Gastro in 10 month old

[Anna**]

Does anyone know at which point I need to get Xander seen to urgently? I know gastro can be pretty yucko tho can be managed at home with fluids and rest. He still has the trots pretty badly and is not (IMO) drinking enough. He is passing diarrhea about 3-4 times a day - but totally (over) fills a nappy each time he does. He has now developed a weird raspy barking cry too.

I am having trouble counting how many wet nappies he is having as I am needing to change him before the nappy gets wet enough. At a guess, if he wasn't poo'ing, i honestly think he could use maybe 2 nappies in a 24 hour time frame from urine alone.

He is still alert and babbling, pulling to stand etc - though obviously very tired (but he isn't sleeping well either, even for him), his fontenelle is a little more sunken than usual. Other than that, I don't really know what to look for... I've called the health info line but really not as much help as I would have liked - they just said give him lots of fluids.

[Visitor7]

anna, a friend of mine's little boy had gastro when he was about 11 months old and because he was formula fed they had to stop the formula, he wasn't aloud to eat anything either for a 24 hour period and they had to give him some liquid stuff (sorry, don't know the name of it, I'll find out for you). I believe when you're breastfeeding though it's different, and you can continue breastfeeding (someone correct me if I'm wrong). How long has he had it for?

[Pandora]

If you have any doubt, then at least go to a GP who should be able to tell at a glance whether you need to go to hospital or not.
I was told with DS, that if he looks/seems dehydrated, floppy, not paying attention etc to take him.

There is a lot of conflicting info around about gastro, even from medical professionals.

DS has had at least 4 bouts of gastro ( all except one since starting at creche), and they have varied from vomiting twice and a bit runny nappies for 2 days, then nothing, to contants outputs at both ends for 4-5 days, to the last episode of no vomiting but constant runs for 10+ days.

I went to the doctors at least 4 times with that one. The first time I was told to keep his diet normal (he was still pretty happy for a boy with gastro, and had a good appetite) and milk etc. the next one said nothing except hydrolyte for 8 hours. we ended up having to do that twice, cos the first time I tried to reintroduce milk it all went haywire. So back to fluid and bland food (plain rice, plain pasta etc) for a while and eventually milk was OK again.

The South Australian CYH website has some good information on gastro if you want to google it. Theres info for b/f, f/f and older babies. If you want I can email or send you the link via msn.

Good luck, I hope its just a mild case for your little one.

[BellyBelly]

There is an article on the main site here

[Anna**]

Thanks ladies. I took Xander off to the GP this morning. The Doctor is a bit suss that it may be Giardia (which he likely picked up at playgroup) as the runs have gone on for longer than a week. I have to get a sample (the things we do as Mums') and wait for the results. Till then, I've just got to keep the fluids up as much as I can.