different hospital and they admitted him for 3 days b/c he had developed gesteroenteritis (sp?).

i hope she gets well soon....
liz

Every time my son gets a virus he gets an ear infection as well, so I take my son to the doc. If she has congestion and has had a problem with ear infections as well, I would take her in. Also my doc says the BRAT diet is good when they are throwing up and have diarria. B-bananas R-rice A-apples T-toast
Good Luck

H R.,

No need to alarm you, BUT babies and kids can get dehydrated very quickly. It sounds like she has a stomach bug of some kind. Is she having any wet or BM diapers? This is a big concern as well.

Not being able to keep ANYTHING liquid or food down, is not good. Getting her to keep anything down would be good, pedialyte (my kid hated it), popsicles (pedialyte has them), etc.

I would give it 12 to 24 (from the onset of vomiting) hours and then call your Doctor. Adults can become dehydrated and get ill, so with kids it is even more so. Don't mess around with it.

Is she running any temp? Is she being lethargic? I would put in a call to at least speak with your Pediatrician's nurse and at least let them know what is going on. It may just be a 24 hour thing or the stomach virus that is going around.

Good Luck!

G. B.

Been there too! Same advice as everyone else but to limit the amount my son drank at a time I got out one of his medicine syringes and gave him 2 tsp of liquid every 5-10 minutes as he kept it down. My MD's nurse said after 2 hours of that he was ok to drink as he wanted. However, ever time he threw up, we went right back to that routine. It was HORRIBLE! At one point he was BEGGING me for more to drink but it kept coming right back out. Now if this is the same virus that everyone has had, the next step is the shooting diarrhea! That was FUN! Again, lots of liquid and once the vomitting stops, BLAND food, as much as she will take. One different advice I was given was to add the DanActive yogurt 1x a day, no other dairy! Good Luck!

If you feel comfortable letting her suck on ice chips that might help but my doctor always says to wait 30 mins after vomiting before giving anything to give the stomach time to calm down. Your doctor will just tell you to watch for signs of dehydration - but as long as she cries tears and still pp's then you are fine. You could try popsicles.

Good luck - I hate this more than anything. Hope the rest of you are spared from getting it.

T.

My daughter, 13-months, has had this stomach bug twice this winter. We've taken her to the doctor, but there's little they can do. I would say she'll probably run a low-grade fever - with mine it took about half a day to kick-in. They told me to keep her hydrated, which it sounds like you are doing -- water, pedialyte and to gradually add back in other things like crackers and yogurt once she started feeling better...and of course if there is fever to treat it. My little one typically acted like she felt ok, but seemed to want to be held more than normal. I would just call your doctor, maybe leave a message for the nurse and see what she says. It seems this "bug" is just making the rounds. Good luck and I hope she feels better soon! One more thing -- I second what Glenda said, our doctor also said about a teaspoon of pedialyte every 15 minutes, he advised giving it in a syringe which we did.

Try the Unflavored Pedialyte, my son really liked it, and it stayed down alot better than water. I wouldn't wait if she doesn't hold anything down because they get dehydrated fast, but if you can keep the Pedialyte down, then you should be okay. We got the same bug about 2 wks ago and it was about 4 days until he was able to go back to milk. I also gave him oysters crackers. Give her the "BRAT" diet. Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.

R., I bet you will get a lot of feedback on this since this virus is really going around right now. I have twins that are about to be 21 months this week and one of them had it just a few weeks ago. My husband took him to the dr. and she said there wasn't really anything medicinal we could do about it, just a teaspoon of pedialite every 15 minutes until he could hold down more. She also said once the vomiting passed, he would most likely have diarhea and sure enough, he did for about 2 days. My little guy had more 7Up than pedialite (he just wouldn't drink it) and she told us that was ok, as long as he would take some liquid to keep from being dehydrated. Just try to be patient for the next day or so and I'm sure you will see it lighten up.

Hi R.,

We do a lot of popsicles during sick times because it allows her to get a little fluid in her slowly. Just the little mini popsicles or freezing pedialyte. I would call my doctor just so they would have record of it and they might have some advice on something else you could do.

Best of luck!
A.
www.free2Bmom.com

R.,

My daughter is also 20 months and I am going through this same thing. She still has the diarrhea. She started throwing up on Friday and I called the dr on Saturday. The dr just told me to give her pedialyte and popsicles and try keep her as hydrated as possible. She had stopped throwing up on Saturday, but continued to have the diarrhea. The nurse told me that the diarrhea can last 7-10 days. During this whole thing, she never had a fever either and was still playing (fighting) with her brother. Hope that helps. I hope your daughter feels better soon.

I would take her to your doctor. My son got dehydrated in the matter of 4 hours. It was scary and we ended up in the hospital for 3 days. If she is not keeping anything down, then you should at least let the doctor look at her to see if she is beginning to get dehydrated.
Good luck, hope she feels better soon!

Weigh it out. It's probably already passed by now, but I thought I'd still reply. My son did this exact same thing about a month ago. I just replied to another mom about this too. My son wanted lots and lots of water and wouldn't take any pedialyte or anything other than water. I went ahead and let him because it's the only thing that would make him feel better. Of course, it came right up and he just drank more. He would sleep for a little bit after downing some water, and he would wake up to vomit and then drink more. It's easy to say that they should drink small amounts of liquids to help keep up electrolytes, but you can't say that to a 14 or 20 month old baby. Whatever seems to soothe her is what you should do. Give her lots and lots of love and hugs and kisses.

Looks like you have gotten a lot of responses and i would agree with the group ... lack of ear infection ... run with pedealyte, and brat diet ... give the pedi a call so they can confirm with you that's the right thing and note it in her file (at least that's what mine does) and if things dont seem to get better in a few days take her in.

Just keep her hydrated and wait it out. You will want to call your doc though to know what the signs of dehydration are. Really, really push fluids. If she throws up, wait 10 minutes and give her no more than a couple ounces of something to drink (clear liquid like pedialyte or gatorade -- water is ok, but the other things have electrolytes in it). If she keeps that down for 10 minutes, you can give her more, and so on.
As far as food, it's less important than liquid, but the "BRAT" diet would be your next step once she can hold down clear liquids - bananas, rice, applesauce, toast.

Our son got REALLY dehydrated from the rotavirus last year because he picked it up just as he was getting over another virus. Poor kid didn't have a chance, so we ended up in the hospital for IV fluids.

R.,
I am a Pedi RN, most of the moms I spoke w/ last night have the same thing.

Sips of water or gatorade are great, even if it only stays down for a short period of time. Popsicles are another great way to do liquids. The heavy syrup from fruit cocktail given on a spoon or in a medicine syringe can be calming to little tummies. NO DAIRY!
Once she is tolerating clear liquids for at least 4 hours you can move up to Jello, soup, crackers (grahm, saltine...) applesauce, bananas, toast, bagel. NO DAIRY!
Finally you move her back to her regular diet. IF she develops diarrhea you keep her at the very bland level. NO DAIRY!
Signs to watch for- vomiting that lasts longer than 36 hours, temp >102, no urine in 12 hours, dry mouth.
A recipe I use a lot is making jello but instead of the cold water I put in 1 cup of gatorade.
Pedialyte is fine but most kids hate it.
With a stomach virus you don't want to stop the vomiting, you want this to work its way out of their system.
Feel free to e-mail me w/ any questions!

D.
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