Gastroenteritis in a six month old

[Zoe]

My poor darling ds has had a nasty bout of gastroenteritis, which ended up in him being admitted to hospital on Sunday for rehydration which was quite the most scary thing in my life! He is home now, and we are trying really hard to get him well again and I need some advice/reassurance if possible that this is going ok.

He is taking about 20oz of liquid in per day - on Tuesday this was a mix of milk, water and a little diaoralyte, then yesterday, 17oz milk and 3oz diaoralyte. He is still vomiting a little bit, and I have deducted what he has vomited (approximately) from the totals of fluid above. His nappies have reverted to the way they were when he was breast-fed - like thick cream, which I am assuming is due to a liquid only diet and that the diarrhea has stopped as they are no longer green and offensive.

He is really lethargic - no smiles, no real interest in anything, just staring into space and immensely tired - sleeping about 19 hours a day.

Today I have tried him with half a rusk which seems to have stayed down, and I am hoping to gradually build his strength up and hope then that he will become himself again.

Is this ok? Does anyone have any further ideas/thoughts?

I went back to work last week, but as a consequence of ds illness have not been at all this week, which adds to the whole situation - I really feel quite wretched about it not to mention consumed by guilt as he has probably picked this up at nursery

Thanks

Zoe - First of all, please don't feel guilty, he could of picked up the bug from anywhere. My eldest ds (who wasn't in nursery) had really bad gastroenteritis aged 19 mths. Couldn't keep water down, and was finally admitted to hospital for rehydration via a drip after being like it for 4 days (that was despite me taking him to see various doctors because I was so worried, and one trying to assure me it was just a sore throat, even though I kept insisting his throat was sore due to repeated vomiting!). It is very upsetting to see your child looking so poorly, and I cried my eyes out when they put the cannula in his hand.
He did lose a lot of weight with it (he was quite skinny to begin with) and it took him a while to get over it. I think you are doing everything right. As much fluid as you can get down them through little sips here and there. Dry, bland food which doesn't irritate the stomach is good too. I put my ds on to gold top milk for a while as he wouldn't really eat, but would drink milk and benefitted from the extra calories. Really all you can do is give him a little of what he fancies. Don't give too much at once, or the whole lot is liable to come back up again and then you are right back to square one. If he will take dioralyte that is very good too - my ds wouldn't touch it with a barge pole! Hope he's soon feeling much better. Love Chanelx

Zoe - DD also 6 months had a bad fever last week and a bad cough, yesterday she "violently" vomitted at nursery... so she is a bit under the weather... I know this sounds "stupid" but a lot of body-to-body contact, hugs, cuddles are the best way for him to get better (besides what you are already doing). He needs to be re-assured, let him sleep as much as he wants...
And try not to worry about work... and as far as for nursery, well they do pick up a lot of viruses from nursery but it does get better as they build their immunity...
Good luck !

Zoe, I've been through the same thing with my dd. She was admitted to hospital for two nights when she was 12 mths old, after she caught gastroenteritis. We actually rushed her to hospital after she began vomiting blood. It was the most scary event of my life.
At first we didn't know what was wrong with her and the doctors thought she may have swallowed something. An x ray proved she hadn't but she was v poorly.
She too lost a lot of weight and it was weeks before she was back to herself.
I still now live in fear of it happening again as it was truly frightening and I seemed to spend most of my time crying.
I too felt guilty wondering if I had scubbed her bottles properly. She too had just the week before started in a creche attached to my gym.
But we shouldn't feel guilty about it. As much as we would like to we can't wrap them in cotton wool . They have to mix with other children and attend nurseries and playgroups.
It would be far crueler to keep them locked away so they wouldn't catch anything.
Hope all is well soon. Let us know!

Thanks for all your support

We ended up in the hospital again this weekend, as he was getting no better and on Saturday was either vomiting or refusing everything. So I have just spent two nights in the Children's Ward, but it has been worth it as he is now not vomiting, and is eating small amounts of his solids again, and is generally more cheerful although not himself yet - at least he is smiling again! He is still only taking a much reduced amount of fluids, less than whilst he was in, but I am sure that he is having enough to keep him hydrated - to maintain the status quo whilst he regains his strength. Usually he has about 30oz milk per day and today he has had 20oz.

What was frightening was putting him on the A and E scales on Saturday and discovering that he was a pound and a half lighter than he had been six days earlier on the same scales! Por little chicken!

So now I will have to build him up and keep my fingers crossed that he is well enough to go back to the nursery next Monday as my parents will look after him this week(Thur and Fri), but they are back at work next week. sigh more guilt!

Zoe:

Hope your ds is doing well - and you also...such a bummer, especially just as you return to work.

Please try not to be too hard on yourself! Let us know how you are faring...

Just a little advice needed - dd now 11mths old, and has had a combination of vomiting/diarrhoea for five days. Nothing really alarming, barr Mon night when she wouldn't keep fluids down, but that had fortunately settled by the morning. Intermittent vomiting, usually in the evening, bringing up every tiny scrap I've tried to coax down her in the day - and I mean tiny scrap - couple of spoonfuls here and there of bland food.
Diarrhoea bad Mon-Tues (just fluid) but has now 'settled?' to creamy explosions infrequently (but then she isn't eating much to pass thru)
Have tried not feeding at all for 24 hrs barr breast feeds (but these are only small now). Will tolerate some water, not much. Nappies drier than usual. Unhappy, tired, grizzly - getting the picture?
I know she's losing weight, as feels substantially lighter. Anyone else had experience like this? I called NHS direct on Weds, and they told me to manage it at home, doing what I've been doing - how long should I go on though? Any advice gratefully received.

Leese, take your daughter to the doctor tomorrow. It's Friday and you probably won't get a chance to go on the weekend. Find out from her what to do if your daughter continues as is or gets worse. That way, in the event something does happen over the weekend, you're prepared. As you've indicated, it's dehydration you need to worry about and with drier nappies than normal, you need to keep a close eye on things.

In the meantime, try and focus on the liquids. Maybe a bit of very dilute juice? Anything that gets fluids into her. An ice lolly or frozen juice? There should be an electrolyte solution for kids here at the pharmacist. I'm not sure what it's called here, sorry.. in the US it's Pedialyte. That would probably be the best thing. Ask the pharmacist. He should know.

Hope things get better.

Sheesh, I just previewed this and I'm all doom and gloom! It's not that bad, just one of my paranoias. Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me, I always say.

Hi Leese,

Don't worry too much about food. Concentrate on the breast feeds even if they are little and often. I would make an appointment for your GP for a thorough check over. Perhaps you are needing a stool specimen sent to make sure it is not anything other than a virus. One of the most common thing for babies to get is rotavirus ( I think that is how you spell it) which will get better eventually. If your baby does look for food then do give it. It is an old wives tale about starving diarrhoea.
Breastmilk is definately OK. Cows milk usually aggravates the delicate bowel in diarrhoeal illness.
For children who do not like dioralyte, flat lemonade does the same job. Don't expect babies and children to drink lots all at once. Frequent small drinks are good. It is the total consumed throughout the day that is important.
Remember the plus side of babies and children becoming ill is that they are developing their immunity to combat the bug when they meet it again.
Advice from one professional to another is not to sit at home diagnosing and not wanting to trouble the doctor with something that you think might be trivial. Get medical advice for reassurance ie. direct contact with own GP.
Your baby will probably have improved by the time you read this!

Many thanks JJ and Mears - took her to Gp today, who was a bit abrupt, but basically said what you guys said (only not in as much detail) To continue as I am, and not to worry about the weight loss - tho' find it hard as she's really small to start with!
Very interesting about flat lemonade Mears - I'll give it a shot.
No vomiting this afternoon, so fingers crossed!
And no - you didn't sound all doom and gloom JJ!

Nearly two months on I can honestly say that this was the most frightening thing that ever happened to me so far in ds's lfe - however, once he began to recover, he really got stuck in to building himself back up - for a fortnight he had 44oz milk every day AND three meals! Right up until he regained his pre-illness weight and then went back to normal. Now he is fine.

I think that its a real case of "ride the storm" and try to keep calm, and as said earlier it does help him (and you) deal with other illnesses later (conjunctivitis? - a doddle!)

Hope your little one is better soon leese