Stomach bug in 9mo - how long can it last?

[gail734]

My 9 month old DD has had sickness and diarrhoea since Monday and it's now Friday! The first two days were the worst, but since then it hasn't been very intense. Maybe one bout of diarrhoea per day and one or two big barfs. I phoned the GP on Monday and the nurse practitioner told me to get Dioralyte, which I did. She told me to give her nothing else - just water, maybe juice. But a couple of times I've really thought she was better and I've given her a yogurt or something, only to be spectacularly thrown up on. I've also been breast feeding her - it's so counter-intuitive to starve her. Have I made it worse? I have it myself now, it's rotten, but she has never seemed distressed, not since the first two days.

keep going with the breastfeeding, can give dioralyte as well if she'll take it but it's vile stuff.

Bits of bland starchy stuff to start with, I only avoided stuff that was either nasty to puke up, or nasty to clean up. NICE guidance suggests giving a pretty much normal diet I would just avoid very fatty or greasy stuff.

Bugs can last a fair few days, the vomiting tend to settle quite quickly but diarrhoea can certainly last a week or so and there's not much you can do to get rid of it any quicker.

Do not give milk or dairy for a week, not even soy milk or yogurt, and no frut pure. Oat milk is fine. I have been told by my GP to feed only simple foods, as bread, porige with oat milk, rice, potatoes, etc. You can introduce milk two days after diaria stops.

Thanks, everyone. I was calm about it until I started to get it myself (yesterday). Since then I been getting worried.

I am sorry to tell you this but my ds had a sickness bug when he was 13 months that went on for two weeks. My reason for telling you this is that the Dr was entirely unconcerned and just said keep breastfeeding and offering fluids (no dairy) and bland foods but not too worry if he did not eat anything. Breastfeeding is wonderful for them, v easy to digest and comforting for them too. Am sure your dd will soon be feeling better but hope you feel reassured should it linger a bit longer.

Thanks sleepy. This is now DD's 6th day and I would never previously have thought that a bug like this could last more than 48 hours. I've just totally gone back to ebf. All my hard work weaning her has gone to hell! A two week bug must have been a worry. I've never done so much laundry in my life!

We had this recently with my 10 month old ds, it lasted just over a week, we went through a whole pack of disposables in about 4 days! I kept breastfeeding and at some point the diarrhoea changed from ill stinky stuff to more like newborn breastfed poos and then he got his appetite back and a couple do days later was back to his usual self.

Once he was a bit better I gave him some live yoghurt a couple of times a day to help his gut, don't know if it did but worth a try!