Liam has been sick since Sunday. He has been throwing up since then (on and off) although the fever only lasted through Tuesday. The throwing up has me a bit concerned....5 days seems a long time to be dealing with that. Sunday/Monday were the only days he wasn't keeping ANYTHING down. Now he is able to keep down some of what he eats/drinks. He's been eating crackers, applesauce, the occasional bite of banana, some toast, gingerale and water. At this point he is keeping enough down that I am not super stressed about dehydration....in fact yesterday he kept down most of his food and just threw up after his afternoon snack. His energy level and interest in food is back (as of yesterday), but this morning he had a piece of toast and some *very* diluted apple juice and he threw up after eating it. :???: I'm just not sure what I should do at this point. Would you continue to just ride this out (unless he stops keeping most things down again) or would you start thinking about taking him to see the doctor? TIA

I am a worrier and when DS did that for us, he was throwing up just every night, not during the day, but I took him more for my piece of mind than anything. Does your doctor have a nurse line that you can call and ask? Ours does and I love it. If something happens or he is sick, I call and speak to the nurse first. She then determines if she thinks they need to see him or not or gives me advice on what to do next. I can always bring him even if she doesn't think they need to see him. When DS was tiny and kept throwing up, they would say give the pedialyte in tablespoons, once an hour until he kept one down, but since this is food, you may want to call.

There isn't much a doctor could do except give him some gravol or possibly an IV ( if the dehydration is that bad). Do you think it's bad enough to warrant that? You can always call Alberta Healthlink and ask. When DH was vomiting for days all he got from the doc was some gravol and instructions to rest, LOL. They do sell children's gravol over the counter at most pharmacies to help with vomiting so you don't *have* to go to a doc for it.

Just talked to health link. She said because it's been 5 days and he is not on regular food yet at all that he should be seen by a doctor. So I called the doctor's office. There are no appointments availble until next week. So I can go in to see the dr on call this afternoon (fortunately it is our doc) but who knows how long we'd be waiting there. And I'd have to take all three kids (during Callum's naptime) and (oddly enough) pray that he throws up in the waiting room so that we don't have to wait and wait and wait.... We do have gravol. I haven't given it to him since Monday because he has been keeping some food down. sigh. I just don't know what to do. [flagsurrender]

Kim, his friendly bacteria is gone, and doctors don't understand this sort of thing. He needs to get live acidophilus in him, asap. Make sure it's alive. You can get if from a health food store, and if it's alive, it'll be in the refrigerated section.

Kim, I've been through this numerous times with my kids, and when the kids were young, not one doctor ever mentioned it. By the kids' throwing up and/or diarrhea, they lose their friendly bacteria, which needs to be there to help them digest food. If it's low or gone, they'll puke and have diarrhea often after eating.

I ran into an acquaintance a couple of years ago, and she said her hubby had been in and out of the hospital for over a month with no health insurance, and were now going to have to file for bankruptcy because of it. All because her hubby had gotten the flu and for some 'amazing and baffling reason that no doctor on earth could figure out', he was still puking a month later. I told her to go immediately to the health food store and get some acidophilus. Explained why. She called me 48 hours later in tears because her hubby was feeling good and eating for the first time in a month! Ever since then, every time I run into her, she brings up how shocked she was that the doctors didn't even know about this!

You don't even want to know what the hospital unnecessarily put my son through when he was four because he was throwing up for more than a week! I find out from a friend *after* Scotty was tortured and tested for every infection under the sun (with no results, of course), what the problem was. It was cleared up in two days. Since then, whenever one of my little ones got the stomach flu and continued to throw up after the flu was apparently gone (or should have been), I got my hands on the acidophilus and it's worked wonders every single time. It's a matter of fact. When you puke, you lose friendly bacteria, which is essential for digestion and health. And after a good bout of puking, you can be really depleted. This is the reason for the BRAT diet. People who've been throwing up, 'mysteriously' don't keep food down that well afterward. Hmmm... Why would that be? LOL! [rotfl]

Praying Liam feels better very soon! I know how disconcerting it can be when you kidlet doesn't heal as quickly as you expect. [sadashamed]

[lovesign]

Joy [welcomewave]

JoyLynn-

Is that the same thing as a Probiotic? Our Peds nurse told me to get that once. It was in the refrigerator at the Pharmacy.

Great info, Joy!!!!

Kim ~ I hope he's feeling better soon...

Wow great info Joy, how does that stuff come, I know you can things like that over here in yogurt form or drink form. Will remember that when me and Sinead are ill.

Kim I hope that your lo gets better soon, it must be hard on all of you sending you some hugs.

Edited: acidophilus, it is also advised to take a course of this after anti biotics as well. Just found it on a health food.

Beth, yeah, it's a probiotic. :mrgreen: And Z, you're absolutely correct that it's good to take when you're on antibiotics. [thumbsup]

Scotty contracted the flesh eating virus in his bone a handful of years back, was hospitalized for two months, and was on the super heavy-duty antibiotics. I asked the doctors about probiotics and they looked at me like I was a space alien. [whatquestion] They did, however, prescribe a very strong drug to combat the intestinal problems that come with the territory while taking these killer antibiotics. They said he *will* have chronic diarrhea, and he *will* do a lot of vomiting until he's off the antibiotics. Well, I brought in the acidophilus, and he never threw up or had the runs while on them. The doctors and nurses were puzzled, and as often as I mentioned it was the probiotics, they just looked at me like I was crazy and continued to scratch their heads [whatscratchinghead]. They seriously don't understand. They weren't taught.

[loveflag]

Joy [welcomewave]

there was a nasty gastro fluey thing going aroundt the kids school, Grayce (4) came home from school last Monday and threw up. once she could keep somethng down we started adding the probiotics into her applesauce, 4 capsules at a time. most of the kids at shoool missed many days of school with lingering diarrhea. Grayce's never progressed any further. I really think that the probiotics helped her out.

Thank you for telling me that, Joy!!!!! I will file that little bit of info for sure! And I'll give him some yogurt (I've got that in the house) in the morning and see if that helps at all.

I decided against going to the doctor. I just didn't feel like it would be worth my time and effort. Instead, I decided to drive into the city today. I was coming in on Saturday anyway to spend the weekend before picking up dh (YAY!!) on Tuesday. So I am at my mil's now. She is wondering whether or not ds has 5ths disease. (She works in a school and sees it all the time.) Liams cheeks are all of a sudden really red tonight. So we'll see.

I'll update when I can! Thanks again!! :mrgreen:

Kim, i am just seeing this now but ds did the same thing a few months back, vomiting only at night after the flu was gone. the dr told me that his espogus was inflamed from being sick and to give him some children's benadryl at night. i did that and it worked right away. i think i gave it to him for three nights. dr said that his system needed to be non irritated so he wouldn't be so sensitive and prone to throwing up. hth!