Help! Gastro and DD not wanting to drink

Hi All,

Our family has got Gastro for about a week now and DD doesnt seem to be getting any better.

She doesnt want to eat at all and today her nappy remained quite dry (one nappy for the day) Everytime she drinks or eats (even a little bit), it all comes out and she refuses to drink the hydrolyte that the doc has told me to give her.

Im so worried she will dehydrate because he lips are already crackly.

How do i get her to drink hydrolyte? and stop her from drinking milk (we have been caving in to her constant crying for milk even though the doc said that should be avoid)

Help!!

Thanks

If she can't keep ANYTHING down I would take her to the drs. A dry nappy and cracked lips sounds like she is well on her way to dehydration, which can be very dangerous for little babies.

Have you tried the gastrolyte icy-poles? Or any icy-pole really?
I had a similar problem this week, DD wanted to be BF but kept throwing it up. I gave it to her anyway as i figured she MIGHT get some hydration from it and the throwing up bit wasn't distressing her too much.

Ive seen them at the pharmacy but she wont eat anything that is cold these days as it is very cold around here.

DD is 2 yrs old.

Do you think it is okay to give her flat lemonade instead? She seems ok with that.

I would rather give my DD flat lemonade than her get dehydrated. So i say yes it's ok. :) But just try let her have small sips, she is less likely to bring it back up.

Water it down though if it is full sugar and not diet, cause believe it or not the sugar concentration can actually pull water into the gut and make diarrhoea worse. I do agree with junglemum though one not very wet nappy and dry cracked lips sounds like dehydration already so maybe you should get her checked out. Just keep offering her small sips of fluid constantly and see how you go.

Flat lemonade, juice anything she will swallow would be good for her at this point. Just keep an eye on the next nappy, hope there is some improvement.

Gastro in Young Children

http://www.mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au/pu...H-6040-ENG.pdf

Thanks heaps Junglemum for that
I was looking at this emedicine website which was useless.

Poor girl, i know i shouldnt be giving her milk but she is always crying for it. Its always so much more painful to see your child in pain than it is when you're in pain =(

Just a tip so you can get a good feel of whether or not she is dehydrated - pop up folded up tissue in her nappy. If she does urinate (even a little bit) you will know for sure because the tissue will be wet even if the nappy doesn't feel wet iykwim (sometimes it can be so hard to tell). We had a similar thing with DS a few months ago and the MCHN hotline gave me that tip. The other things they told me were if there is no urine in an 8 hour period take him to hospital, and other less know signs of dehydration include cold hands and feet and dry mouth.

With the gastrolite/pedialite I found that giving it to DS in a dropper was about the only way I could get any into him. It is tedious cos you can only get a few mls in every few minutes, but I tend to think every bit helps. It is good stuff because it also keeps the bodies salts etc in check.

I know the docs say to steer away from milk and dairy products when you have gastro because there is a small risk of it leading to lactose intolerance in the longer-term. I'm not sure how old she is, but if milk is a key component of her food intake normally then I personally don't think giving it to her a bit can hurt, after all at least it is a fluid.

The problem with the milk and gastro (that is if you are going both ends) is that as soon as it hits the stomach it curdles which is why it comes back up. Rule of thumb my doc told me was if vomiting steer away from dairy, if it's just the bum then do everything bad as far as diet to bind it up... so meat, fatty stuff, white bread... stay away from the fruits etc... fibre.

Lemonade you really need to be careful with as it can cause dehydration like muminalice said. I found a good website was kids health... I think it's a dot org one. Hope your family gets better really fast. I really hate that bug!!

will she take it from a syringe? 10ml every hour at least.
not a hige fan of lemonade myself, but hey, fluids are fluids. What about plain water?