10 month old DD vomiting for 2 days. GP said to stop breastfeeding her altogether...?

[Fufulina]

Hi - my DD is 10 months old and has been vomiting for the last 2 days - she's been sick about 15 times in the last 48 hours. It started Tuesday night so I've not given her anything other than breastmilk since then.

Went to the GP this afternoon as she hasn't had a wet nappy all day and he said to stop breastfeeding her altogether as all milk is difficult for babies to deal with when ill and just to give her juice. Is this right? It sounds completely counter-intuitive to me...?

Would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

Oh yes, get a handy pile of towels/muslins next to you as well, then feed, have one between you so when she pukes it is on the towel, and another over the top, then keep swapping.

Hope it passes soon, every time she feeds she wil be getting a little bit down her which will help, little by little.
Although hopefully you aren';t reading this as you are getting som kip

Whenever ds2 has been ill, I stopped all other food and only breastfed as I found it was the only thing he could keep down (including with one tummy bug where even water came back). I did find with one tummy bug though he prefered EBM as he seemed to have trouble latching on but after 2 days of furious pumping and feeding with only EBM he was better with minimal vomitting (which had been extreme whenever we tried other food). Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that breastmilk is perfect for poorly babies. Please don't inflict nasty, nasty diaoralyte on them. It's horrible.

Alright, keep your hair on, I bow to everyone else's superior knowledge.

It goes against all instincts though doesn't it? To keep putting stuff in the stomach when the stomach doesn't want it.

Anyway ... I'm perfectly happy to accept my instincts are wrong .

As you were op. Hope your lo feels much better very soon.

Glad you accept your really rather dangerous error, bibbity.

It is actually quite risky to withhold breastmilk from a sick baby - generally speaking (we can't really give dogmatic do's and don'ts on an internet forum when no one can know the full story).

There is a lot of research on this.

Next time you feel the urge to tell people what to do based on your experience and your instincts, hold it back, eh?

Thanks

Talking of GPs giving rubbish bf advice, mine told me to stop bfing ds (who had persistant diahorroea) for a couple of days and give lactose free formula instead!

Luckily he phoned the hospital for 2nd opinion and they said to keep bfing. Turns out it's an allergy to cows milk, so if I'd switched to formula he would have got a whole lot worse!!

I should add that he's EBF and not yet on solids, so any cows milk was getting to him in tiny quantities through my milk.

Fufulina - I do hope your baby is alright - no wet nappies would have me worried. That's a lot of vomiting for a baby, they can become dehydrated very quickly. If you are worried, you need to get another opinion.

Your GP sounds downright dangerous.

When my dd2 was 16 months old she got admitted to hospital for three nights with severe vomiting and diarrhea - she needed a drip. Fortunately the doctors were great and told me to carry on breastfeeding her, and that meant that she only needed a saline drip, and not a drip full of potassium and other things. So even though she was being breastfed, she still needed a drip for three nights, but the doctors were very encouraging of me to continue breastfeeding her, as it really is the best thing.

My dd1 aged five years was admitted to hospital very recently with dehydration - after vomiting 15 times or so in 12 hours, and she hadn't wee'ed all day either. She also needed a drip.

Hi all - thanks very much for the replies. The Camidoc doctor got back to me last night and said to BF and give water. Although when I gave her some water at 4am on the first night, that came up much more quickly than BM - but I thought she might like some cold water because I was also being sick every hour and a bit of cold water was what I wanted IYSWIM! But haven't given her water since to be honest - and she's feeding more (or at least on the boob more) than newborn days.

She was sick at the GP yesterday at 5.30, but hasn't been sick since - and I completely ignored the original GP and kept feeding. We'll see - I think it was a wet nappy this morning (starting to doubt self!) - but nothing like the usual weight. Am keeping a close eye on her. She's not really been ill her whole life, so am getting used to a clingy baby who wants cuddles (normally she's not a cuddly baby at all) and is sleeping a lot - back in bed now after 2 hours awake - 1 hour of that feeding/on the boob. I've done all the dehydration checks - eyes, skin, her head thingy that I can never remember the name of, and she seems fine. And of course - as soon as she saw Daddy she was all smiles! Miserable as sin with me, but hey ho...

Anyway ladies - thanks again for all your advice. As always - much appreciated. BTW - it's only because of MN advice when she was 5 days old that I've had such an easy time of BF. Invaluable!

WHen ds was about 8-9 months he had a horrible sick bug and ended up at the out of hours dr who said to feed, feed, feed and that if dd (3 at the time) got ill too was I able to express and give her some as well as he said it had the best of everything for a tummy bug.

fufulina - well done. KNow what you mean about feeding loads. I kind of feel a bit less useless when ds ill as at least he gets comfort as well as all the goodness from bfing.

Mumsnet is fab

ps thanks bibbitybob for coming back and retracting. x

bibbitybobbityCAT I'm afraid you are mistaken - water does not, by itself, rehydrate you, and to intentionally not feed a baby for 6 hours is tantamount to neglect. Breastmilk is 80% water and also contains antibodies and other nutrients which will replace the lost fluids, salts and minerals lost from vomitting excessively. There are no salts or minerals present in boiled tap water..

Babies become poorly very quickly - it is very remiss of this GP to be giving such unsound advice. Ditto all info on this thread re. BM best thing to continue with.

JackBauWooohooohoowa... very sound advice Baby is digesting the small amount of BM little and often - perfect for rehydration and to reduce risk of vomitting large amounts of fluids.

wouldn't it be bizarre if breastmilk was difficult for babies to digest, seeing that it is ...err...breastmilk?