Posted on 02/04/2006 2:28:54 PM PST by neverdem
Dealing with this now with my twin 19-month-old nieces....they were both breast fed and are not in daycare....their mom has had me helping her out for the past couple of days (cleaning, washing bed linen, changing diapers, and, consoling the babies, of course)...girls went to ER yesterday, when we learned what they had. Constant loose diarhea and/or projectile vomiting....they've only been 'fed' water, pedialite, gator-ade, etc., for the past 2 1/2 days. Girls are crying much of the day and last night, one was lethargic....this is like nothing I've ever seen. My sister-in-law is the mother of 5, and none of her three older children have had this. It's very bad/serious illness. Of course, have had to limit ingestion of liquids, which then causes babies to plead for juice/water, only to hear no, not now....which causes yet more crying. Doctor said that by Sat., things should be more normal.
Sorry to hear that.
They are on an IV, I presume?
Nope....doctor didn't do that. He said they need to drink lots of fluids, but every time they drank anything, it came right back up....the one baby is doing much better, almost completely normal now. But the other baby continues to need medication which keeps her from vomiting (can only give it to her every 11 hours or so); when it wears off, she's back to vomiting. But she looks much better today; her eyes aren't sunken and she's not lethargic-looking after taking that med for the past two days. It's allowing her to not only drink, but retain fluids. If she hadn't had that medicine, I'm positive she'd have been back to the ER with an IV the same day the doctor saw her.
I am very happy to hear they are better.
Next time (and there will be a next time), DEMAND an IV.
The baby gets hydrated almost immediately, and his or her horrible thirst calms down.
You generally then have to get admitted, which means hospital for at least a night, but it is worth every penny.
My personal opinion is that this ER doc was inept; thought the one baby has a heart problem (born that way), and it's severe enough to continue to warrant her to have a cardiologist in Atlanta where they live (they are visiting here in NY), the ER doc claimed he couldn't hear any heart murmer (but the nurse could).....my understanding from my sister-in-law is that it's a "siginificant" heart murmer....she will require surgery later if the hole doesn't close. The ER doc didn't even check their neck glands, nor check their throats to see if it was red. This hospital doesn't provide the best of care, to say the least.
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