Help please - 5 mo hardly feeding

[Pootles2010]

My ds is 5 months old, still breast fed, all going fine. He's come down with cough/cold, started getting really bad yesterday evening, and still bad now. Went to drs this morning, prescribed antibiotics, and said he had earache, all fine. Problem is, he's really slowed down on the feeds now, and I've just realised he's not been having as many wet nappies as normal.

Obviously bit concerned about him being dehydrated, but what can I do? Kellymom said its normal for them to not feed much, and he'll go back to normal, but what if he gets dehydrated? Please help!

try and get him to have 1 or 2 more feeds a day until he picks up. your probably aware of this already but the foremilk, first part of feed is the thirst quenching part. if you are concerned at all its better to go to doctors and for the doctor to say everything fine and put your mind at ease than him get more poorly.
i know it goes against what midwives say i.e. that you dont need to offer water to breast fed babies but how do you feel about giving him an ounce of cooled boiled water so you can see him getting fluids?
i hope he's better soon x

Yeah I did think of that, unfortunately he hates taking bottle...I will try giving it to him with syringe in the morning if he doesn't feed well tonight. I wish I could go to the well baby clinic and discuss with breastfeeding support woman, but don't want to take him outside in the cold!

can you ask for the health visitor to come to your home rather than take him out? its awful to see you little one so poorly :( i use a calpol vapour plug in when my boys are full cold, not sure what age you can use them from though? x

Only BF for about 4.5m, so don't know much except to do the usual and go with his feeding/thirsty cues. Then again, when us adults have the cold/flu/other viral bugs, we generally don't feel like feeding much ourselves and just keep the fluids up (in your case, keep offering the breast). Hopefully your LO will resume more feeding as he gets better. Not forgetting he may also root for comfort as he's not well atm, so, again, offer your LO lots of breast while he's like this.

One thing I was told about a thirsty baby, and noticed when told by my SIL (senior neo-natal ward sister), was to look for baby sticking tongue out further than usual hunger cues, and look for swallowing straight after. This, more often than not, indicates the child is thirsty. Try it yourself. Stick your tongue out far and bring it back into your mouth. Does your mouth water? If it does, you may need more water/fluids. If not your probably hydrated enough for the meantime, but drink plenty too.

Hope your LO gets better soon.