2yo ds - is he dehydrated? Should I worry?

[FattipuffsandThinnifers]

Any help/words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

Ds (2.4) had a bug last week, two days of vomiting and some diarrhea, which had stopped by the weekend. It has been a major struggle to get as much fluid in him as normal, though he is drinking small amounts. His nappies are drier than normal. He's not totally listless or anything but definitely less energy than normal, and much grumpier.

Have spoken to two GPs since last week, one of whom said take him to A&E "if we're worried" (wasn't much help - I rang because I didn't know whether to worry or not!), A&E said give him diaralyte (which he refused). 2nd GP said it's normal for a viral bug to take approx. 5-7 days to work its way out.

Is he dehydrated? Should I worry? Take him to GP again? A&E?

Blimmin' hard knowing what to do sometimes!

Was in similar situation few months ago. DS2 normally drinks loads of water throughout the day, wasn't drinking after V&D virus, so gave him ice-lollies, jellies, ice cubes to suck, lots of fruit on offer, tinned fruit and juice and let him drink from my mug(!) which worked well.

DS2 took ages to get back to his normal self, and eating and drinking worried me for a while but after about 2 weeks he was fine.

Try anything you can you to get fluids into him is my advice, but think it's totally normal reaction to avoid any food/drink after this kind of bug.

Thanks Debscee. Reassuring to know it can take this long to get back to normal. I'll try some of your tips, thanks.

Did your ds's sleep pattern also go haywire?? We've had horrific broken nights and daytime naps for days and days now - not much fun esp as I'm 33 weeks pg, just hoping it'll settle down before we have a newborn!

Good advice from Debscee...it is important to get fluids into them someway though as dehydration serious.So lollies,icecubes etc good.Don't worry about the food.

does he still have depression in head. I cant remember as mine are now 16 and 21.If he has and it is indented ,he is dehydrated. Also is his tongue wet or sticky.% days is a long time to be dehyrated for a baby. Try Rehidrat...it come in different flavours from dioralyte

Give him some weak orange squash

Yes, sleep totally messed up here too, took bit longer to get that back on track as was used to us coming in and out of his room when he was poorly and insisted on calling out for us all night long, refused day naps. Was not fun, but gentle persistence worked for us, we just had to chill out about it really. DH was more patient then me - can your DH take a bit more of the load?

Nothing else to add apart from consider giving him soup. Veg is high in water content on its own without the stock. My dd was once so dehydrated as a 7 month old, she didn't have any tears to cry. That was scary. If you pinch and release(softly obviously) the skin on the back of his hand it should spring back quickly, if it sort of 'tents' and takes a long time it could be an indicator of dehydration. I do think we over estimate how much fluid is necessary rather than how much we like to drink.