Worried sick, tummy bug and teething or is it something else??

[magic123]

Hi, My little girl is 8months and has never been a very good eater, she had started to slide down from the 75th centile and is now down around the 25th but is on 99th for height. I am still breast feeding and she wont take a bottle or a cup (well 2oz at nursery) 4 wks ago she stopped eating all together and was sick and had the runs. This went on for a week and then she got better and had a really good week eating lots. I had her weighed and she had lost 4oz but, I thought, only to be expected.

Then it happened again last week only this time it has lasted longer and she has a cold as well. She is eating now maybe a couple of spoons at each meal but has been waking crying for 3 hr periods in the middle of the night, unconsolable and was sick again tonight. I am so worried now and nearly gave up bf last week as I thought if she was on formula it would all improve but couldnt go through with it as it would have been too awfull and I love it. She has a temp of 39.6 tonight and I am begining to really worry it might be something else. Everyone says it is teething but can it really cause this much illness? Then I am feeling like maybe it could be something I have been giving her as I have been cooking lots of cheesey stuff to help her gain weight, maybe she has an intolerance. I am dreading the doctors putting her on antibiotics as that will really mess her tummy up. Poor little thing it seems like she hasnt been right for ages. Do I give up bf? Help, I dont know where to turn and am very tiered as she has been sleeping through from 10 wks so arnt used to this sleep deprivation. Anyone else been through this?

Its not just teething, because according to my GP teething is not associated with a high temp. If there is a fever its a virus. That's not to say that teething might be affecting her too (she might have both a virus and teething)

Don't give up breastfeeding - when my mix fed baby had a sick bug he managed to keep down small breast feeds, but consistently vomited formula. Formula is harder to digest.

There are a few of these viruses doing the rounds, my wee 4 month old baby had a sicky bug 2 weeks ago (lasted 3 days) and this week had another (lasted 2 days). Both were accompanied by vomiting and high temp, plus extreme irritability and night time waking. I drove him around on a 6 mile round trip at 2.00 am earlier this week in a desparate bid to get him to sleep!!

To keep baby's temperature down try the following routine: 5ml of calpol, followed 2 hours later by 2.5 ml of children's nurofen, followed 2 hours later by 5ml of calpol, and then 2 hours later 2.5 ml of children's nurofen again. That way you are giving temperature relieving drugs every 2 hours but you can safely do this because one is paracetomol and the other aspirin based. My doctor recommended this regime and it made baby ds much more comfortable.

and btw, for what its worth if the doctor recommends antiobiotics then please use them. I don't mean to sound abrupt, but you didn't go to medical school for 5 years and then do extensive post registration training but the doctor did!

and I really hope that your little girl starts to get better soon. Its terribly worring / draining when they are poorly isn't it. ((((Big hugs)))))) - you have my sympathy.

If you do get given antibiotics then you can give some probiotics as well. DS2 had probiotics at 6 weeks as he was put on antibiotics (I checked with a HV who checked with a dietician before I did this). Most doctors are much less likely to just hand out antibiotics for the sake of it these days- and a lot are happy to give a prescription for you to decide whether or not to use if it doesn't clear after a few days. A lot of tummy bugs are viral though - especially at this time of year. Lay off everything except bmilk for a day (unless she begins to look hungry in which case give her something bland - prob not cheese). Hope she's feeling better soon.

Seems like ages ago - but when my dd had a tummy bug that wasn't going away(lasted about 4 days), the doctor actually suggested taking her off milk and food completely for 24 hours and just giving her diarolite (sp?) instead to keep her fluid intake up. His thinking was that continually giving her milk and small amounts of even bland food was at that stage just giving the bug something to fuel itself on - if that makes sense.

I was highly sceptical about dd accepting the diarolite (sp again?) as it was blackcurrant flavoured and she has never had juice - but to my amazement, she loved it. After 24 hours we slowly starting re-introducing milk - which was diluted formula as I had already stopped bf'ing and then baby rice mixed with the tiniest amount of vegetables. I reckon it took about 2 weeks for her to get back to normal again... Small babies seem to take quite a while to recover from this kind of illness.

If it continues for much longer - I would seriously go to your GP for advice.