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