8mth old vomiting and diarrhoea, can't keep down milk, would "friendly bacteria" help?

[Romilly70]

DS 8months has been vomiting since sunday and diarrhoea since monday. Took him to the GP yesterday morning and she said to give him small amounts of milk, but he brings that straight back up. He is refusing Diaralyte, so he has ben mainly having water. This morning i gave him some fruit puree as he was obviously starving and he vomited that 2 hours later.
DP suggested some diluted lucozade and he has been sipping that.
However it has been 4 days since he has eaten anything or kept any milk down. GP said that he is not dehydrated, but that bug can take up to a week to clear.

DP (based on his experience with his 2 older DC's) is adamant that water for 24 hours is the best cure to flush the bug out. Based on everything I have tried with DS, I agree, however he is hungry and it seems like one step forward one step back.
His gut must be almost empty, but we feel that the bacteria although working it's way out is also working backwards towards his small intestine, feeding off any small bits of food he is given.

i've taken acidophilus myself for digestive complaintsm so, can i give him some kind of (perhaps non-milk based) friendly bacteria, to help him fight the bug?
any suggestions gratefully received. (DS is my first and it is the first time he has been ill , so am feeling a bit clueless...)

My DD (now 2.5) was frequently ill with stomach bugs (vomit and diarroea). Certainly giving nothing but cooled boiled water for 12 hours / 24 if you can manage it was good but really hard to do when she was obviously hungry. I also 'miltoned' all equiptment e.g bottles just to make sure. I was told never to go any longer than this time without giving milk/simple food e.g. babyrice. Even if she threw up etc she would at least be keeping some down.

I hope everthing clears up soon. If they are hydrated that is the main thing and the only thing you need to worry about and it does pass - it just feels that ages at the time. It was always nice seeing my DD eat like a horse when she was well again to make up for it! :)

I thought dairy was a big no no for D&V - surprised the GP suggested milk.

Dioralyte should do the trick.

thank you. I feel really evil giving him only water, when he is obviously desperate for milk.
He has had a bit of fruit puree and is managing to keep that down. also the diluted lucozade is keeping him perked up, i will start him on small amounts of milk - 1oz this evening. there is no more diarrhoea, and luckily his nappies are reasonably wet, so i don't think he is dehydrated.

there are really mixed messages about giving milk, but i think if i had know right at the beginning to avoid it, then i could have tried to clear this up sooner.
i guess that is just experience

Milk feeds the bacteria, I think (but am no expert).

At least he's getting fruit puree and the lucozade is giving him some glucose for energy

it really is horrid with d&v bugs and babies. When DD was about 10mths she had a horrid one and we ended up in A&E as she would not keep anything down at all even dioralyte(sp?).
There they suggested syringing tiny little amounts sometimes no more than 1 or 2mls at a time with a space of a minute or so and then very slowly build it up. I did this and it really helped her keep some down, took a lot of patience though but was worth it.
I would not worry at all about missing milk for a bit, mine were fine and like others have said here they certainly made up for it.

What kind of milk are you giving? I was also under the impression that dairy is a big no no for d&v so only bm/water/juice was suitable.

I think there is some thought that returning to a normal diet (if the child feels like it) rather than going for a modified diet can make recovery quicker. But I'm not sure it applies to babies. But I'd probably stick with the Diorylte (maybe syringefuls squirted every 1h or so), water, watered down milk and whatever other fluids.

The milk won't feed the bacteria (or virus) or be an attraction for the bacteria to come up the gut instead of being flushed out. Bugs generally invade the cells of the gut, cause their mischief by disrupting cells and often causing the lining of the gut to become flat instead of wiggly. There's less surface area for nutrients and fluid to be absorbed into the body and so it stays in the gut and comes out as watery poo! So basically, the bugs aim for human cells. The milk could be too heavy and fatty on a sensitive, irritated stomach so that's why the chucking (or worsening of diarrhoea).

(Sorry for the lengthy explanation, but my PhD was about how gut bacteria cause disease!)

Oh, and nah....wouldn't bother with the friendly bacteria. Not sure its been tested in babies (although unlikely to do harm). But wouldn't do anything to the bugs and would be highly unlikely to shorten the duration of the illness. And our bodies are pretty good at doing all the gut repair and recolonising with friendly bacteria itself.

nephew was vomiting non-stop and was taken into hospital. mum was advised to rehydrate him every 15 minutes with dychlorate. If you go with one teaspoon at a time very often, it will be easier for your child to hold it down. Takes patience but worked each time I tried it. my daughter also wanted fruit puree only and the gp was fine with it(but try apple/banana or apple /carrot as they are not very acid. White sticky rice works well as well as steamed carrots and jelly. You need to give him 3 days of this bland food before getiing back to a normal diet otherwise you are back to square 1!
dairy is a definit no-no!
Good luck!

thanks for all the tips. sppon feeding diarlyte carameli is very helpful and also the reintroduction of the food tulipe.
Also the explantion of the gut pleasenap is very interesting.

I thought we were okay on wednesday night, he himself took tiny sips of milk - about 20mls.

He had gone 24 hours with no vomiting, although he did bring up a little bit of fruit puree during the day. then last night, he had about 100mls of milk then and hour later when i was giving him his last bottle, he had about 10mls then he threw up everywhere. It was even coming out of his nose poor thing .

I am going to take him to the GP again this morning; I had an appointment for myself anyway, so will hijack it.
However, as ever all you MNers have been so fantastically informative, thank you