Sick child! Need help!

[Kraehe Branwen]

My son has never puked before so I don't know what to do or if I should take him to the doc. I can't get him to drink anything, which is something my mom said to do to keep him hydrated. He refuses. He's only three and won't be forced. And it seems like every ten to twenty minutes he pukes. By now it's only maybe a little bit, but it was massive amounts about an hour or two ago, maybe three. He keeps falling asleep but keeps waking back up and crying. I think his stomach might hurt but I dunno. Should we take him to the ER? Or is this normal and something that will pass by morning?

[Kale]

Just ran this by my dad, who's a pediatric anaesthesiologist. He says the answer is yes - he needs to go to the ER.

In general, though, I'd recommend just calling a doctor for advice rather than going to an online forum.

[Gharhda the Hutt]

Sounds right to me. From my knowledge, I didn't do that when I was three-ish.

[Cat X]

In general, though, I'd recommend just calling a doctor for advice rather than going to an online forum.

This cant be repeated often enough. Dont ask us, we are NOT qualified.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Well depends who is online, but I agree. Don't wait, call a Doctor next time! But as a Nurse student who is graduating soon, yes ER :eek Your kiddo is dehydrating fast and that is dangerous for children.

edit - hah didnt see when you posted this. You are hopefully long gone by now :)

[Kraehe Branwen]

Well I managed to get him to drink something and he's asleep now. He's stopped puking too. I wasn't on because I was rocking him and trying to get him to drink something. Rubbing his back seemed to help. I gave him pedialyte. Reason I came on here to ask is cuz I was getting conflicting advice from my mom and from my husband but didn't know whether to trust it or not. But seems he's doing fine now.

[Miranda Tarkin]

Heh, fair enough. It was the continued vomiting that concerned me with the inability to keep fluids down. that is an emergency situation. however, he isn't anymore and pedialyte is a great choice :)

[John Anthony]

Yay! He stopped Puking!

HIP HIP HOORAY! :ninja

[Lilaena De'Ville]

If you have a question about a sick kid I would always err on the side of caution and call my doctor. After hours gets tricky and I know the ER can be expensive even with insurance... but money can't replace a child.

Glad to hear he's doing better now - I'd still take him into see your regular pediatrician tomorrow. :)

[stevenvdb]

Relieved to hear he's doing better. :) Had a bout of this last year with my daughter, when she was one at the time. We were worried she'd asphyxiate. Terrible terrible feeling. It's better worrying, going to the doctor and feeling overprotective and foolish afterwards... Listen to your pediatrician; you'll build up a knowledgbase on your child that will help guide you in the future.

Pedialyte is most marvelous stuff. And of course, water.

Even if they can keep it down, it's sometimes hard to get the little ones to drink enough water, because they are afraid they migth vomit again.:(

One trick I figured out last summer, even though it's probably better to avoid some of the more sugary drinks and juices (empty calories, not great for teeth), if the little tyke doesn't want to drink, you can sometimes take some juice and dilute it down to a level where you can barely detect it being there. This often "tricks" them into drinking plenty. ;)

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Wow.... I've gone through 3 separate occasions when my daughter had the same problems but.... I'd never even bother taking her to the ER for it!!! The first time it happened she was fairly small and instead of the doctor I called the midwife who'd been around during my pregnancy and my daughter's birth and the time afterwards, and she asked me a few things about my daughter's symptoms, then told me to calm down, take a few minutes to relax and then keep as close to my daughter as possible and try to get her to relax, because vomiting is not something any child likes and usually would make a child fairly hysterical, but this often resulted because of the reactions it was getting from the parents. So I calmed down, and spent the rest of the night holding my daughter and rocking her, talking to her, singing to her, and doing my best to show her that it wasn't something terrible and that I knew what I was doing. It was the hardest thing to do but it worked wonders, and I've done the same ever since (well okay so I stopped carrying her around all the time because she got too big for that). The next morning the midwife called around and brought me some stuff to give to her in case anything like that happened again, and I went to the doctor the same day, too, to get her checked up, and he gave me a few more things and told me I'd done the best thing I could have done.

My ex rushed off to the ER one time because he was being a baby and thought he was about to die from having some stomach cramps (yeah right :rolleyes) and since I was accompanying him I talked to the doctor on duty about this sort of thing, and he was telling me how he couldn't understand why people keep thinking they always have to rush off to hospital the first moment they get sick. Yes, vomiting and all that can get serious, but it's the body's reaction to something bad for it, and there really isn't much the ER can do about it other than giving some medicine to stop the vomiting. Which isn't always the best thing to do, but can't hurt and medicine like that belongs into any home medicine chest. The doctor said unless there were some life-threatening symptoms (like unconsciousness or bleeding or breathing difficulties) a trip to the ER would just worsen the situation in most cases because what a child would need in that situation was lots of love, warmth and a soothing atmosphere - which the ER does not provide. Usually rushing to the ER only soothes the parents who don't know what to do, and does little to soothe the patient.

Seriously - keeping a child hydrated is important when vomiting or diarrhea occurs, but so is using some common sense. I always keep some homeopathic remedies around for various symptoms, and have had much better results with that than with normal medicines - even if it meant the vomiting didn't stop instantly, it went straight to the heart of the problem and usually meant my daughter would be long up and about before anyone else with the same stomach bug would be.

Just my two cents worth.

[Kraehe Branwen]

Yeah I think he may have been puking more often because he was scared and upset. This was the first time afterall. After I had calmed him down he had only puked a little bit twice then stopped completely and fell asleep for the night. I left a sippy cup of pedialyte by his bed all night for him which is something I normally dont do because its bad for his teeth but he needs it now. His only symptom was the puking, my husband gathered he didn't have a tummy ache because he only cried when he was puking. I probably shouldn't have shared my mozzarella sticks with him, I think thats what might have done it cuz thats what he ate before he started getting sick. I feel bad if thats what did it. :( Like I should have known. I have two kids! I should be a pro by now!! But I've shared them before, so I dunno, it was just a different brand.

[Kraehe Branwen]

Another update. He had a little diarrhea this morning but he is much happier. He is drinking plenty. His birthday is this weekend but I let him have one of his presents early cuz he went through so much last night, poor thing. He's in his room playing with his toy cash register and having lots of fun like normal. I'm going to cut out dairy from his diet today to avoid upsetting his tummy, and any sugar which means none of his favorite cereal(Captain Crunch). But there is plenty more that he can eat. He's nibbling on some toast right now, no butter.

[Jedieb]

I'm sorry to hear you went through such a fright. At one time or another all 3 of mine have given us some kind of scare but we've only taken them to our doctor after head injuries. Those, we don't take any chances with and one nasty spill prompted us to take our youngest daughter to the ER. And by "us" I mean my wife frantically took her to the ER after calling our doctor. I had to be reminded this event actually took place just the other day.

"Thank god our kids have never been to the ER."
"What are you talking about, I had to take Mary Elizabeth when she fell down the stairs that one time!"
"Really? Are sure you're not thinking about some other kid you've got stashed away?"
"You're an idiot."

Ah, such is life. I take it he was never running a fever? There's something else that scares my wife. High fevers that linger.

[Kraehe Branwen]

My son is generally a healthy kid. Hes only ever had two ear infections, three mild colds, and this puking episode. So I never know what to do when he gets sick and everyone around me tends to think I overreact when he does get sick. Both my mom and my husband were telling me he'd be fine, just to keep him hydrated but I was freaking out. I can't help it, he's my baby and I haven't dealt with puking before. But yeah he didn't have a fever at all. He had a mild fever before when he had a cold but never anything to worry about. It was something that tylenol easily took care of within about an hour or two with some bed rest. I really think this time he just ate something that didn't agree with his tummy, being the mozzarella sticks. Hes doing okay now. No more diarrhea and hes drinking lots, though not eating much yet and hes tuckered out still. Hes taking a nap right now which is a little early for him. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with his bedtime routine.

[Kraehe Branwen]

We ended up having to take him to the ER last night. :( He was fine up until I finally relented to his begging and let him have milk because he seemed fine and he puked again. Plus I realized he wasn't having any wet diapers all day long so we took him and they tested him and said he was dehydrated. He has the stomach flu, so it wasn't the mozzarella sticks like I thought. It probably didn't help considering they have milk in them though. They gave him an IV which was very traumatizing for both of us. I cried with him because I've never seen him like that. He was acting like we were cutting a limb off of him while we was awake. They numbed the spot but it didn't seem to help. But the nurse didn't know what she was doing, she'd never done a child before. And we were there for eight hours. They gave me instructions that I am going to follow no matter how much he begs for milk. Clear liquids only and soft foods only for today, no dairy. Poor thing's birthday is this weekend too, I hope he gets better by then. I had a whole day planned for him that he won't be able to enjoy if he can't eat or is too weak to play.

[Wyl Staedtler]

:( Poor thing. Hope he's better now.

There's something going around out here too, which hasn't been fun with no indoor plumbing. Thankfully Rhys seems to be pretty sturdy and hasn't come down with anything, but we're still keeping him quarantined from the other boys and enforcing the "wash your hands every fifteen minutes" rule.

[Kraehe Branwen]

He's lost two pounds and still whiney. Eating now but not much. He's stopped puking and isn't having the runs anymore, but I'm really worried about his appetite. The doc said not to worry but you can see his ribs for God sakes. I think that guy is a quack.

[Mu Satach]

You know, it may take a while for his digestive system to fully recover from whatever he had, and from your descriptions it sounds like he caught a whopper. As his body repairs itself his appetite should increase back to normal.

[stevenvdb]

Sorry that you had to go through that. The incident I was referring to from last year was flu-related as well. :(

You already instictually know this and don't really need any of us queenbees' harping this at you, but I think what some of us might re-emphasize, is that even though it tears one up inside, that sometimes one's first instinct is to panic (it's one of your sweeties!) and it's difficult when one is feeling anxious to not show some signs of stress, this little boy needs to see that his mommy is calm and collected, even though you are probably winging it...

[Kraehe Branwen]

Hes eating more now and acting more like himself. Playing more, hyper as hell. But he's still tuckered out. Instead of going to bed at 9 pm as usual he goes to bed around 5 pm or 6 pm because he just gets so whiney and so out of sorts that I know hes over tired. He's been through a lot and still recovering so I know he's not going to be able to get through his usual full day yet. He finally got rid of the diarrhea but Im not sure how much he weighs yet. I'm going to weigh him at the end of the week to see if he's lost or gained. I was letting him drink as much chocolate milk as he wanted to get some extra calories into him but funny thing is... he prefers plain milk! lol I normally dont let him have chocolate milk except for on special occasions so I guess he lost taste for it rather quickly. Darn it! But he wasn't wanting to eat any cake for his birthday which was disheartening. He usually tears into it each year. :( But he still had fun. I saw to that. I blew up 32 balloons to fill the living room like a ball pit. He loved it and it was the happiest I'd seen him since he got sick. He had snuck out of his room for some reason then came to our room and jumped on us while we were sleeping cuz he saw the surprise. lmao