AIBU to not feed my 3 year old?

[LittleEsmeWeatherwax]

She's been vomiting for 24 hrs now and keeping nothing down.

Problem is, she's hungry all the time and wanting food, so I've given her dried toast, or breadsticks, or a little porridge, but it's all come back up.

She's had a bug like this before, but we handled it well; fluids sipped, food avoided, bug passed. This time though, she's not even keeping the fluid down. She's vomited several times throughout the night. Lots of diarrhoea yesterday too. Still asking for food though

Should I try and avoid the food for now?
If she cannot keep any fluids down this morning, I think I'm going to have to phone NHS direct.

Porrige has milk in it - so thats a no-no with any vomiting bug. Toast, dry biscuits or banana.

you can google the sme advice on NHS direct.

Have you got any ice pops/ ice lollies? Maybe she will tolerate that.
Poor thing- you must feel desperate too.

I think with very young children, when they can't understand what's going on, then it's best to just allow them to have something light and bland, because the hungry feeling is worse (for them) than the vomit afterwards.

At age 3? I'd say she's still not likely to understand the cause and effect.

You'd be best to get a pint of water, add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar, then let her have small sips of that. It's basically a home-made electrolyte balancer.

Dry toast/breadsticks/crackers nibbled will be fine.

Porridge made correctly has no milk in it - just poured on it when it's cooked... (Scottish purist mode off...;) )

If she wants to eat, I would let her, but as Trois says, avoid milky and rich things, and stick to simple, easy to digest foods.

Thanks. Advice duly noted.
Yep, I'm desperate at this point. All 3 DC have each had their fare share of D&V bugs but it's been so straightforward before. Illness, no appetite so food avoided, sip a fluid, improve.

I've not seen anything like this though - it's unnerved me. Nothingis staying down. She's gone from deep sleep to vomiting in a bucket within micro seconds.

I'll try the crackers. I'll avoid the milky porridge (thanks Trois).

Poor love even had the foresight to run off the carpet and be sick onto our wood floor instead. "Didn't want to make a mess, Mummy"

I've been through this recently with both my two and it wasn't fun - I hope it doesn't last much longer for your dd. I'm normally of the opinion that if someone with D&V wants to eat they should but if nothing is staying down I would try to explainit to your dd and only offer drinks til she can hold them down.

Young children tend to gulp drinks down when they're like this and fluids have a greater chance of staying down if slowly sipped. The ice lolly idea is worth a try. Alternatively drinking through a straw or if you really can't persuade her to drink slowly I ended up giving my youngest water from a syringe (Nurofen one) as he was desperate to drink but at 15 months really can't understand just sipping.

Definitely get her to the doctor if it continues - a friend's dd was recently admitted to hospital when she became dehydrated after 48 hours of not being able to hold anything down.

Thanks Ignoring, will do.
She's had some dry toast again, and is now sipping a little water that I made up with salt and sugar earlier. So far so good. If by lunchtime she's sick again, then I may call the GP.
Her wee was hardly a trickle this morning.

She still managed a clumsy ballet twirl this morning though. Such little toughies!

Aw bless her. Hope she is better very soon.

Thank you toofattorun

My mom has a friend who is a paediatrician, in the States. She advised parents to let small children with D&V to eat whatever they want, as even if it only stays in the tummy for a few minutes, some of it will get into their system.

So I would let her have porridge, even with milk, or an ice lolly or, really, anything she fancies, so to avoid dehydration.

She could have fruity ice lollies, if you haven't got the gubbins to make them you could buy the plainest fruit ice lollies you can find - and to be honest if they've got a bit of sugar in that won't be a bad thing.

(sorry pressed post too soo)... And may make her feel like she's "eating" and rehydrate her without resting too heavy in her sore tummy. Hope she's better soon x

I'm not sure that adding sugar is a good idea (unless it works for you). When my two were babies, putting sugar into their formula milk made their poo even runnier!

Lemonade ice lollies are good. That's what the doctors gave my DD when she was in Out of Hours for an evening of observation with a D&V bug.

Tesco value fruit flavoured lollies in freezer for these horrible occasions. Plain and simple and cheap.
Hope things continue to improve.

mmm lemonade flavour sounds good.

Current thinking is to allow food if they want it. Some will stay down and limiting to bland food or limiting altogether has no effect on duration of illness.

DD has flu atm and the doc advised replacement of sugars/salt with full fat coke or similar as she's ended up fairly dehydrated and wobbly. But you can make up your own rehydration fluid or buy dioralyte too.

Ice-pops stopped my DD being sick when she had a vomiting bug.

If you're worried about dehydration, gently pinch the skin on the back of her hand between your thumb and forfinger and let go - if the skin goes immediately back flat she's fine, if it stays pulled up she is dehydrated. Alternatively, squeeze the top of her finger so it goes red - if when you let go, it stays red again, she's dehydrated.

Do these tests on yourself or one of the other kids first to see what a 'normal' response is so that you have something to compare it to.

Ice pops first, if they don't bring that back up move onto toast or plain biscuits.

Update:

She's kept down two lemonade lollies since 11 this morning (great tip, good old Co-op) and polished off some dry toast again about an hour ago.

Thanks everyone. Think we're over the worst.

Glad to hear it, OP. I would also recommend some ginger biscuits and plain oatcakes to snack on, if she needs them.

Just read this. glad shes managed to keep something down. Hope she recovers soon. Its awful when u cant keep anything down x

Glad to hear she's on the mend. :)