DD2 came down with a stomach virus earlier this week and stopped eating/drinking. We took her to our pediatrictian and he said force her to drink or else else she'll end up in the hospital with an IV. Well, luckily the virus passed before it got to that point but it was close. We tried different ways to get her to drink assorted fluids but nothing worked. She fought against us anytime we put something to her mouth.

So, any suggestions? I could see where this could have been really bad if the medical IV treatment hadn't been there as a backup. Any tips on forcing a baby to drink when she doesn't want to?

Using "gear" is optional. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

-Blast

Aloha Blast,

Have you tried something flavored? Pedialyte is good stuff. They even have a frozen flavored version. Most of the times, kids don't pass up frozen sweet stuff. If you don't want Pedialyte, juice cut with water works too. I had to do that for my kids before. Then they will drink water after to clear their palate.

Sometimes, plain ice chips work too as does ice water. I don't know what it is with kids and cold stuff. But then again, I like it too.

When I was little and had stomach problems and didn't want to eat, my mom would give my hot ovaltine (made with water, not milk) and soda crackers. That seemed to help. I tried it with my kids too and it worked. They get fluid from the ovaltine mix. Coupled with the soda crackers, it seemd to settle their tummies. If the soda cracker is too hard for a 1 year old, you can break it up and toss it in the liquid to soften it. And since it is sweet, they drink water after.

I am glad DD2 is better. Good luch on hydrating.

Aloha is correct take any liquid like in sweet and turn it into a popcycle and give it to DD2.

I agree with Aoha, clear liquids (pedialyte is best, especially where nausea is symptom) and soda crackers. Stay away from fiber. Flat sprite or 7-up is good if diarrhea is an additional symptom. Don't try for mass, just steady intake and monitor the out take as best as you can (fluid wise). You want as much coming out the bottom end as you put into the top end.
Add a rocking chair, soothing music, and arms that never tire of holding DD2 and she will rest AND that means y'all will get some rest. Good Luck!

Blast, we went through something similar recently with our 3 year old. It wasn't that he wouldn't take water, but that he couldn't keep much down. There's a suppository to help with the vomiting, and my guess is that with vomiting and sore throat, that's one reason your girl didn't want to drink.

pedialite often tastes kinda nasty to kids if they aren't used to something similar. You can try freezing it into popsicles, giving ice chips, breaking up popsicles into pieces, things like that. When sick, clear liquids are best (nothing like milk).

I'm not sure you can do much. A large bulb tip syringe (you can get them at any pharmacy) could be used to irrigate the sides of the mouth, but sometimes as parents you have to force a child. Trust me, it's no fun - and a three year old fights against it a LOT.

I feel for ya...

Phenigren is the anti-nausea medicine. It comes in liquid, suppository, and (I think) pill forms. For most small children, the suppository works quickest and most reliably because they can't throw it up!

Our pediatrictian said not to use sugared stuff like fruit juice or water with sugar, that it would make things worse. After eight hours we threw that advise out the window. We tried water, water with sugar, pedialyte straight and frozen, apple juice, milk (cool and warm), all from sippy cups and bottles (Hey, I'm a scientist. Methodical experimentation is my thing). The only thing she ended up taking was a little apple sauce. Everything else she turned her head and viciously batted away. This went on for two days and one night. Luckily the second morning she drank like a camel. If not it would have been off to the hospital.

It was scary.

So, is there a special way to "headlock" her to force water down her throat without drowning her? Gads, just the idea sounds pretty bad, definately for a TEOTWAWKI sort of situation.

Oh and Aloha, as for sleep it seems that everyone is back on a regular schedule but me. Insomnia sucks.

-Blast

Blast, go blow something up, then you'll sleep like a baby afterwards.

Try a regular popsicle and put it in HER hand. Let her watch you eat one yourself. Or break off the top in front of her and give her the stick part and you eat the top, together.

Coming from Korea, is there anything that is fed there that might be more familiar?

I don't know much about children, much less babies, but the few I've known seem to rebel very easily against actual physical force.

For the future (it's guaranteed to happen again), try to find some suitable things for such times when she's well, then you might have something familiar to fall back on.

I'm glad she's feeling better. Get used to it if you plan on putting her in daycare or preschool. She will catch everything that every sickie brings in. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Blast, Susan makes a good point. Try watery jook for future reference.

We had to take our 15 month old baby to the ER after she developed a 102.3 fever rapidly and was throwing up. They had her there with an I.V. for over five hours before they took her to the Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital. She was in there for rour days but thankfully she is home now. Scared the life out of me.

China, actually but still D'oh!!! Congee!!! It's rice boiled with excess water until it turns almost into a milk-like material. That was one of her staples in the orphanage.

I'm such an idiot. We should have tried that right away. <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

-Blast

About 10 minutes after you wrote this there was a muffled "boom" and the power to our neighborhood went out! It was the first time my insomnia was benefitial as I was still awake two hours later to plug everything back in when the power came back. I don't know what knocked it out. It sounded like a transformer going but it usually takes them a lot longer to fix that out here.

-Blast

Reconcowboy,

Oh man, I would have gone nuts. I'm really glad she was okay. These incidents really bring home why so many children used to die when getting sick back in "the good ol' days". I'm glad those days are long past!

Let's hope they never come back.

But, if they do I want to be ready...that's one of the reasons I'm on this board.

-Blast, who is learning not EVERY problem can be solved with a sutible application of high explosives.

Did you try Jello? When our guys had rotavirus, they both ended up in the hospital, on IVs, etc... The nurses always counted the volume of Jello consumed as part of their fluid intake, rather than as a solid. They make both sweetened and sugar-free varieties. Works for grownups, too. We've always got several boxes in different flavors on hand for yucky tummies. Good luck.
As for the lack of sleep, the only thing that worked for me was following the 'when they sleep, you sleep' rule.

Here is a link for oral re-hydration solution. It saves little ones lives in
developing countries and works here too (and is good for adults with
the runs)

http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm

Even if they can't keep it down or in, the fluid will be helping purge
the gut and could shorten the duration of the illness.

The sugar helps the water to be assimilated more quickly.

If she won't drink, don't mess around and get her to the doc. It sometimes
takes only a day or two for those under 5 to succumb to that sort of
dehydration.

Thank you Susan for making some bells go off in my head!!!
When we took prisoners, the "golden rule" is that they have to be fed the same food from the same pots as our crew. The problem quickly arose that they could not physically "handle" our food as it was too rich for what their systems were used to. We had to then feed them the beans and rice that their systems were accustomed to.
This may be "part" of DD2's problem with the tummy. It sounds like she has maybe gotten something her system was overpowered by. Monitor her foods and see if there is any cause and effect evidence to substantiate this possibility.

That's your story and you're sticking to it, huh?

Had a similar experience when our oldest son was about 18 months old. He was having trouble keeping stuff down, and had a high fever. Tried giving him liquid Tylenol to help break the fever. He normally liked getting Tylenol, but he threw it up after a few minutes. We tried giving it to him again later, with the same results. On our third attempt, he was gagging and retching when we got the liquid in his mouth (I think he was making that flavor association with getting sick).

So, he was rejecting medicine and then wouldn't take any liquids. We got very worried, and did the late-night call to the pediatrician on duty as to when we need to make that decision that it's time to go to the ER. He didn't say "Don't go to the ER," but he said if you go, it's going to be 12 hours or so of rehydration therapy, and you only want to do that if things are really getting serious. I sadly can't remember the exact yardsticks he gave us over the phone, but there were several "rule of thumb" indicators he pointed out so we would know when it really was time to go to the ER. (I had to specifically ask him "how will we know when it's time?")

Our son already had dried cracked lips - the indicators he gave us were something to do with around the eyes and, I think, between the eyes/eyebrows region - really wish I could remember the indicators he pointed out.

As others have said, we tried a variety of liquids - water, watered down juice, pedialyte. I went to a 24-hour pharmacy looking for pedialyte frozen pops, and the pharmacist also pointed out Pediacare frozen pops - I had thought they had fever reducers in them, but just did a google search and the press releases make a point of saying there is no fever reducer in them - hmm.

Anyway, he continued to reject liquids for a long time, but did take the Pediapop when I asked him if he wanted ice cream (I was careful to make no hint that it was a medicine, and it comes in the same form as those plastic-wrapped freezer pops where you cut the end and slide it down as they eat it).

Finally, after a long night of lying next to him on the futon couch and intermittent bouts of trying to get him to drink something/anything, he took a sip of water from a straw, paused, said "More," drank some more, then said "Good." Nearly brought me to tears.

Anyway, lots of good advice from others in this thread - at some point, any kind of liquid is probably a good thing, and I like the ideas posted of jello or applesauce. Regular popsicles or medicated popsicles are a good idea. Also, try chipping them up/making them like a snow cone and eating with a spoon. Also, have straws and/or crazy straws on hand - anything that can make it a treat might be enough to make them drink. I also try to keep a package of the pedialyte pops frozen all the time.

My mom used to give us flat, room-temp ginger ale to settle our stomachs - and soda crackers or dry white toast.

Another thing I've found - I've always felt it important to keep Pedialyte on hand, but the times I've tried to use it, I'd open up the two-liter (or whatever size they are) big bottle, then the kids might drink 1/4 cup of it or less, then you can't keep it long once it's opened.

There's another brand of electrolyte drink that makes a "Blue's Clues" six pack of "squeezers" liquid - different colors and flavors, has a long flexible straw, and they're smaller so you're not throwing away a huge bottle once it's open.

Good luck - for me, this incident was one of my scariest, most nerve-wracking parenting episodes.

Dave

When all else fails...do research on renal absorbtion of water.

Of course, the child would just about have to be comatose to allow an enema...I know my three year old would definitely put up a fight.

It's a viable alternative to IV therapy. Luckily, I have the training and means to do both--but I'd be hard pressed to put a catheter in a toddler without doing it everyday. So, my (last resort) plan is to use the drip set as an enema.

The only way that i have been able to give my son medicine, before he now (thankfully) drinks out of the measuring cup, was to hold him on the floor and give it to him. The method is as follows:

place him on his back and straddle his chest so i am on my knees over him and put both of his hands above his head and hold his hands together with one of my hands. His arms prevented him from moving his head side to side.

use a syringe type measuring applicator to get it past his lips and give him very small amounts so he would swallow it. If i gave him too much he would spit it all out.

when the medecine is all in him, pick him up, wipe off any medecine that missed, and give him hugs to calm him down as he was usually upset by this time.

Believe me i know it is not real nice to force a child to take medicine like this but i find it much worse for his stubbbornness to keep him from getting better. they also learn what you are doing so by the second time it comes to give them a dose be prepared for the fit throwing and crying to start as soon as you try to give them any medecine.

Half-strength Gatorade is a good oral rehydration solution. Too much sugar in full-strength, it interefers with absoption of the water. Cheap. A flavor for almost everyone.

Here is another rehydration formula. It is better because it includes potassium.

Dr. Orient's Recipe

One teaspoon of "Lite Salt"(by Morton, 1/2 iodized potassium chloride, 1/2 sodium chloride in a blue cylinder),
1/3 teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate),
10 teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose),
and one quart of water.

Another vote for the Pedilyte freezer pops. Anything frozen worked (and still works) for our kids, even just an ice cube. Ginger ale with a straw is another sick-time "treat" that gets them to drink, but not warm and flat like some people mentioned.

My wife & my daughter got severely dehydrated after a bout with the flu. On the same day. At the same time. I found my wife nearly unconcious on the floor early in the morning, called 911. As they were loading her into the ambulance, she was able to mumble that "the baby is sick too..." and sure enough, she was also severely dehydrated. The process of getting an IV into the baby took 10 tries, and I had to hold her while she screamed and begged them to stop. You don't want your kids to dehydrate.
But I found that forcing liquids does not work. Small, frozen bits of stuff, but on a constant basis, works well, Tiny amounts of liquid, given with a shot glass or dropper works too. Avoid over-sweet stuff, and don't give plain water. It never happened again.