How long can they go without liquid?

[Arimeh]

DD2 is teething - quite horribly. yesterday she had a temp but was still drinking water.

3 days ago she started being totally off her bottles - except for the one at 7pm and 3am ones - where she would drink about 150ml if we were lucky.

Now - she has refused to drink all bottles for the past 2 days - except for the 3am one. She mostly drinks all of it, so about 200ml.

Today - she won't drink it in a bottle or sippy cup. She won't drink water now out of a sippy cup. We managed to get a tiny bit of water into her today by feeding her it in a cup, and then just tried to get her formula into her the same way. She took about 3 sips and didn't want any more.

Her nappies are already half dry when we take them off (cloth ones). She still has moisture on the inside of her mouth but the way she keeps drooling, and crying, I'm worried she'll start drying up!

So - how long can they actually go without fluids before some damage is done to them? She's nearly 11 months old.

[~me~]

I'd be a little concerned it's not just teething but rather something like perhaps a sore throat or tonsils?
Have you tried her on cows milk or even watered down juice? Is she still eating OK?
The fact she is drinking her 3am bottle she should be alright..I would persist with sippy cup water and have her checked out for a sore throat.
I would be really concerned if DD didn't have fluids within a 24hr period.
Hope she improves soon for you, it is really stressful when they don't drink
Perhaps try syringing water in to see if that helps.

[deletedit]

Mine managed to drink half a cup of water a day plus incidental liquids in foods for gawd knows how long before I noticed. Weeks, maybe? So I wouldn't stress over a day or two.

By this point she was complaining it hurt to go to the toilet (on the rare occasions she went), had dry, wrinkly hands, cracked lips, headaches and a sore tummy. To which most of these complaints I told her to go drink some water but didn't MAKE her drink so .. she didn't. When it came to a head (after arguing until I was blue in the face that just because desert animals don't need water, doesn't mean that human girls don't) I was standing over her MAKING her drink until she got better. Grrrrrrr @ kids who don't feel thirst and can do this to themselves.

[Beach Mama]

Poor darling, sounds like something else to me too Mel. Maybe try a cold frozen face washer for her to suck on of it's teething or get some hydrate icy piles to rehydrated her hun. If her nappies are dryish I would be watching her intake really closely and getting her seen if she won't take anything tonight.

[MrsFabuloso]

I think you would need to watch her fairly carefully, if her nappies have already changed to being dryer than normal, even though she's having some fluids, then it's obviously affecting her. If she has any less fluids, I would take her to the doctor. She might have more than just teething issues, like a sore throat. Will she have ice? Maybe freeze some apple juice or something to make it something sweet for her. Or try hydrolite or icy poles or something like that. Maybe give her juicy foods like watermelon and oranges?? Or just have a bottle of milk handy and try to give her a sip every hour or so, like just put it in her gob and hope she takes a few sucks, lol.
Hope she improves soon.

[LimeSlice]

Lemonade icy poles of ydralyte icy poles, only thing Charlotte will go near if she is really sick.
Keep persisting, even a teaspoon of liquid is better than none.

Hope she is feeling better soon poor poppet! xox

[Beach Mama]

How is she today Melski?

[Arimeh]

She drank about 100ml of her bottle at 4am, and her nappy this morning wasn't very wet :s

We have managed to get a little bit of water and some apple juice diluted in water into her (not much though) and just about to try another bottle.

[Beach Mama]

Good to hear, every little bit counts. Hope she is on the up now babe xox

[Arimeh]

No go on the bottle. So starts day 4 without any formula/milk of any sort....

[AnyDream]

OK, Day 4...if that was my child I would be taking her to the drs to get assessed.

[Arimeh]

OK, Day 4...if that was my child I would be taking her to the drs to get assessed.

If the gp system down here wasn't so screwed I would have already taken her. Our only option is taking her to the hospital, and its so backed up and busy (cos of the screwed up gp system) that we will be there all day, and probably most the night, just waiting for a doc to see her. And if it turns out to be nothing, they get a little cranky at you for wasting their time!!

She hasn't done a poo though - not her normal type of ones for a few days now. She did 1 poo yesterday that was just like paste, and this is a kid who poops up to 5 times a day normally.

[Ellee05]

I would call 13 HEALTH, to give you confidence that she needs to see a doctor. Personally i would be going to the hospital, you've persisted for four days, with no improvement. In the mean time try some hydralite iceblocks. Good luck, let us know how she goes.

[littlelara]

I give ours plain ice to munch on if I'm concerned, they love it.

[ezymay]

Mel I hope things look up soon. I can understand your reluctance to go to the hossy. It does sound Like you have tried everything. If there is no improvement tho the doc/hossy is the best place. I'll keep everything crossed!!

[Arimeh]

Ok well this is the update:
Eden *seems* to be ok this morning, she had a bottle last night at like 10ish (can't remember exact time) and then she woke up at 4.30 and drank another one, so she had the full 200ml both times. So far today she has had a little bit of her weetbix, some banana, some of my weetbix and is now having some orange. And she's had a few sips of water. Oh and she did an explosive poo this morning, I got her out of the cot and put my arm under her bottom and one around her waist and it squelched out the top of the sposie and went on my arm!! EWWW!!

So thats some food, liquid and a poo!!! Haven't seen the tooth yet to see if its broken through the gum (she won't let me touch her lips) so I'll have to see if I can sneak a peek later. Phew.

[MrsFabuloso]

Yayyy!!! Go Eden!! Keep it up baby, you had us worried!

I bet that's a relief for you Mel!

[Arimeh]

Well she still refused her bottle just before, just screamed when I offered it to her, so I dunno.... argh she's driving me crazy! LOL

I checked the tooth, its right there, but not quite through yet.