Water for bf 8 m.o. with upset stomach?

[AngelDog]

8 m.o. DS has had an upset stomach for the last few days. He has lots of wind & very explosive wet poo, although he's not pooing with much more frequency than before.

His stomach is clearly hurting, often when feeding. At points he's either refusing to feed or not taking as much as usual. At other times he's feeding as usual.

Yesterday was the longest he's gone without feeding in the day - 6 hours as opposed to his usual 3ish hours or less between feeds. he usually has around 6-7 feeds per 24 hours including at least one in the night.

I took him to the HV who said that I should give him water to make sure he dosn't get dehydrated if he's not taking as much milk as possible.

Ideally I'd give EBM if I need to give any extra fluids, but it's 4 or 5 months since I was regularly expressing. I've started again but it's slow work.

He's not showing signs of dehydration and is full of beans as ever. He is BLW and usually eats a lot. He's less interested at the moment but is still eating. I'm making sure he has plenty of wet thing like cucumber and melon, which he will always eat.

I'm trying to offer the breast often without pressure, as you would do during a nursing strike.

I'm not particularly worried about nutrition / weight; he's 99th centile and has vitamin drops so he won't waste away if he takes in a bit less food for a few days.

What I want to know is at what point does lack of feeding become enough of a problem to warrant giving him water?

breast milk from you is the best thing. It is sterile and easy to digest. If he seems not to want it, my guess is that it is simply beacuse he is not thirsty. I would perhaps go a bit easy on the food (esp the fruit) though if his tummy is a bit wobbly.

when ds has had upset stomachs I've continued to bf as much as possible throughout and when he had 24 hours of not being able to keep anything down he was able to keep bm down for about half an hour whereas anything else (inc water) came straight back up, the doctor was really impressed he wasn't at all dehydrated so he'd obviously got enough liquid/nutrition from the bf even though it didn't stay down for long!

I'd say just continue to bf as much as he'll take

Thanks, that would have been my instinct - I'd not thought about water until I saw the HV.

The most annoying thing from my point of view is that feeding to sleep is no hit & miss - I feed to sleep at night, for naps and between sleep cycles for his long nap. But that's a minor detail really.

THe HV did say it wasn't surprising he was off his food. She said "when you're ill, you probably don't feel like drinking much milk either". Well, that's true, but I'mnot a bf baby for whom milk is the main source of nutrition & comfort.

don't forget that unfortunately many health visitors are full of shit...my HV told me to give both water and orange juice before DS was 6months

DS went on a nursing strike at this age and had no BF during the day fro about three days. He had dry nappies and I got pretty freaked out (and VERY emotional). I did what you are doing and it all sorted itself out. Deep breath and calm...

Yes to bmilk and no dairy.

Hope he feels better soon.

When you talk about it being bad enough to warrant giving him water, I don't quite understand - aren't 8 month olds on solids supposed to be drinking water anyway? If you offer it then he can always refuse if he doesn't want it - surely it can't do any harm or am I missing something?

Thanks, VOTR (love the name!)

ChocolateMoose, he does have water, but only a couple of sips with meals to wash food down and let him get used to the cup. My understanding was that babies who were bf on demand didn't really need water as well. I'm not bothered by giving him a bit with meals but didn't want to be filling his stomach with too much.

theidsalright, you're right - this was some of the better HV advice I've had. Mind you, she did say that when she started nursing, babies with diarrhoea would be literally starved for 24 hours to get it out of their system. :(

Apparently though, research showed that they still get some nutrients from food which goes straight in & out so they don't recommend that any more.

He's improving and has had a higher proportion of normal length feeds, which is good.

Milk from you is best, baby rice and banana are constipating, avoid other foods for a few days.

Thanks. Nappies now have digested food in them again rather than being wet with big lumps of things as they went in, and he's back to seriously enjoying milk feeds! :)

"THe HV did say it wasn't surprising he was off his food. She said "when you're ill, you probably don't feel like drinking much milk either"."

Well, I don't remember mooing at her...