The poor wee thing, gastroenteritis. It's been very grim, to be honest… although Babybear's been relatively chipper in between mammoth bouts of diaorrhea and vomiting, which is a good sign. I have been far from chipper, however – I've been the one miserably scrubbing and cleaning doing copious laundry and disinfecting, all to no avail. It started a week ago yesterday and according to the doctors might continue for a while longer as even if she's over the virus her gut is now completely traumatised and will take a few days extra to start absorbing things properly again.
The funny thing is that she seems more reluctant to take her formula milk than she is the very bland food we've been offering her, which isn't the way I thought things would go. Perhaps breastmilk would have been more appealing under the circumstances? (Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa ad infinitum). I have sometimes been giving her half measures of powder to liquid to lessen the strength of the milk but keep her liquids up, as clearly that's the most important thing.
You'll all be surprised to hear that I haven't gone short of unwanted parenting advice, though, so that's been fun to deal with on top of everything else. If one more sodding person gravely tells me that 'you have to make sure she doesn't get dehydrated' while offering me no practical insight into how the hell I get more liquid into an unco-operative child without resorting to a canula and an IV bag (my paramedic brother's helpful suggestion) I will fling thirty newly yellow-stained babygros into their faces and dance off into the moonlight.
Babybear has dined on chicken risotto, plain pasta, roast chicken, peas, green beans, bread and butter and pears for the most part this week as I have been trying to keep things as bland as possible (better for the baby, yes, but also infinitely preferable when there's a good chance you'll be washing it out of your ponytail at two o'clock in the morning). I have been very surprised at how much she has eaten. Nothing like her usual intake, naturally, but about half as much, which I wouldn't have anticipated.
So do you want to hear my top tip, courtesy of my mum? Immediately I told the old dear about the vomming etc she said to get an old towel or two over the cot sheet, so that when (inevitably) they puke in the middle of the night you don't have to fanny around with changing the bedding. It works… you just take off the towel, checking for damp patches on the next layer down, and then quickly hose the contents off in the bath. Once the baby is sorted she can go back into bed immediately (after a wee drink of water and brief toothbrushing session) and so can you, knowing that at least you won't have to face the horror of dried-in sick first thing the next morning. That's when she doesn't refuse point blank to go back into her cot, of course, because she'd rather jump about on your head for the next two hours…
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Tags: baby, illness, tummy bug
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Oh poor you, I had spotted you on Mumsnet and was wondering how you were getting on.
Big (but very careful and at arms length) hugs for Babybear.
Shockingly I have nothing to suggest, but it might make you feel better to know that an IV is exactly what my helpful paramedic brother in law suggested when I had food poisoning….shant repeat my reply here…its a family board and all that….
Poor poppet – ahhh the exploding nappies, we've had a bit of that this week as well (I say 'we' obviously I mean the Pickle and not myself). Now we've graduated to a bit of constipation. Bless her, the immense effort for the tiniest achievement.
Sorry no tips for the washing of stains other than rinse, soak in nappy soak overnight, then chuck into the washing machine with a bit of Vanish – seems to have worked for us.
Hope Babybear is back on form soon……
Funnily enough, Vanilla, my mum said that might happen. Apparently all four of us used to swing from 'one extreme to another' during a tummy bug. and Rowan, good to see that paramedics all over the country are stockpiling IVs for family pooing emergencies.
Yes , hugs to Babybear , now feeling slightly embarressed that I offered silly advice too! Hope equilibrium is now restored in the Bear household.
Also , mucho apologies for not being around either things have been really hectic in Boomer land – work, work , work , oh and some more work.
For some reason my mum always gave us homemade ice lollies when we were poorly to stop us dehydrating !
Dont know if it worked but I always remember it as one of the “nicer” sides of being poorly, that and the fact my Dad used to tuck us up on the sofa with the telly and a little silver bell to ring when we needed something!
Oh to be looked after like that again!
when did you offer silly advice, morv? as i recall you were hugely sympathetic (as you saw Babybear's pale face and slowly backed away from us lest we give you 'the bugs'). and that IS a good idea about the lollies, mrsh. i was reading on mumsnet that you can put a stick into a yoghurt or fromage frais, might try that next time…
cool, I have always wondered if you can just freeze yoghurts to get frozen yoghurt – yes I know that sounds slightly silly but I had a faint memory about freezing yoghurt being dangerous, my god this sounds so silly as I type it!
Oh no. Poor you. Poor Babybear. The towel idea is fab. We woke up this morning to crusty sick all over Minky's cot. Mr Moomin informed me of this just after Minky had thrown up all her milk – and what appeared to be some of yesterdays tea – all over me. Towel in her cot tonight.
Well, I guess it's our turn for copious amounts of floor scrubbing and washing machine action. Minky has been ill since Monday night when she kindly vomited all over me just before I was going out. We're now entering the diaorrhea stage. Looking forward to our doctors appointment this morning when I shall be told to keep her hydrated.
oh dear, you and Minky and your washing machine have my sympathies.
With both of mine, they have had a muslin or a towel under their heads at night practically since birth, since they were/are very sicky babies with reflux problems. It really does save a load of hassle, not having to change sheets in the middle of the night.
Hmmmm…. these tummy bugs are obviously racing around the country at the moment. Notsotall and I are both just recovering from a nasty vommitty episode on Monday night, and diaorrhea for her since then.
Top tip in case anyone else picks up the same bug – homeopathic remedy is 'Arsenicum' if you can get hold of some. I'm going to try it out with notsotall tomorrow if she has another bad night.
what does it do?
my doc said that when winter comes in there are always loads of tummy bugs around… i forgot to ask him why, of course…