Toddler not keeping fluids down - or anything!

[GSat]

Currently looking after a poorly 2,5y DS. He woke up, drank a glass of milk and off he went playing. He said he didn't fancy breakfast so I prepared it anyway and left it out for him which he didn't touch.

Low and behold, 45 mins later he vomited all his milk out. I cleaned him up, let his tummy settle and when he was asking for some more milk I gave him a little bit, thinking it might just be indigestion but no, that milk came straight back up too, within minutes.

Been encouraging him to drink little sips of water but he is vomiting it all out straight away. He had a bite of his toast that was left out from the morning and literally threw it back up within seconds too. He's also bringing some green vomit up in between the sips of water when his stomach is supposed to be empty.

I wasn't overly worried to start with as I know there's a bug going around in his nursery, plus it's only been a few hours of this, but he's never been this poorly with a bug before that he is literally unable to keep ANYTHING down, so I was looking for tips on google as to how to keep his fluids up and it said to contact the GP with his symptoms, but of course this happens on a Saturday!

He's currently sleeping and been pretty weak all morning. I'm not sure if it's wise to leave him like this for the rest of the afternoon / evening & night or be best to call 111? How long did your little one ms take to get better and how long is the No drinking / No eating sustainable for?

Thank you in advance for any advice, I really am just not sure if I should be more worried or if I am just ok managing his symptoms at home.

Keep giving him fluids because even though he vomits them he will be absorbing some even if he vomits almost straight away. Rehydration sachets is what he needs asap if they're age appropriate.

Fluids on a teaspoon (or medicine syringe if you have one), even sips are too big in the early stages of a bug. One teaspoonful every 15 minutes until tolerated.

Thank you both, these are really helpful!

Call 111.
Use a Calpol syringe to give him a tiny bit of water ever 15 mins, just one syringe full at a time - it might be a small enough to not hit the stomach and make him vomit.

My third is on the end of this, my other two had it as well.
It is horrible, it went on for a couple of days. My 7 year old has just kept down a dry cracker bread after keeping nothing in for 48 hours. He's extremely worn out and sleeping a lot.
Keep going with sips of water
I did call my gp about my daughter and they gave her gaviscon to control the acid but it needs to come from a doctor, I wouldn't give it to a young toddler
It's been the week from hell!!
I hope your little one feels better soon

Ice lollies?

And I wouldn't give him milk as they often bring that up with a bad tummy

When dd was in hospital for dehydration during a particularly nasty bug we had to syringe 5ml into her mouth every 15 minutes.

Rehydration sachets are ok from 3 months so get some asap. Dioralyte are really expensive now so get a generic brand if you can.

My 2 just got over this although they are a bit older (youngest is 7). Rehydration drinks are the best way, I didn't have any in but made my own using a sachet of vitamin tonic, water, and 3/4 tsp of salt. I have also previously used orange or blackcurrants juice if I don't have vitamin sachets in the house. Tiny sips little and often it also meant they had something in their system to bring up so weren't bringing up stomach acid too. It was awful for about 24hours nothing stayed down then gradually it went longer and longer between vomiting and stopped altogether.

Ice lollies -
go down slowly
dont shock the tummy

You really need to keep him hydrated. As others have said, give him 5ml every 15 mins using calpol syringe etc.
That's what you are end up doing if dc is admitted to the hospital, unless they've gone too far and need iv. Happened to my dc, could have been avoided if I knew we had to force him to take fluid.

Thanks everyone, these are all really helpful and really sorry to hear about your little ones. Gosh, it's horrible and definitely sounds like it's around everywhere at the moment. I've barely eaten anything either as I'd feel so mean to start cooking whilst he can't have any food :( Cereal it is for the weekend!

DH has gone to get some sachets and I will try to give him tiny amounts of water with syringe when he wakes up. Fingers crossed that will do the trick and we also have ice lollies in the freezer from the last heat wave! He will be happy for those for sure :)

I'm going to cal 111 and see what they say... 🤞🤞

If he goes 4-6 hours without weeing call 111 back.

Yeah, exactly this is what worried me that I just don't know what to do and how to help him.

How long would it take for him to be so dehydrated he is hospitalised? Gosh I feel so useless asking these silly questions...

I mean I've been offering him water all morning (albeit letting him sip from his own cup which I now know wasn't a very good idea!) but if I manage to give him some with the calpol spoon throughout the afternoon, would that do the trick?

Thank you!!

It sounds weird but when children can't keep anything down give them fizzy drinks. It is totally counter intuitive- but was a recommendation from my father who was a GP for over 40 years.

It worked for the time my daughter was vomiting everything.

So interesting you say this, mum mum used to get all the fizz in when DB and I had vomiting - I always thought it must be some crazy old wives tale haha!

Right so I've just given him 5ml of water with a syringe. Repeat in 15 mins so fingers crossed it will work.

I’m going through similar with 7 year old today although we haven’t had a wee since during the night and can’t get his temp down either so we might be looking at a&e this afternoon interesting to see it’s doing the rounds though.

@Hm2020 I'm so sorry to hear this! It's definitely horrible.

The 5ml came straight back up - I'm on hold for 111 but will repeat the 5ml in 10 minutes again.

Aggghhh 😭😭😭

Water is quite hard on a poorly stomach , the sachets should help.

Try and ice lolly in the meantime. If nothing else it might cheer him up a bit.

Ah DD had this at same age before Christmas. I made up a big bottle of squash with sugar and got her to take little sips often. It did all come up again shortly after but obviously some was sticking as she was still peeing and stuff. Good news is after 24 hours she had pretty much stopped puking.

Oh and I'd say she didn't eat for maybe 36 hours and then very minimally for another 24, just a dry bowl of Cheerios. Probably another couple of days before she was back to normal in that respect.

Dd was admitted for iv fluids after 24 hours of fluid challenge being unsuccessful