Massive vomiting after introducing solids?!? (EBF baby)

little__bit

I'm really curious if anyone has experienced this... My son turned 6-months yesterday, so we introduced a bit of rice cereal.  He showed all the signs of being ready for solids (teething, sitting up, reaching for and holding small objects, watching us eat with great interest). 

He's been EBF until yesterday, and we mixed the rice with a bit of breast milk.  He swallowed about 1 tbsp of prepared rice.

He took the rice just fine, then continued to play and nurse until he fell asleep at 8:30 pm.  At 11:30 pm, he woke up vomiting.  He spits up from time to time, but this episode was very different:  his whole body was retching the milk and cereal.  He continued to vomit for an hour, probably close to 5 oz of fluids total.  I tried to nurse him at that point to replace some fluids, but he was exhausted and fell asleep.  I nursed him at 5:30 this morning and again at 6:45.  When I left the house at 7:00 am, he was sleeping peacefully and there was no sign of additional vomiting or an upset stomach.  He didn't have a fever last night or this morning. 

I left a message with the advice nurse at the pedi's office and I'm waiting for a reply.  I called his daycare provider, and she said a stomach virus has been going around the local daycares, and my son probably picked it up.

What do you think?  Bad reaction to rice cereal or a stomach bug?  Either way, I'm bummed because I thought EBF babies were immune to gastrointestinal problems.  LOL.

mabst196

You'll just have to try again to see if its the rice cereal. Why would you think EBF babies are immune to gastrointestinal problems? They can still have allergies, intolerances, have reflux and catch viruses just like a formula fed baby.

little__bit

mabst196:

You'll just have to try again to see if its the rice cereal. Why would you think EBF babies are immune to gastrointestinal problems? They can still have allergies, intolerances, have reflux and catch viruses just like a formula fed baby.

You're right, we'll just have to try again.  My sarcastic little comment about EBF babies having lower risk of GI problems was based on some of the reading I've done over the past few months, including:

https://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1661904

https://www.thechildrenshospital.org/news/publications/shine/spring-2009/breastfeeding.aspx

But you're absolutely right that they're not immune.

mabst196

Good luck with it. DD threw up yogurt three times in order for me to rule out that she wasn't ready for it. Its not pretty.

SarahMay77

Hmm, I'm not sure.  An hour is a long time to vomit, but it could just be that he's having a hard time with the change to his system.  DD really only threw up w/one item: apricots.  It was mostly because she was congested and being dramatic.  She threw up at the end of the meal, not hours later.  It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was a ton of liquids.

Maybe wait a few days to see if it's a bug before trying again.

GabbyG

We had this EXACT same experience. DS was 7 months old, I gave hime rice cereal and BM before bed (2nd time he'd had rice cereal, but a larger quantity) and he woke up at 10pm full-on vomiting. No fever. He vomited for 2 hours.

We took him to the ER (dumb - it cost us $600) and they said it was probably a virus. But DS had not been around anyone but us for several days. 

He never had a reaction like that again.