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Original poster

ds has sickness and diarrorea - any advice?

22 replies

tracyk · 12/02/2006 13:51

ds is almost 2 and started being sick on Friday at 6am. He couldn't even have a sip of water without throwing it back up. Went on all day - very miserable looking wee boy, but poo ok.
Yesterday morning - v. chirpy and took 2 x 3 oz normal milk. stayed down. then took another 3 oz milk after an hour or so - and it came back up. Had some water and stayed down. Had some jelly and bread and butter and it stayed down for almost 2 hours - then came back up. Then very runny, creamy poo a couple of times.
Slept 12 hours last night and then was sick half an hour after he woke but was kind of bile stuff. Asked for milk and I gave him 3ozs - which he threw back up again shortly afterwards.
Took him to oncall GP this morning and got diorlite.
Is sleeping now.
Is this a normal bug? any good food/drink to offer?

OP posts:

puddle · 12/02/2006 14:00

Tracy my ds is ill with horrid bug too. Milk is the worst thing to give them when they have d and v the bug will feed off it. If you can, best to try and stay off it for a bit. Will he drink water?

Original poster

tracyk · 12/02/2006 14:03

He does drink water - but sometimes he whines for milk - I'll keep it away from him and offer something else to distract him. I thought it would be calming on his tummy. oops.
He had a jar of baby porridge yesterday and seemed to keep it down - do you think that's ok?

OP posts:

mszebra · 12/02/2006 14:04

DON'T GIVE ANY FOOD UNTIL HE CAN KEEP WATER DOWN. Or any drink with calories init, for that matter.

All you are doing is feeding the tummy bug, not the child, don't give food when they can't even keep water down.

If it were me, I'd give loads of water until he had dry-retched a few times. This means he's puked the bugs out of his tummy (probably). Then give lots of small sips of water (little sip every 5 minutes). Stick with that regime for at least 2 hours.

He may at that point start clamouring for food. Don't believe him. Keep fobbing him off with small sips of water until he is climbing the walls with energy & getting almost tearful for food.

Then give him a little drink of a fluid, like milk or juice. Only about 3 oz. Go with a fluid because it still hydrates him even if I'm wrong & he does puke it back up. And it doesn't hurt so much to throw it back up, either.

Wait an hour minimum, ideally more like 2 hours.

By now he shoudl be ravenous & you will KNOW the throwing up bit is overwith. You can start feeding him pretty much as normal. Diarreha may take a bit longer, just keep his fluids up until that's gone too.

If you follow that advice, the tummy bug will be gone in about 4-5 hours.

If any of this advice goes wrong, start over. Go back to the beginning & offer big drinks of water until he's puked all the germ-laden bug out of his tummy.

Original poster

tracyk · 12/02/2006 14:07

Wow - good advice mszebra.
I thought that perhaps the bugs were travelling through his system as his food was staying down longer each time before puking and then by day 2 had reached his botty and was working its way out.

OP posts:

mszebra · 12/02/2006 14:08

ps, I should have said more clearly, the whole point of the regime I wrote out is to starve out the tummy bug while still getting some fluid into the child.

Be really careful you don't catch it yourself, btw, child must use his own cup/utensils, nobody share, handle anything he threw up on like toxic waste & wash at 60 degrees, wash your hands every chance you get.

I'm only so rabid about this because I've learnt the hard way myself, btw, doing all the wrong things in the past.

Heathcliffscathy · 12/02/2006 14:09

mszebra are grumpy?

mszebra · 12/02/2006 14:22

am I grumpy? NO more than usual, lol.
It bothers me that we (parents, people) don't get taught how to deal with sickness bugs, it should be right up there with teaching parents CPR or what to do in case of burns. Friend's dd has been hospitalised a few times with tummy bugs, really upsets me, but I can't be as pushy IRL with her as I am by writing it out here.

I really hate catching the damn bugs, too, give me an ordinary cold instead, any day. I totally dread having a tummy bug in the house. I have a complete siege mentality when one of my kids comes home with one.

But that mentality is right. Years ago, first time DS1 had a tummy bug it took me a week to clear it. I can now almost always clear them out in 4-6 hours. Experience has forced me to become a pro!!

mszebra · 12/02/2006 14:26

oh, and I forgot to say, I eventually caught that first tummy bug off of ds1, I was sick for nearly a week, when I was 7 weeks pregnant with DD and already struggling with morning sickness and DH had undiagnosed pneumonia. I went 36 hours without keeping water down.

See why I'm so f*ing evangelical...!

Heathcliffscathy · 12/02/2006 14:28

oh crumbs...should have been clearer... i meant are you grumpyzebra....she was the absolute guru of my life on mn a few months ago in terms of giving me solid gold advice about what to do when ds was vomiting....so thought you might be the same person...if you are, thank you...you've saved us so much puke mopping as when we follow the advice the puking stops v shortly!

mszebra · 12/02/2006 15:12

yes I was grumpyzebra, I thnk I'm the only zebra-variation-named person on mn.
Makes me feel quite happy to know I helped you, sophable.
I'll give credit to Chris Green, who explains all this (very firmly) in his childcare books, too.

Heathcliffscathy · 12/02/2006 15:15

thank you so much. really. it's never longer than overnight now...

Original poster

tracyk · 12/02/2006 15:16

but if ds had slept for 12 hours with nothing in his tummy - would that not have starved the bug?

OP posts:

chapsmum · 12/02/2006 15:20

My mum says you should wait 24 hrs after the vommiting, though my mum also said thongs give you piles...

Heathcliffscathy · 12/02/2006 15:22

i think the point is to see if small sips of water can be kept down. zebra's original advice was then start with small amount of any food (pref somethign that is easier to puke) every 15 mins....see if they keep it down. if at any point there is a puke, then back to square one....nothing but water for few hours....pref overnight.

mszebra · 12/02/2006 15:25

Might have starved the bug, but why take any chances? I'm not sure if bugs don't shut their metabolism down a bit overnight like the rest of the human body can do. So I'd still go for lots of sips of water for as long as possible... until he's obviously bright and very hungry again & most importantly, the water is def. staying down. A normally healthy child can handle being starved out this way for a little while. Then go for something that's easy & not to painful to throw up again (like apple juice). Then stand back (you can still offer water, though) for as long as you & the child can stand it, & see if that stays down.

Having said all that, at this point, with child having been ill a few days, the dioralyte is probably a good idea alongside water. Being calorie-less it doesn't feed the bugs but it does get some electrolytes back in the system.

mszebra · 12/02/2006 20:20

How is he, tracyk?

Original poster

tracyk · 13/02/2006 08:08

Thanks for asking mszebra. Last night was traumatic. Stuck to giving him water only - but he was howling and really crying for milk/food. Eventually I gave him some toast with a tiny bit of butter. He wolfed it - and it stayed down. Put him to bed just before 7 and he slept through till 5.45am - again waking and miserably asking for milk. Gave him water and an hour later gave him some toast. So far stayed down!
He's still v. tired and hungry and miserable. Keeping him off nursery and will maybe try him on some scrambled egg or beans on toast for lunch??

OP posts:

mszebra · 13/02/2006 20:44

I hope you gave him whatever he liked for lunch, tracyk, I hope I didn't encourage you to starve him too long!!! When they get to the howling for food stage they're usually fine, btw.

dinny · 13/02/2006 20:57

glad your ds feeling better, Tracy.

can I ask Zebra something about vomming bugs? my dd woke this am with tummy ache but no temp, then did massive puke in the car (very unusual for her she's only been sick once before in her life). then ds had a few squitty nappies today (that tell-tale creamy poo). they are both ravenous though and dd hasn't been sick again (nor has ds had a poo since about 3pm). do you think that was "the bug"? and is it over or am I in for a night of puking?

Original poster

tracyk · 14/02/2006 12:05

I spoke too soon - he is still puking and vile green nappies. Went to GP's today (day 5) and he reckons may have an infection - but have the delightful job of retreiving a sample from his next nappy!

OP posts:

mszebra · 15/02/2006 03:17

Oh no, tracyk, he must have something pretty bad (more than the garden-variety tummy bug, anyway). I'm sure you know to keep his fluid intake up no matter what. Am so sorry to hear he's still poorly. Let us know how he's doing... I'll worry if you don't!

Original poster

tracyk · 15/02/2006 19:19

More than 24 hours now with no puking! nappies back to loose yellowy ones - not green anymore. Has eaten a whole load of rubbish today - spaghetti hoops, mashed potatos, apple muller rices, bits of cheese, grapes, popcorn and and had some milk at 6pm. No puking yet! He seems back to normal spirits today albeit not much stamina.
Thanks for all your advice and support. Back to nursery tomoro - hope he doesn't catch it again!

OP posts:

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