Vomitting and diarrhoea and breastfeeding?

[choceyes]

My DD is 14 months and vomitting for the past 2 days on and off and today she had loose poo today. She keeps bringing up undigested food. She had some vomitting on Saturday and was fine on Sun so took her to nursery. Nursery said she was fine all day and ate very well. But last night she vomitted again and all the food she had eaten all day came out and all night she was feeding from me and then throwing up. Her nappy was only a little bit wet and normally is would be very full.

DH is taking her to the docs this morning, but wanted to know in terms of BF, in my experience they say just to give water till they are not throwing up anymore and then give diluted milk (that's what they said with DS who was on bottles of cows milk at the time).

But it's OK to keep breastfeeding her right? ANd no food for now or just bland food?

Thanks!

[Pancakeflipper]

I would breast feed, just don't you consume too much dairy for a few days until she's feeling better.

[bangcrash]

They should say bm is the food of choice, easy to digest, probiotic, full of ingredients that help her immune system, gut and bowel and limit the inflammatory response etc

Much better than water.

[Animol]

Hope she feels better soon - we only had this once when DS4 got really quite poorly he was throwing up so much , even breast milk which had never happened to any of the others.
If your DD has had 14 months of bf that'S fantastic and a day or two without won't hurt her but you may want to express or it might hurt you if you get engorged. DD getting dehydrated is what you want to avoid though and that probably means just giving her water - what works for us is to set a timer for 5 mins and give a teaspoonful every 5 mins. It's surprising how much can go down like that and it's better than drinking a beakerful and then sicking it back up. If she's not been sick for about an hour of that then increase to 2 teaspoonfuls and then after another hour maybe dry toast or similar and slowly increase amounts and of course reintroduce breast milk when you feel she can cope.
With DS4 the doc said when babies get dehydrated it does something to the blood which makes them nauseous so it's a vicious circle that you've got to break.
sorry this is so long hope it helps - just remembered that I think i read somewhere that you don't have to do the bland food thing you can give them what they want but I've got it so ingrained in me from my own childhood that I always do it: toast, toast with thin smear of butter, toast with butter and marmite...........

[Animol]

x post with bang crash: yes you're right bm is food of choice......but...... if she's throwing it up she's not getting the benefit so I'd get lay off the bm for a feed or two - get her back on track with water and go back to bm when she's ready

[choceyes]

thanks.

DH just rang me saying the doctor said to just give water for now and only BF her in the evening? DH is bringing her to me now at work, and I don't know whether I should feed her or not. She hasn't puked up milk so far during the day, but has at night.
I hate to leave her hungry and will find it difficult not to feed her when she is here.
I think I will feed her and if she does throw up the feed, then I will back off the feeding for the rest of the day till bedtime....sounds like a good plan?

[Animol]

Yup - sounds like a good plan to me - I wonder if it could help for you to give her small quantities of bm - when she's actually on the breast you can never be sure how much she's getting and she might take loads and then be sick just because of the quantity - could you maybe express a bit and give it her in a beaker or on a spoon to kind of get her used to it again?

I know it's awful not to be able to comfort her how you'd like to when she's poorly but she should be fine soon and back to good old mummymilk

All the best

[bangcrash]

bm is mainly water:)

Also digests quickly so even if she is sick it probably isn't all coming back. I think little and often is great too which is why waiting until the evening to feed doesn't seem overly logical. Think your plan sounds sensible... hope your lo is better soon. Think your doc doesn't know that bm is soothing for your lo bot physically and emotionally...

[tiktok]

Breastmilk should normally never be withheld from a sick/vomiting baby - this is internationally-accepted guidance and any GP should know this. Unless there is some other aspect of the story the GP knows....always wise to heed the doctor but it is possible he/she is not aware of the guidance.

There is no harm in bf - and plenty of healing benefit. No need to express and give by spoon :( :(.

I have a poor connection at the moment so it's hard to search but Google will bring up WHO and NICE guidelines on this, if you search.

[Animol]

I bow to your much superior knowledge tiktok - sorry if I've been spouting rubbish - I've just been trying to help from my (limited) experience

anyway - little one is better soon!

[Animol]

• hope little one is better soon - it should have said

[choceyes]

thanks for the advice everyone. She didn't vomit yesterday at all and I fed her at lunch time, then again in the afternoon as she didn't bring it back up. She did have diarrhoea in the morning, so she still not completely better. At work today too, but DH is looking after her and bringing her to me for feeds.
She is otherwise really well, in good spirits and playing and having fun with her daddy!

[choceyes]

oh yes should have said I fed her several times in the night too, but this time without the Excorcist like spewing out of milk!