Fourth tummy bug this year .... what am I doing wrong?

[ghosty]

DD seems to get a lot of tummy bugs. She had a really nasty bug in January that laid her low for 2 weeks and was nearly admitted to hospital due to dehydration. It took her 4 weeks to start eating normally again.
About 6 weeks ago she had about 4 days of vomiting and diarrhoea but I didn't take her to the doctor as she was well within herself.
2 weeks ago she had a 24 hour bug.
All last week she was clingy and miserable and on friday she started with diarrhoea, Saturday was vomiting for Britain, was very listless and miserable and couldn't keep anything down ... we took her to the doctor in the afternoon who said she was very dehydrated ... she sent us home with some PlasmaLyte (rehydration fluid) which she just kept chucking up. We had to go back in 4 hours and then they sent us to hospital. She was in overnight with a gastric-nasal tube to rehydrate her ... pretty traumatic for her.
We came home this morning with instructions to make sure that more went 'in' than came 'out' (to offer water, milk and bland snacks all day) but her diarrhoea just keeps on coming ...

Why does she get these bugs? We have a clean house ... the rest of us never get anything ....
I feel I am doing something wrong here ...

She is a very healthy baby the rest of the time, no colds or ear infections (which was DS' favourite thing as a baby) ... I dread to think what she would be like if she wasn't healthy and chubby otherwise.

Poor thing is all pale and pasty and washed out looking ...

What am I doing wrong????

[bobbybob]

You are doing nothing wrong - tummy bugs are just her thing.

Time for new dummies?

I would suggest some Reuteri probiotic powder from the healthfood shop (must be in fridge or don't buy). It's been brilliant when ds has had gastro bugs.

[ghosty]

Thanks bobbybob ...
New dummies ... all sterilised and in use today ...
Funnily enough probiotics are on the top of my shopping list for tomorrow ... thanks for the recommendation for that brand, will look for them first thing!

[ghosty]

Thought I might bump this ... need some more reassurance ...

[Heathcliffscathy]

ghosty, ds caught a tummy bug twice in the space of about a month and i was paranoid that it was down to hygeine etc on my part...transpires that it was going round the playgroup that i take him to, and that there were hygeine issues there which they have since resolved...do you take your dd to anything like this?

it's so easy to blame ourselves...but it probalby has nothing to do with anything you are or arent' doing....

[bobbybob]

Brand is Nature's way or something - yellow top. There is a normal children's powder - but you want the Reuteri, which can be harder to get.

Give the recommended dose for a couple of days and work up to a larger dose. The dose on the packet assumes there is a normal level of gut bacteria - which is not the case here.

I also have some amazing tablets derived from a scandanavian woman who was resistant to every tummy bug going. I got them from my paed. but he does mail order if this continues you might want to look at these.

[Bozza]

ghosty - has she been exposed to a new environment such as a mums and toddlers group or something? We ended up in A&E with DS the first week he started nursery. And DD had about 5 bugs in a row between October and January which were obviously down to starting nursery in October (none before and none since). Because I'd BTDT with DS, I was a bit less stressed with DD.

[mummylonglegs]

ghosty, out of curiosity, how old is she? Has she always been susceptible to bugs, stomach or otherwise? I'm just wondering if you can boost her immune system in a particular way, say through homeopathy?

[ghosty]

Got the reuteri probiotics today bobbybob ... they were in the fridge but they didn't have the powder, just the capsules so I got them and broke the capsule to put the powder in DD's drink. Thanks for recommending them. The bloke in the shop said he could order me the powder but it would take a week and cost $50 ... is it normally that expensive? The capsules were $21.25 ...
Bozza, we have recently joined a playgroup ... joined in January and she has had every bug going since then so you could be right. DS also started school so he may be bringing 'unknown' bugs home too ....
I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the playgroup actually as I question their hygeine policy ... there was a tot there last week with a nose from hell (rivers of green goo) playing with everything and no one wiping her nose for the whole 2 hrs. At the end all the toys just go back into the cupboard ... eeeeeewwwwwww! I am not precious about my DD getting stuff from other kids but it does annoy me when a child is at something like that and they are clearly unwell with some kind of infection.

[ghosty]

mummylonglegs ... she is 15 months old and was never ill (apart from one bug as a two month old) until 12 months.
Very rarely gets colds, it seems that if there is a cold going around she gets it in her tummy ...
She is very big and healthy and I am just grateful that she is as healthy as she is (when she isn't chundering ) ... she takes an excellent children's vitamin which the doctor said was a good thing as she was coping with this bug better than most babies would do ....

[handlemecarefully]

Absolutely nothing. My ds has had at least 4 or 5 tummy bugs between November 2004 and April 2005. His dd was just the same until she got a bit older.

[handlemecarefully]

In answer to the subsequent query about boosting the immune system - what she is going through right now is doing just that.

Dd used to get tummy bugs all the time - but now when she is exposed to them at Day Nursery she rarely gets them, or if she does - very mildly.