What to feed a toddler recovering from sickness bug

[89redballoons]

My 18 month old was really ill at the weekend and spent 12 hours unable to hold down any food or drink at all. His GP said it was just a stomach bug, lots going round, and to give him plain foods and lots of fluids until he felt better. He's been on a diet of plain mashed potato, dry toast, rice cakes and very diluted apple juice and he hasn't been sick for 24 hours now so hopefully we are over the worst of it.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to gradually reintroduce normal foods now, as I don't want to jump straight back to giving him lots of meat/dairy/fruit and veg as I imagine that would irritate his stomach more. At the same time this diet isn't exactly nutritious so he does need to get back to eating a wider range of food sometime.

He is my first and, because of the pandemic, hasn't ever really been ill before, so I'm at a bit of a loss and would appreciate any tips!

I am in an identical position Op.

Norovirus hit us all over the weekend and DS has it for 12 hours.

We've done as you are: plain mash, toast etc but he's getting quite hungry now and we've just gone back to normal meals now to be honest. It's been 48 hours since he was unwell so is clearly over it.

But while he wasn't himself we did just let him eat whatever he wanted just to get something down!

Sorry, to add he's also 18 months

So today he's had

Weetabix and toast for breakfast
Beef stew and mash then watermelon for lunch
Lentil curry and rice then yoghurt for dinner

With some various snacks throughout.

He didn't eat it all but was clearly hungry enough to give it all a good go. And we could see a difference in his energy levels after he ate too

Not food exactly but ice lollies are great at preventing dehydration.

I would go back to a normal diet now tbh, just maybe another few days with less creamy options.

Maybe chicken/ salmon, rice and peas, or pesto pasta with some veg. Eggs all ways are good.

I would try a smoothie to get some calories on to him. Peanut butter, banana, milk for example.

According to the NICE guideline, once they're tolerating fluids fine and rehydrated, you can do straight to their normal foods.

We had similar recently and our DS is a skinny thing at the best of times, losing a kilo was not what he needed. Doctors advice was basically to give him anything that he asked for but to stick to bland otherwise. Thanks fully he loves bananas so had a lot of those. DS did end up eating a lot of rice pudding, really sugary and I don’t usually buy it but it got a lot of calories in in a short period. Doctor also prescribed extra ice creams over the summer to get his weight up a bit, I love our paediatrician!

If toast, mashed potato and rice cakes going down ok, then I would proceed on to a little roast chicken, carrots and potatoes. Maybe some noodles in chicken stock with some peas and sweetcorn. Maybe some plain white fish or fish fingers with some more mash and peas. Ham sandwiches? Boiled egg and soldiers? Scrambled egg on toast?

We make cheesy veg mash in our house always down well and a great way of getting veg into poorly children.

Thanks everyone, very helpful

Bananas, noodles in chicken stock, peas and sweetcorn are some of his favourite things so will try some of those tomorrow and then add his normal milk/dairy foods back in, then hopefully all back to normal after that.

Anything but milk until you’re sure it will stay down.
Made that mistake before!

@tubbycustardtummyache so did we on our brand new dark grey sofa 🤦🏼‍♀️

According to the NICE guideline, once they're tolerating fluids fine and rehydrated, you can do straight to their normal foods.

This ^

Your GP has given you some outdated advice there. I'd just give him whatever he likes at the moment.

My mam used to give us cheese on toast topped with a soft poached egg as our recovering from sickness meal. Homemade vegetable soup if she thought we might still be ill.

They’re still the foods I want if I’m under the weather.