Sudden vomiting after feeding in 13 m.o.

[AngelDog]

13 m.o. DS has been on nursing strike during the day since (I think) Tuesday, dropping 3 feeds. He will still feed before his nap, at bedtime and once/twice at night though.

Since Friday night he's had 3 feeds (Fri night, Sat night, Sun eve) where he's fed from both sides, then spectacularly vomited up the entire contents of his stomach. The sickness is starting to concern me a bit.

He has a bad cold, nose streaming with snot, a cough, some green/yellow discharge in the inner corner of his eyes, and he's teething. Today his eyes look really red and streaming cold-y IYSWIM. We saw an out-of-hours GP yesterday who said his ears looked a bit red so gave me antibiotics (penicillin). I've not given them to DS because he seemed better today, and I'm allergic to penicillin among other things, so he's potentially more at risk for an allergy.

NHS Direct have advised that I go ahead and give him the antibiotics - but only on the basis of the red ear: we didn't really discuss the other symptoms.

He seems happy enough in himself and is taking both ebm and water in a cup. Today though his nappy was dry between 11am and 7pm, despite drinking both ebm & water. At 7pm he threw up his bedtime feed, and I've given him as much water as he'll drink as he wouldn't bf. He's not showing any signs of dehydration.

I have had vomiting and diarrhoea today but that seems quite different from DS being sick after feeding once per 24 hours.

I'm not sure what to do - whether or not to give him the antibiotics (I'd prefer not to unless I really have to), and whether I should be feeding from only one side when he does feed to reduce the likelihood of vomiting.

I'll try to see my GP tomorrow (although usually you have to wait 2/3 days for an 'emergency' appointment even for a baby).

Any suggestions?

He had 3 explosive nappies on Saturday/Sun a.m. too.

We decided to give the antibiotics in the end. I suspect he has conjunctivitis.

I still don't know if I should limit how much he feeds when he does take milk, or whether the sickness is likely to be caused by everything else, or something different.

My initial reaction was that it was a gastro bug on top of other things (sounds like his immune system is struggling atm). Then you said you had been poorly too and it reinforced it.

When dd was poorly and/or teething she wouldn't bfeed. I always assumed it made her sore, maybe the pressure on her ears from being held that way if they were sore anyway. But often she'd take the ebm instead. And vomit it back up!

I think the advice with a bfed baby is to continue giving it as much as they want. They'll keep some down. But if giving water, in sips is best if you want them to keep it down.

Sorry he's poorly. If you're worried, see a GP again but he sounds JUST like dd was when she was under the weather.

Thanks, Ciltrano. I've got a GP appointment this morning so hopefully they should be able to give some further advice.

He took a full feed in the night and wasn't sick till 3 hours later, so that was an improvement. :)

Please come back and let me know how he is.

I remember dd's first gastro bug well. She was 12 months so a similar age. She'd have some milk (in the night usually when tired), go to sleep for a couple of hours then sit bolt upright and projectile vomit. She was happy, hydrated and playing (if a bit out of sorts at times) but just randomly vomiting milk back up in a spectacular fashion. We knew it was a bug when dh got it a day later and had horrid d&v.

Hope he's on the mend soon.

On a side note, I'm allergic to penicillin (as is my Dad) and dd has recently had it for the first time at 3 as she has had an ear infection that wouldn't shift. She's allergic too. I'm glad I avoided it for as long as I did.

Well, we saw the GP today who wasn't particularly worried about the sickness / diarrhoea, but DS has a pretty bad chest infection as well as the ear infection. Hopefully the antibiotics should clear that too.

DS was a bit dehydrated yesterday but has drunk loads today, and has been weeing and dribbling so that was good.

That sort of sickness you describe is exactly what DS did in the small hours - previous vomiting episodes were immediately after feeds. I've been offering just one breast and all 3 feeds he's had today have stayed down so far. :)

And he does have sticky eye, so we have antibiotic drops for that, although I'm having a go at treating it with breastmilk first.

Oh he sounds really under the weather. But brilliant that he's drinking and keeping his milk down.

I was always so relieved that I was bf when dd was ill into toddlerdom. Comfort, hydration, nutrition all to hand. Done the breastmilk in sticky eye thing too!

Hope he continues to improve. It's exhausting worrying about them.

Thought I'd update this. DS has just finished the course of abx. His cough is still bad but his nursing strike finished yesterday so things must be improving.

His eyes are improving although not quite cleared up and the sickness / diarrhoea seem to have stopped. :)

Thanks for your support.