Please confirm that this is shockingly bad breastfeeding advice before I write to complain

[mawbroon]

DS is 19 months and has had around 12 bouts of vomiting in the last 24 hours. He had nothing but breastmilk through the night and had some water this morning along with a bit of rice cake because he hadn't vomited for a few hours. He started vomiting again at 4.30pm so I called NHS24 who sent us to the out of hours department at the hospital.
We saw a nurse practitioner there who examined ds and said he wasn't showing any signs of dehydration, which is good. Now, what she told me to do was to stop breastfeeding him as it just sits in the stomach and to give him water, orange juice or "something like Ribena" instead. She also gave me some rehydration sachets. Needless to say I am going to ignore her advice and continue offering ds frequent breastfeeds.
I am livid. I've been hanging around MN long enough to know that this is absolutely crap advice, isn't it? When I questioned her saying that I thought what she said about the milk in the tummy was indeed correct for cows milk but not breastmilk, she said that no, it applied to breastmilk too.
I am not being over the top to write and suggest that she gets some retraining, am I?

Ribena instead of breastmilk.... WTF??

oh dear, i do hope he feels better soon. keep up the bf, i believe it also has analgesic properties? anyway it'll be nice and soothing for him, poor little boy.

tiktok, thanks for the link, but I can't seem to get it to work.
Got through to the surgery but now have to wait for GP to call me back.

My HV also told me to stop BF when DS was ill because all dairy should be stopped. I ignored that.

Luckily GP is much more sensible, looked shocked when I told him and said to me something along the lines of 'but you are not a cow!'

at advice

I really hope your poor DS is well again soon

It's definitely one of the BEST things about bf that you can just keep nursing them when they are sick - it's SO useful for getting fliuds/good stuff into them which can be impossible with cups etc.

Aw, bless him, he's clearly poorly....good idea to see the GP. Obv even more important to continue bf.

Poor babe.
Sorry to hear this Mawbroon.

GP said I was clearly doing a good job as there were no signs whatsoever of dehydration. I told him what the nurse said and he agreed with me that it was incorrect advice and she was giving the advice referring to cows milk. This is the same GP who congratulated me when I said I was still breastfeeding at 12months, so he is obviously a bit more clued up. I would try to make an appointment with this doc any time I need to go for ds, but we are moving so will have to suss out the breastfeeding friendly GPs at the new place.

hurrah!

Three cheers for doc who uses his mouth to communicate and not his bum cheeks.
Wonders will never cease.

not read all posts. breast milk is the best milk! it's perfect for this situation. i got told similiar advice by a nurse on an out of hours as well.

also, isn't ribena only suitable from 3years plus as it's so high in vitamin c?

haven't read your responses mawbroom - but what you were told is complete rubbish imho. SHe needs training in bf as she could give the wrong advice to other parents.

I've just spoken to my LLL counsellor who has given me some pointers for a letter of complaint. She is also going to raise it with the breastfeeding counsellor at another hospital which comes under the same trust.
DS seems a bit better. He hasn't been sick since 5.45am and has kept down water and a rice cake, as well as breastmilk of course. He seems to want to play with his toys, but hasn't got the strength to crawl over to play with them.
I am bursting out of my bra though with all this feeding!

Hi Mawbroon.
Hope your wee one picks up. My DS (who I know is about ages with yours) had the self same thing 2 months ago and was violently ill for 4 days on the trot. All I could give him was water (and even then it was very little) and he had the sunken belly and all that. He just lay about and was completely out of sorts. Just to let you know that he came round of his own accord and was back to normal on day 5 - it was like he had never been ill. So I think there has been something nasty on the go up here hitting the wee ones and I really just wanted to give you a wee bit of moral support. maybe a bit of fiddling will pick him up.
x
ps - used to be fob (fellow muso!)

Nice one mawbroon.
Express a bit then plan some time off??

But if you had a stomach bug, would you keep feeding yourself? Wouldn't you just take sips of water and try and keep them down? This LO is not a tiny baby, he is 19 months old. He is not going to suffer if he goes a little while without food, including breast milk.

Obviously I wouldn't give him ribena or any kind of juice! That advice is clearly pants. But I would try not to keep feeding the bugs in his stomach and try sticking to just water for 24 hours.

Or maybe I'm odd.

but the lo is probably looking for the comfort and also trying to rehydrate.
I meant to say, and forgot : when my dd2 (who was around 16 months) got a nasty sickness bug a while ago, she wanted to feed all the time. she hadn't managed to keep anything down for about 24 hours and was bringing up what was basically clear liquid. I went to see a (locum) GP who I didn't know, and when I told him I was just bf her whenever she wanted, he said that was absolutely the right thing and hen he said "I bet you're really glad that you carried on feeding her, aren't you?"
I was very touched, actually, because it was literally the first time any HCP had said anything positive about extended bf and I had a huge amount of negative comment when I bf through pg and tandem fed.
just to put in a bit of balance

Daphne - the breastmilk actively treats the bug, though....breastfeeding ad lib is standard advice with diarrhoea and/or vomiting in a baby.

When my toddlers have been ill like this it has felt absolutely right to keep breastfeeding them for both physical and emotional succour.
I am obviously an anomaly as nowhere in british Isles have I come across a health professional who did anything but actively support and encourage breastfeeding at any age.

i thought it was the norm until I started using MN.

It's bizarre isn't it Mum???

It's so bloody obvious for a start surely that a species own milk is best for it.How hard can it be???

I haven't read the entire discussion, but my son had a number of gastros (he was at nursery) and still on breast milk (EBM). My GP suggested that I stop BF for 24 hours at the start of a gastro, and give him lactose free milk and rehydrating drinks instead as sometimes the lining of the stomach and intestins can get irritated by the vomiting and diarohea and even breastmilk can cause more irritation and prolong the gastro. In my personal experience, stopping BM for 24 hours has helped, as DS got better very quickly. I'm not saying that I'd recommend it as I have no medical background, but it made sense at the time and I really think that it helped him get better quicker. Maybe that's what the nurse was refering to, but the Ribena business is rubbish. They used to recommend that 20 years ago.

That's shit advice too Blueberry.
Absolute bollocks.
Like cows' milk is better?????

Duh !!!!

Just to reply to moondog - I didn't write that GP advised to give cow's milk to a baby with a gastro. I wrote that she recommended lactose free milk. Breastmilk has lactose. I know it's difficult to understand that some people have different opinions, but I am sticking to my guns and believe that DS' quick recovery was due to not giving milk containing lactose. Am I on the firing line because I have a different opinion to others on this board? I hope not, because I'd be missing the point of having constructive debates with various opinions...