Been told not to give water for the winter vomiting bug? Correct?

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One of the DCs has this - vomiting and diarrhoea all night. Obviously I'm worried about dehydration, though he's been taking sips of water throughout.

I've just been told that water is the worst thing to give them, and that they were told this my medical staff.

I'm at a loss as to how this could possibly be the case!!!! Anyone actually know??

My guy has started to get sick again - darn it

Fwiw this is what I have learnt about stomach bugs. Hydration is key, even if most of it comes back up something will be getting in. Water or very weak squash as dioraltye does taste rank. I would steer clear of coke or fruit juice because of the effect on stomach acid.
It's quite normal for vomiting to continue into second day (or even 3rd unfortunately) but the normal pattern is that it will start to space out more. If it starts getting closer together again, to the point where nothing is staying down again, or the child shows signs of dehydration, then call a doctor. This happened with my son who got gastritis after a stomach bug and was hospitalised for dehydration.

agreeing with all the above regarding water or Dioralyte.

Also, in case like me you didn't know this (I didn't, till gently berated by NHS nurse for feeding DS dairy after very nasty gastroenteritis): do avoid dairy for 24-48 hours after symptoms stop. Apparently it's hard to digest. And google BRAT diet for tips on a bland diet.

(Not medically qualified, I hasten to add).

Wishing your little one better.

I use dilute ginger ale to keep hydrated when I or the boys have D&V. I would have Lucozade if I could get it here but the ginger ale does ok. Diluting it with water takes the fizz out so it doesn't irritate as much as if it was still fizzy.

I'm sure there is a risk if you just drink water for days on end with no other intake of anything; but in the first instances, water is usually the best. Dioralyte is better but isn't nice though :(

It's more the lactose than the dairy, so I use lactofree milk for a few days after eating resumes. Not much lactose in butter so don't worry too much about that- children's ward quite happy to give butter with toast and jam as first food! BRAT diet is a bit restrictive, most things are fine if not too rich/fatty.

Even if they don't drink dioralyte they should be drinking any clear fluid. It's rubbish to say don't drink water because it's dehydration which can kill (in extreme cases like cholera) or make you feel ill and dizzy.

If they won't drink dioralyte try coconut water. You can get it in tesco and it has potassium in it which is lost in vomiting and which dioralyte provides. If not plain water or even dilute squash. Any clear fluid!

"If you child was taken to hospital with this they would give blackcurrant squash!"

I think they prefer to give orange because of the colour of blackcurrant. They can't tell if the child is coughing up blood if they drink Blackcurrant.

Coconut water has a laxative effect though Pinkrose1

Mine have been in and both been given blackcurrant...just my experience.

Thanks Thelovecats I didn't realise it was the lactose. A scrape of butter on the toast won't be too bad. And regarding the BRAT diet: I take your point, but in the first 24 hours after a bad V period, it seems sensible to stick to the blandest foods possible. I must admit though to having added peeled cucumber to the rice, on the theory that it's mostly water anyway.

My guy ate this evening - crackers - he angled for cake the cheeky so and so. Sipped water through out the day and is now asleep.

I completely zonked having not slept last night and spent today cleaning carpets and sheets I'm hoping for a sick free night!!!

Good to hear about butter - I didn't know that about the lactose in butter had always wondered about giving buttered toast after D&V

I find that drinking water prolongs the bug, so I stop drinking if I have norovirus, I usually get over it super quickly and only vomit once or twice. Obviously, I wouldn't do this if I was dehydrated

Is there a difference between drinking water and just sipping?

Do you just stop totally?

If it is norovirus or something equally horrid, you will spend first few hours vomiting every 20 mins/half an hour or so, whether you drink anything or not. Obv drinking lots at this stage will make you be sick again because your stomach is irritated.
After the initial few hours it usually starts to space out. Once it starts spacing out you must start to rehydrate, just sips or a teaspoon or 2 at a time. If that stays down, gradually increase the amount. If you are sick again, go back to the beginning and just have a few mls at a time.

Blackcurrant Dioralyte made up and then a squeeze of Robinsons Squash'd added is actually quite palatable (believe me I know, I have to drink nearly a litre of this stuff a day

The worst vomiting I had was rotavirus poisoning - and it wasn't just V it was D as well, it was awful. Couldn't do more than sip water/ginger ale with that; and at the height of it I couldn't even do that, I was just lying on the floor with my tongue in the glass. I even phoned the OOH doc (as was then) to ask at what point I should worry about dehydration - he said after 24h if I still couldn't keep anything down.

Luckily, it stopped about 4h later, and I was able to sleep on the bathroom floor just in case and was the end of the D&V - but I was still like a piece of chewed string for the next 2 days, couldn't eat at all for the first one, only survived on water and dilute ginger ale (I have a tendency towards hypoglycaemia, hence the need for the sugar in the ginger ale) and then it was dry crackers after that.

I'm with you there Thumbwitch
I had a teaspoon so I could take half a teaspoon of water. Was so damn thirsty but couldn't keep anything down. Made me laugh when someone said they had diarrhoea ten times. I was like "umm try 100, then get back to me"
After 72hrs of that I went down with flu, just to top it off

Oooo ouch, goodas - your poor bum!

The horrible thing about the rotavirus was that I finally found out what "prostration" is all about (it's food poisoning symptom with some strains) - straight after a bout of feeling like I'd been punched in the middle and expelled at both ends, I'd be ok, but then I'd get progressively weaker and weaker until I couldn't even crawl (so camped out on bathroom floor) before the next spasm. And they got closer and closer together... ugh. Got it all out fairly quickly though, I'll give it that.

Oh it was so sore. I was alone too, and having to mop up my vomit wasn't pleasant! Took 3 weeks for me to feel normal but the flu was definitely "winning lottery ticket outside and I would have just gazed at it with disinterest"

Oh I bet!

I was "lucky" to have my 2 lodgers in the house - one brought the duvet from my bed for me, and the other fetched me the water and ginger ale, but I felt SO guilty because I was hogging the bathroom! At least I had a downstairs loo and shower, but they had to use the kitchen sink for teeth cleaning. Thankfully, because it was food poisoning, neither of them caught it (of course) - and one of them was a microbiologist so we went through the books until we found the matching set of symptoms/onset delay and the only one that fit was rotavirus. What fun!