How long does gastroenteritis last?

[Cheeseymondo]

My 18 month old came down with gast on Wednesday. We managed to keep his fluids up but he would not touch food. Saturday he had diareah. Sunday he was full of beans, wanted a pancake and nibbled on things throughout the day such as banana, strawberries, toast. We thought it had run its course he wanted some milk so gave him qtr cup and then he threw up again. Docs gave him dioralyte on Sunday and said it was gastro. Diarolyte foul and managed to get him to take a few sips but won’t entertain it. Sunday night slept through with no sickness, again Monday full of beans and spent day nibbling, drinking small amounts of milk and lots of water, still won’t entertain dioralyte. Again we thought it was clearing up as no sickness for 24 hours, but 10pm last night threw up again, it was curdled milk.
Docs keep telling me it’s very common and keep fluids up. But just wondered if anyone else had had LO with it for this long, how long can it last? Any tricks on trying to get dioralyte down him? Anything should we stay away from, example, is it the milk not helping?
It has been sickness with only one day of diareah.

Mine was like this with rotavirus / it hung around for a good 10 days. His friends were all the same with it. However, it’s not rotavirus season yet and the vaccine has made it a lot less common so I’d say it’s more likely that his stomach is being upset by dairy produce following a different stomach bug (most likely norovirus).

Avoid dairy for another week or two and then reintroduce it very slowly. My DC was obsessed with milk at that age so I watered it down so that it was more weather than milk and only gave that in very small amounts and that stayed down.

Dry foods such as toast without butter, crackers and rich tea biscuits should stay down and bizarrely ready salted crisps seem to work too. It’s only for a week or two so don’t worry about nutrition as he will soon start eating a proper well rounded diet again once he can tolerate dairy.

Thanks Jeackyll. He's obsessed with milk too, so thats a good idea to try watering it down. We have only been giving a qtr of a cup at a time, so watered down may just do the trick and help him keep it down whilst satisfying his need for some milk.

I doubt it's norovirus from your description.

The pattern you're describing sounds common for a gastro bug. The diarrhoea subsides and the vomiting seems to be gone until you reintroduce milk. Temporary problems with dairy are also fairly common after gastroenteritis. Avoid milk as you've already identified it as a trigger but no need to give a bland diet otherwise.

I only give dioralyte if a child is dehydrated, v sick or refusing other fluids. Your situation doesn't seem to warrant it.

My two both had similar reactions when experiencing these viruses but got over them much faster as they got older.

Thanks ShowOFHands. He's been really good bless him at still drinking plenty of water and doing plenty of wet nappies.

Not only has he had gastro but a throat infection too. The docs had missed the throat infection as were focusing on gastro. In addition also have back teeth coming through. So no wonder poor little man been in a mess. Last 2 days started nibbling more at food, (funnily enough isn’t off chocolate or ice cream but not drinking as much now!!! Managing 2 cups of milk and 1 cup of water in last two days. Sleeping better though. Just hope he soon gets his appetite back properly for food and drink.

Poor baby! Throat infections can make little ones feel really sick and vomit sometimes too. Mine always used to throw up with tonsillitis. Hopefully now he’s been treated elk be back to normal with food within a week.