Food poisoning and a 7 month old bottle refuser.

[parmavioletmartini]

Just after some advice really.
Am on day 6 of terrible D&V, with a high fever, exhaustion you know the drill.

My 7 month old DD will not take a bottle and never has, we began weaning at 6 months so are only 4 weeks into solids (a combination of purée and finger foods)

Here comes the problem I am so exhausted I can barely get out of bed. (My DH has taken time off work because I can't look after her.) When I'm feeding her (4 daytime and one nighttime) I feel like the life is being sucked out of me. I can't keep and solid food down so my last meal was Saturday lunchtime.

I'm really lost as what to do, my husband tried for over an hour to get her to drink milk from a cup and she screamed so hard she gave herself a nosebleed.

Help.

That must be so tough. Firstly, are you looking after yourself? Have you tried some rehydration sachets? Can DH take her out if the house so that you can sleep?

Taking her out may also help with getting her to take the formula as she will be away from you.

Hope you feel better soon

Oh gosh that sounds awful. Have you spoken to a doc or health visitor? Your D&V sounds pretty bad.

Can he try the medela teat that is more like a nipple? I can't remember what it's called but it looks different to a normal bottle.

Will she take a sippy cup? I'd be buying every type of cup to try.

Sounds awful, hope you feel better soon. Agree he needs to take her out of the house. Try water in a bottle or sippy cup, sometimes more successful than milk. Yogurt and fruit purée both have lots of fluid in them.

Might sound daft but have you tried fruit shoot bottles or straws? Dd1 was a bottle refuser but from 5 months would drink formula milk from a fruit shoot bottle and dd3 also refused bottles but would drink formula cartons through a straw. I hope you feel better soon.

The medela teat is called calma.

Look after yourself too, plenty of rehydration sachets.

Today DH took DD to MILs and tried the medela bottles, tommee tippie and 3 different cups that she will drink water out of. In the end she had avocado and yoghurt. But no milk until he brought her back. So I've fed her this afternoon and evening. DH thinks because I will have to express anyway what's the point. I just feel a little hopeless.

I've taken in a stool sample to the Drs but hey have basically said wait it out unless the sample comes back with something requiring treatment.

I will try and get DH to try a straw tomorrow.

And thank you for all your kind words. Sorry my brain is on go slow.

Well the good news is however many times you feed her in 24 hours, she will take roughly 25 floz. So it doesn't really matter if she's fed twice a day instead of say 8 times, she'll still be getting the same amount.

Don't know if that helps.

Hope you feel better soon. No advice but wishing you well.

@jiltedjohnsjulie I didn't know that. She did miss a feed yesterday but had no more feeds overall. So today I have give DH a schedule of the time she feeds normally and I'm just going to do those. I suspect she has been wanting to feed more than usual just to be with me.

I suspect she has been wanting to feed more than usual just to be with me.. That sounds very plausible 🙂

How are you today?

Feel better soon, that's rotten.

I had a vomiting thing that didn't last as long as yours when dd was 3 months so we hadn't started solids. I still fed her and didn't notice any difference in her nappies - so she was getting what she needed. The doctor suggested the most likely thing was that I would make the milk as usual and end up more dehydrated than if I hadn't been breastfeeding, so to use rehydration sachets (or make your own with salt and sugar) and just sip sip sip. Anything that stays down is better than nothing.

I didn't have it for as long as you, and you must be knackered, you poor thing. I was getting up to vomit every 20 minutes so had no energy to do anything except feed dd and try to sleep in between being sick. DP had to stay off work to look after dd and just bring her to me every few hours. She was a bit grumpy about being away from me but physically completely fine.

My dd is over a year now and still hasn't taken a bottle and won't even drink milk so I just give her plenty of dairy in her food. She loves drinking water from a straw cup but won't have anything else in in it.

I would try not to worry about it if you can. If her nappies are basically the same then she's hydrated and fed, so no need to get her to take a bottle if that's more stress than not.

Get better soon!

Ask your doctor for anti nausea meds

cantreach this is going to sound terrible but I'm not fundamentally worried about DD. She is still getting enough milk I think. It feels terrible to say I'm more worried about myself.
But better today less vomiting, but hourly diarrhea and temperature of 38.4 which responds well to paracetamol.

MIL came over today and was fantastic took DD and only brought her back when she needed feeding. Which I think has been led stressful for all involved.

Thank you all so much for your helpful advice

That doesn't sound awful at all, parma. I don't think I expressed it well but I really meant try not to worry about anything except getting better. So no stressing about trying to get her to take a bottle and assume things are as normal for her unless there's evidence this isn't true. Focus on you as you will be the one getting dehydrated and weak.

Hope you're feeling better now as I only just saw this.