Hi Ladies,

I have come down with something horrible. Either gastro or food poisoning (I'm hoping the latter). My DH is minding Noah- changing/feeding etc and I'm staying away from him (which is killing me). Is there anything else I should do? Noah is 7 weeks old and I am so scared he is going to get sick too. I've been vomiting for 24 hours. What should I look for in Noah (I guess vomitting and diareaha?)
Thanks for any help!

He may not get it and probobly wont, but gastro can be very dangerous in young babies.
Just make sure that he is keeping his fluids up and is alert when he is awake. If he looks as though he may get it i would take him to the doctor or hospital as he could dehydrate.
Hope that you are feeling much better soon.


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Claire,
Sorry to hear you are not well. Sorry to say but it probably is a gastro bug as I have been on the phone all morning with Health First who said there was an outbreak atm in Canberra.
Unfortunately DD (10 months) seems to have it and they have been so helpful in giving me advice about how to prevent dehydration. As she is older we are just trying to get gastrolyte into her (she has not had anything to eat or any formula since 4pm yesterday)
If you notice any symptoms I would call Health First right away. They will advise you if you need to go to a doctor or hospital but if you are in any doubt trust your instincts and take your baby in! As said young babies can dehydrate very easily.
Tamara
DD Georgia 5/7/04

P.S Apparently the gastro only lasts 24-48 hours- you may be over the worst of it!

Gastro is contagious for about 3 days after you finish vomiting - and it's highly contagious. Really easy to catch from the slightest contact.

Good lulck!

Hope you're not feeling too horrible by now.
Wow, 7 week old baby! If you're breastfeeding, call the ABA for advice on still feeding baby without him catching the bug. Breastmilk has lots of great antibodies that can help prevent babies getting sick.
If he does start to vomit or get the runs, go to your GP (HealthFirst can advise on weekend doctors) if you can afford it instead of casualty. Hospital emergency rooms are horrible, and they will probably do the same thing as the GP anyway for gastro.

Oh you poor thing

Yep its a 48 hour incubation period, that these lovely little germs have, thats if it is gastro, so be careful. Best to change all the towels, etc you use. Also, for yourself, introduce fluid slowly. They recommend to wait an hour after you where last sick and then to sip a table spoon of cooled boiled water, do this every hour and then after 4 hours it goes up to 2 tablespoons, 5 hours, 3 etc, after 8 hours start on very bland food. Also those electorolyte frozen bars are GREAT. You can get them from the chemist.

As for Noah, hopefully he wont get it but if he does you will know that he has it, ie vomiting dierreoh. If he does I would phone health first straight away. Basically the real risk is that they get dehyrated, if this happens then a drip needs to be put in but that is only in severe cases.

My DD got it a few months ago and it hit her for 6 In saying that though afterwards she seemed to pull up better than me or my husband.

Hope you feel better soon

cheers

Alexandra



Quinn's webpage

Zoe's webpage

Thanks ladies, so far so good. Noah seems to be just fine (fingers crossed) I called Health First and they were great. They told me to go to emergency if I couldn't keep fluid down after 12 hours but finally I actually managed to take a few sips (around the 13 hour mark but hey! I'm not going back to hospital for a long time if I can help it- Noahs birth was pretty traumatic.)
They said if Noah showed any signs to call them and they would triage him before we got to TCH, so its good to know that that service is available if needed.

Thanks again ladies, you have really helped :-)