5 month with gastroenteritis - milk advice

[Liland]

Hi there,

LO has gastroenteritis (and a stinking cold) according to out of hours gp. Vomit, diarrhoea, inconsolable screaming. I was instructed to give him his regular milk but diluted with double the amount of water as usual. So 2 scoops for 120ml water instead of 4.

Google seems to give a lot of contrasting advice on this being safe or dangerous. LO isn't dehydrated as of yet. Is this the right thing to do?

It’s safe under these circumstances. All you’re doing is making sure he is still getting some nutrition but extra hydration at the same time until the gastroenteritis passes.

Thanks. We've had weight gain problems (although he's fine now) which makes me nervous about reducing his calories. He does appear to be drinking more often though with the watered down milk, so perhaps it's wont be that bad.

Hi. My 7 month old had gastroenteritis for about 9 days, felt like forever!

He kept vomiting so I watered down his milk for about 2 days and he was fine albeit abit constipated. Full strength was making him worse so was not recovering as quick. I also gave him some diarlyte after the 7th day when I ended up going to the doctors who prescribed it as I couldn’t see the end in sight!

I made it up in his bottle (a satchet in 200ml cooled boiled water). This seemed to have helped him recover too. I made it for two days, first day he drank it all, second day he drank half and refused. He drank it throughout the day, whilst it was kept in the fridge so didn’t go off.

Hope this helps!