When your LO is sick...

kreeper611

what do you get them to eat? DS has an ear infection and the antibiotic they put him on has given him a crazy stomach.  Yesterday he threw up and every single diaper was super runny - to the point where we just rinsed him in the tub.

He won't really eat much.  1-2 bites of this or that.  Usually he'll down a banana in no time, but now he may only eat 1/4 of it.  He doesn't like toast or rice (for the BRAT diet) and won't drink the Pedialyte.

Any other suggestions?  The only way we've gotten him to drink any water was to let him drink from a real cup with a real straw.  That he's only doing because he thinks it is fun.

FirefightersBride

try to get him to eat some yogurt. That will at least replace the good bacteria in his digestive system that the antibiotics killed. Hope he's better soon. Oh and as far as drinking, when DS has an ear infection, he loves to drink from a bottle, like bottled water bottle. That way he doesn't have to suck on anything which hurts his ears.

benkari

I try to give them yogurt when they have the runs.  I don't remember why but the pedi recommended it.  Also I let them eat whatever they will regardless if it just a bite or two.

SailorGray

Yogurt.  Our ENT doc also suggested getting acidopholous tablets and putting them in the yogurt. He thinks that everyone on antibiotics, even adults, should do this since the meds really mess with your system.  Our pedi thought it was kind of pointless, but it couldn't hurt.

I hope your LO feels better.

kimberlyk921

When Owen is sick I just let him eat anything he wants. He loves toast with butter and honey, so it's usually that and either yogurt or a banana. Even if your LO is only eating 1/4 of it, at least he is getting something in him. So far Owen has only had 1 ear infection and he drank out of his sippy cup just fine. But like PP said, drinking out of a water bottle would make sense so the sucking would hurt the ears. 

biochemgirl

I know it's hard to watch them not eat much all day, but when my daughter is not interested in eating she is just not interested in eating and I can't force her to eat.  The past two days she has not wanted to eat anything and we haven't tried to force it-we offered her several options at each meal and for snacks but she just wasn't interested. For my daughter I know this means something is bothering her-teething, ears, virus of some sort, I am usually not sure which it is, but regardless when she is under the weather she just doesn't want to eat.  If I offer things and she rejects them all I just tell myself that something is wrong and she will eat when she is feeling better and try to give her extra love.  Yesterday she started with really bad diarrhea so I assume that is why she pretty much refused eating the past 2 days.  IT is hard to send her to bed without much food all day but I know there is nothing I can do until she is feeling better.

I just try to remember something our peds told us, which I have also read in other books-it is your job to offer the food and it is the child's job to decide whether or not to eat the food.  A simple statement but so true 

 

sapphire angel

When LO is at her worst fluid intake I follow her around with a syringe and whatever liquid I am trying to get her to take, usually juice or pedialyte, milk if no fever.

Are you trying the flavored pedialyte? There are also some pedialyte Popsicle things at the store next to the pedialyte bottles. Maybe that would be fun to eat?

Food I just let LO graze on whatever she feels like eating. I offer a lot of soft jarred/canned fruit (packed in water or juice, not syrup) because they have a lot of liquid to them and they don't hurt so much going down if a sore throat is an issue