My almost 5 month old RS has been throwing up every feed since midday I called 13health and they said to see Gp who said it was Gastro. He said to give him hydrolyte which I hate the idea of as he's only ever had bm. Dh has gone to the chemist now though. My poor little man cries for a bit before vomiting and the. Sobs during and afterwards. He's sad but I can comfort him so he's not distressed. I'm just confused because the Gp said to take him to hospital if he vomits again but then said just to keep an eye on him and take him to hospy if he gets dehydrated.
He fell asleep feeding before so I've put him down (on towels) and hoping his little body gets better soon.
Check his fontenelle (spelling sorry) gap in the head If its obviously sunken and the vomiting continues take him to be checked out at the hospital, its amazing how quickly fluids can make them look and feel better and just for your sake to get some peace of mind.
Breast milk will be fine he won't need hydrolyte at his age! If he continues to not keep BM down though I'd take him to get checked out he may need IV fluids if he can't keep anything down. But BM is perfect for him, offer feeds frequently. it's not nice when your LO is sick.
My DS had his first case of gastro when he was a couple of months older than your little one, but still 95% reliant on BM. The best advice I got for monitoring levels of dehydration was to monitor his urine output, as long as there was some urine in an 8 hour period, you are out of the danger zone. The best way to do this is to fold up a tissue and place it in the nappy. That way if they have a wee, even a tiny one, you can know for sure if they have gone or not (much better than trying to pull apart a nappy and still not know).
Personally, I would be very cautious about introducing the Pedialite - I'd actually go to the hospital before doing that. While he may be throwing up what appears to be everything he takes in, chances are he's keeping some BM down. BM is the best thing for him.
If it continues and he is still urinating, you could try expressing a little BM and then just giving him a teaspoon of it every two minutes or so. Once he's had 10 teaspoons, give him a break for half an hour or so and then start again. Often with gastro a little bit of fluid at a time is easier for the stomach to handle than one big lot in one go and it gives it a chance to settle.
In my experience some GP's have no idea when it comes to infants. In fact when DS first got it, we couldn't see our normal GP so had to see another in the practice. His advice for monitoring his hydration level was to weigh him. If we saw a 10% drop in his weight we needed to take him to hospital asap. I don't know about you, but I personally don't trust the accuracy of my bathroom scales to pick up a change of a few hundred grams with any sureity! I've always found the MCHN hotline really helpful when DS has been sick - in fact it was them who gave me the tissue tip.
That's a bit how I feel too, I wasn't sure about the GP's advice. He mainly said that for a little baby he can become dehydrated very quickly so go to hospital if we are worried. I was already worried when I called him! Miss E - thank you for your wonderful advice. DS was still having wet nappies and I was certain he wasn't dehydrated. DH went and got the hydralyte (powder for kids under 6 months not iceblocks the GP was suggesting) but I didn't give it to him. Poor little one was so exhausted he just crashed and only vomited a small amount of the feed up. He woke up this morning happy and without a high temp but DH said that when he had his midday bottle, he did have another small vomit. It's so horrible knowing he isn't well but thank you ladies for your support and advice.
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