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....

[littlelara]

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

[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.

[Doing my best]

Honestly, I wouldn't give a rats about 'wasting' their time. I would be taking her and waiting.

[Arimeh]

DH isn't too concerned yet, thinks its just teething and once her big tooth has broken through she will be back to normal. She's not dehydrated yet - still drooling, so still has excess fluid in her somehow. Last time we went to the hospital because her fontanelle was sunken, and the doc there told him not to worry about dehydration unless the inside of her mouth is dry - which its definitely not.

[MrsFabuloso]

Some signs of dehydration in young children/baby's:

• More than six hours without a wet nappy
• Urine that looks darker in his nappyand smells stronger than usual
• Lethargy
• A dry, parched mouth and lips
• No tears while crying
• Sunken eyes
• Hands and feet that feel cold and look splotchy
• Excessive sleepiness or fussiness
• Sunken fontanels (the soft spots on your baby's head) baby should be seen by a medical professional in this case.
• Their capillary refill (briefly press on your child's nail bed so that it blanches or turns white, and see how long it takes to return to normal) Minimal dehydration is when capillary refill is less than 2 seconds. Moderate (and should be seen by a medical professional) is when capillary refill greater than 2 seconds.
• Skin fold recall or skin turgor test (gently pinch your child's skin on their abdomen, hold it for a few seconds and then let it go to see how long it takes to return to the normal position) Minimal dehydration is when there is instant recoil on skin turgor test. Moderate dehydration (and should be seen by medical professional) is whenrecoil on skin turgor test in less than 2 seconds.
HTH


ETA
Mel, have you tried giving her a pain reliever (ie, paracetomol/ibuprofen) then giving her a drink a little while later? Maybe if she has a sore throst she isn't drinking because it hurts, so if she has the pain relief she will drink?? Is she eating at all? I think if she's relatively active and fairly normal in her behaviour then she would be ok...

[Arimeh]

We've been dosing her up on nurofen and she will drink water afterwards (not much, but a few sips is better than nothing!) Still nothing for the bottles though. We were thinking a sore throat too cos she cries after she has a cough.

She still has lots of tears though - thats the only thing changed about her behaviour - she's whingy like the other two now.. LOL

ETA - forgot to add - she is still eating, bout half of what she normally consumes.