J.R.
Didn't the doctor at the hospital have anything to say about this? What about your pediatrician?
My 14 month old daughter has been vomiting for a week (since last Monday). The first day was 5-6 times, and then 2-3 times a day. We have tried just sips of Pedialyte drinks and popsicles which worked well the first couple of days, but now she refuses both. We have also given her small amounts of milk, because that is all she will drink. She has also eaten a bit of cheerios, bread, bananas, and yogurt. She became lethargic with few wet diapers so took her to the Children's hospital yesterday and she received IV fluids with sugar. She was acting almost normal after, so we thought we were over the worst of it, but this morning she threw up again, twice. After that she acted almost normal again. After the vomiting today, we started giving her lactose free milk and just some yogurt. Any ideas? Is it possible for a virus to last this long? Any thing else we can give her to eat or drink that may help? She does have diarrhea as well, but the vomiting is the main symptom. She also had a temp of 99.9 one day, but mostly does not have a fever. Thanks for any advice you can give us!
Didn't the doctor at the hospital have anything to say about this? What about your pediatrician?
You need to talk to a doctor about this one. Thats a lot of vomiting, and vomiting, diarrhea, and slight fever... all adds up to getting it checked out by a professional to me.
My daughter did the same thing around the holidays. She has always vomitted for no apparant reason and has a dificult time shaking a stomach bug. When she was an infant she was diagnosed with acid reflux, and put on meds for it. Now that she is 2 she still has bouts of vomitting and it is usually when she hasnt eaten much bread foods, and?or drinks milk to fast. I now give her Childrens Tums.
Anyway since your child is 14 months old I would take her in and see if they think she has acid reflux and give her meds. It is always a good idea to talk to her doctor before trying something new. also see if you can get her to eat toast or crackers to help absorb the extra acid in her tummy.
Best of Luck I know how frightening this can be!
My 10 month old grandson just went through something like this about 3 weeks ago and it lasted a little over a week. He went in for tests and they couldn't find anything so they said it was a "bug". We dropped the amount of formula he was drinking (he's not on regular milk yet) to 2 oz. a feeding, if he could keep it down for an hour and a half we gave Gerber Stage 2 banana's--1/2 a jar. If he kept that down for an hour and a half we gave him 2 more oz. of formula. We also cut out all milk products other than the formula; no yogurt, cheese, food with milk, etc... We did this process for 24 hours and he seemed to get over whatever it was he had and was able to start keeping things down. We gradually added more formula and foods back over the next 2 days and now he is "back to normal". I hope this helps.
Try to restrict her to the BRAT diet (bananas, applesauce, rice, and toast). Milk and yogurt may be too hard to digest right now. Anything she puts in her body that is too difficult to digest will just get sent back out. Keep up the Pedialyte and Pedi-pops, or even 7-Up if she refuses. Try frozen waffles (plain), or dry cereal.
I'm sure that Childrens checked her blood sugars, but I would double check that and have more tests run- this sounds serious to me.
I am sure you will get a ton of advice but this method has worked with my kids, my mom's kids and her mom's kids so maybe it will work for you.
2tblspoons jello gelatin powder dissolved in a half cup boiling water. Stir in enough cool water or even ginger ale or seven up to cool it for her. The algae cultures in the jello "reset" the ph balance of the tummy and allow the vomiting to stop. When she wants something to eat: Give her a saltine or two first. Wait at least an hour before giving her more. Let her drink the "Jello tea" with it as both are easy on the tummy but don't let her over do it. When she keeps that down for a couple of hours you can offer something like saltines with a little peanut butter thinly spread (will add a little protein)
You can use any flavor of Jello but my mom always said that reds and oranges and blues are harder on the tummy than the yellow and greens. SO, give her lemon, lemon/lime (for my kids I do a lemon lime mix (1 TBLsp of each)
Next step is getting her potassium back up..if she can keep pieces of banana down those are best. I'd wait until at least the next day though. It's sort of a step by step process. Avoid all dairy for at least three days. She can get her calcium in other ways. When she can keep down the crackers and jello for several hours you can give her rice, and other pale foods. We used to avoid "colors" in general in foods when our kids were sick as babies. You can add a little chicken to the rice if she needs more flavor, or simply sprinkly on a small amount of cinnamon and sugar (We used to call it poor man's Glorified rice. Any foods that don't have much in the way of dyes in them. After a day you can give her things like cheerios..bland but tasty. Careful with the salt but add just a dash to her rice as it will help her retain some of the fluids. We all need sodium just not too much. Same day as the cheerios some white meat chicken boiled in water to make a broth she can drink..ramen noodles without the flavor pack (Tons of MSG in those anyway..we don't use the flavor packets ever). Let her play however she likes, but encourage her to not over do it. Keep the Jello Tea going for just the one day usually. Don't be disappointed if she throws up at least once or twice more after the jello...just keep giving it. Apparently once its cooled and set you can give it too them as well. I made "Jello" pops out of them in ice cube trays and dropped them into cups of water for a couple of days after. Its a good "electrolyte" replacer too...and cheaper than pedialyte. Things like this take a little patience but by the fourth day you can begin giving her small amounts of what she normally would eat and see what happens. Check your labels for things like MSG as that is a big time allergy in my family and all of us get horrible headaches and tummy aches from it. MSG = Mono-Sodium-Glutamate on ingredients lists. Ramen flavor packets are loaded with it..so we just use the noodles and toss the packets. Keep spices to a minimum until she's feeling better. Careful with garlic, chili powder and anything else that might be a diuretic. (Garlic is a good one if you have a cold not if you have a tummy ache!) Watc heat and humidity levels. Seasonal allergies can cause my youngest daughter to get upset tummy because of sinus drainage. If there is a plant in your area "fuzzing out" like dogwood trees, fireweed plants, milkweed....she says her tongue feels like it has "hair all over it" and she can't breath through her nose at all. Wet season allergies like mold can cause the same. Lots of allergens in the air this time of year. I noticed that I have a tendency to be more "dairy" sensitive when my other allergies are acting up. Because cows are fed grass products the allergens can be passed into the milk no matter the process of pastuerization etc. You can give her a tablespoon of honey every day on a piece of toast..local variety is best..that will build her immunity to the allergens in the air. Hope some of this helps!
Go see your dr. When you took her to the hospital they provided immediate relief for the dehyrdration (IV). There is anti nausea medicine that can be given (compazine). But more importantly you need to find out what is causing her to vomit continuously. Yes, viruses can last for a week or longer, but you need to find out what virus she has and whether or not you'll be experiencing what she just went through. Again, vomiting for that long of a time will tax her system, find the cause.
Take her back to the doctor and thenm what you have told us.
Follow the B.R.A.T. diet
B Bananas
R Rice
A Applesauce
T Tea and Toast
This is the easiest things to digest. The more milk and yogurt you give her the more her stomach will react. Keep offering the water, pedialyte, popsicles, and diluted juice. Dehydration makes the vomiting worse and the fever higher. I have been through this a number of times with my kids and the more you stick to the BRAT diet the better it is. Good luck!
My daughter was about the same age when I went through that with her. If she is throwing up again, I would take her back in. Children are very susceptible to becoming extremely dehydrated in a very short amount of time, and your daughter is even more so, as she is likely still recovering from her 1st bout before IV. The hospital should be running tests to make sure she doesn't have an intestinal or digestive infection and should be able to test for food alergies also. No fever isn't always a good indication of no infection. Better to be safe and take her in. :) I hope she feels better soon!
A week is a long time for a one year old. What did they tell you at the hospital? Did a doctor evaluate all her symptoms or just give you a quick verdict of "virus?" If she doesn't seem considerably better by tomorrow, I would want to have her pediatrician check her out.
It could be a virus, of course. A pesky one is apparently making the rounds now. Keep in mind some viruses and bacteria can be quite serious. Some sort of blockage is possible; when I was 12 my appendix burst after a week of vomiting, and there were no other symptoms worth worrying about, not even much fever.
Sounds like you're pretty much doing the right things; liquids at every opportunity, frequent small quantities of food she'll tolerate.
Food allergy is another possibility worth considering. Lactose-free is a good idea, and gluten-free would be worth trying if this problem continues. I used to give my daughter cream of rice cereal when she was gastrically challenged. Here's one website (of many) that gives a quick list of other gluten-free foods: http://www.gicare.com/diets/Gluten-Free.aspx
Good luck. I hope you'll write "So what happened" and let us know how your daughter is doing.
My daughter went through the smae thing at about the same age. She was good about taking fluids though, so no dehydration - my doctor told me (and I am sure that's what they told you) it's best to let it run it course and to only bring her in if she shows symptoms of dehydration - definitely keep a close eye on that.
For us it lasted 10 days, I thought she was over it and went back to giving her her normal food (she was REALLY hungry) and she had one more episode of projectile vomiting all of her dinner over the dining table... (YUCK!) Make sure that now that you are starting foods again give only very small portions, but more frequently... she may be over the virus, but her stomach is probably quite sensitive still.
Oh, and before I forget... pedialyte is really GROSS! If she doen't like it you can give diluted juice instead (I do 1 part apple juice to 3 parts water), really anything that she will drink is ok, just make sure it's not too acidic and does not have a lot of sugar.