Preschooler's latest bug

Cat_M

Just wondering if anyone familiar with this. My lad is in playschool/ crèche so has had various bugs but this one has just knocked him for 6 so much that I'm curious to know how common it is, or did my little man just get hit particularly hard?
Vomiting and diarrhea for 24 hours Which resulted in him getting dehydrated and us going to a&e - first time this has ever been needed. Next 2 days barely drinking and no food. Day 4 finally eating tiny amounts and drinking more. Day 5 eating a tiny bit more. But all the time he has been very sleepy and has literally spent most of the day lying on the couch it back in bed. He's never been as bad. I'm taking comfort in the fact that he is back eating and drinking albeit small amounts but God. Has anyone experience of the recovery time being this long? He's due back tomorrow but there's no way he'll be strong enough I'd say.

pwurple

That’s pretty bad alright, especially with how sleepy he is. That’s a warning sign for me usually. What did they say in a&e? No admission? Did you ring southdoc or whatever the equivalent out of hours service is where you are?

Only once really on one of ours... but it was a cough that took hold and she couldn’t stay awake. They admitted us, stuck her on a drip and gave some strong antibiotics.

Cat_M

pwurple wrote: »

That’s pretty bad alright, especially with how sleepy he is. That’s a warning sign for me usually. What did they say in a&e? No admission? Did you ring southdoc or whatever the equivalent out of hours service is where you are?

Only once really on one of ours... but it was a cough that took hold and she couldn’t stay awake. They admitted us, stuck her on a drip and gave some strong antibiotics.

Rang them yesterday and my main concern was the dehydration but I said he wanted to sleep alot and that didn't raise any alarm. In a&e once he held down X amount of liquids without vomiting they were happy and sent him home. Caredoc Call #2 of the view that some bugs knock alot out of kids. I'll see how he is Tomo and ring again if no improvement.

angeldelight

Is he doing plenty of wees? Really food isn’t too big a concern, just fluids. If he’s doing plenty of wee and it’s a normal pale straw colour it’s likely he just needs his rest to recuperate. Also what’s he drinking? Dioralyte is the ideal but most wont tolerate that as it tastes gross. Crumlin use 50% water 50% apple juice... helps them to have some sugars as just water won’t give any energy

Purple Mountain

Did they send lab specimens away in the hospital?
I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back positive for rota virus.
My boy was hospitalised for 2 nights with it aged 3. 24 hours of constant vomiting.
He was a full week recovering from it. Lethargic, poor appetite, not himself.
Think he was a week off playschool with it.
Ring hospital for lab findings.

mirrorwall14

We’ve had two exceptionally bad bugs this winter with our four year old. The first was about a five day, no eating, vomiting with high fever etc.

The second involved spiking a very high fever for 8 days straight, vomiting everytime it went up and two doc visits. He didn’t eat a thing for most of that period, spent most of it on the couch and lost a ton of weight (and he didn’t have any to lose). I’ve never seen him that sick but no obvious cause so diagnosis was viral and ride it out.

He has no reserves left now, is very thin and he’s sick again this weekend. Temp up for 48hrs just stabilised last night and now he’s thrown up five times already this morning. I want this winter to be over

shesty

Yes, we had it in Jan.Knocked my two year old for six completely for about five days.Not just the vomiting but the absolute lethargy that she had with it really worried me.Her cousin took a good 8/9 days to recover from the same bug.My own little one was totally run down after it and immediately got hand, foot and mouth , and straight away after that a viral thing where her temp shot up over a very short time.At that point the doctor gave her an antibiotic because they felt she had a viral dose that she couldn't fight off after the vomiting bug.We also dosed her with Infantis Bio-Kult at that point, a probiotic powder they can take on food or in drink which helped her a lot.Poor kid was totally run down.Loads of liquid into him, she would also have plain biscuits like Rich Tea or Digestives.It is one of the worst vomiting bugs I've seen, it really worried me.Temple St use Dioralyte mixed with Mi Wadi or Robinsons, or Petits Filous yoghurts, if they won't take Dioralyte, as they are apparently mostly sugar and water.They rang my sister with lab results for her little one and told her it was a particularly severe bug she had.

The temp one Mirrorwall, it's doing the rounds-every child in my older girl's preschool has had it, and one couldn't get the temp down for nearly two weeks.I bloody hate winter.Two of mine are coughing and hacking badly and I feel another doctor visit coming on.

LouD2016

My LO had a bug like that back in October. He would normally bounce back really quickly from things but this knocked him for def over a week.

He didn't eat a thing for about 6/7 days which wasn't like him.

I think anything viral really takes it out of them.

Plenty of fluids and a test should be down to rule out rota virus

loadwire

Our LO had similar in Jan. Night 1 was the worst, she was vomiting every 5/10 mins for 2/3 hours, wretching when there was nothing left. Had a similar A&E experience to OP, I'd say she went 3 days without eating and was worn out from all the vomiting. Gradually came back to herself but had to really take it slowly with food (which the doc had advised in fairness). It's tough because your natural instinct is to want to feed them up again quickly but if we tried a bit too much she would bring it all up again. I think she was out of creche for a week at least. Ours didn't mind the dioralyte apart from getting bored of it after a few days which is understandable. She lost a lot of weight through it, only recently is back to normal weight I'd say.

Cat_M

No tests done in hospital. I asked about rotovirus at both caredoc and in a&e and felt it was shrugged off. Nobody was calling any name to it. Day 7 now and he's picking up. Eating and drinking more. Won't take diorylite in any guise. You'd swear he can smell it! Brought him back to GP who advised to push the fluids more even if ice cream or ice popsicles. We're on that now. He doesn't like juice! We have never given juice and he doesn't like it! But he actually wants to play today so that's a relief!

RoamingDoc

Cat_M wrote: »

I asked about rotovirus at both caredoc and in a&e and felt it was shrugged off.

Rotavirus is actually becoming pretty rare and much less likely these days now that it's one of the childhood vaccines.

Cat_M wrote: »

Nobody was calling any name to it.

Most of these common viral diarrhoeal illnesses tend not to merit a name or significant diagnostic effort. They're self limiting, though recovery can take a while....