What do I feed a baby with diarrhea??

[JMmum]

I have a 7 month old that usually has around 3 bottles of formula a day and the rest is solid food. Since Friday he has had diarrhea and has been sick a couple of times as well. He has had a lot of water and combinations of water and formula (the doctors suggestion) - I had my mother over yesterday and she is insisting that I shouldn't feed him milk at all and should only give him baby rice and water. So far today he has not had any bowel movements - so can I go back to giving him a bit of formula? My mother says not for 24 hours - don't know who to listen to at the moment and would appreciate some other opinions...

I think your mum is right. It's obviously important to keep giving fluids but I'm pretty certain you don't give any foods while he is still being sick or has the diarrhea. I think you are supposed to make a solution with diarolite (think this is the name) so your baby still gets important salts etc. If I was you I would get on the phone to NHS Direct now to confirm what you should be doing. 0845 4647.

Hope your LO gets better soon!

If your ds is being sick don't give solids and only give sips of water (out of a bottle) as regularly as you can - every 10 or so mins - he can get lots of fluid like that and will be fine. If it turns to just diarrhoea, you can start to give food again as my GP insists it makes no difference except to make the child miserable to withdraw food (and that includes dairy!)

Diarolyte, as sc says, which you can get in a chemist. When it happened to ds with me I was told just to give him boiled water and diarolyte if he would drink it. I suppose advice from GP's does differ.

thanks for the messages - he has had several bottles of diaralyte mixed with water today and seems to be on the mend, I did give him some food before he went to sleep this evening as he seemed really hungry, which I suppose is a good sign!!! thanks again ladies...