Solutions To Baby Stomach Virus

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Now that Sayle is on the healthy side of the baby stomach virus, I feel like I can speak intelligently about it in hopes I can help some other moms out there.  I learned things the hard way last week, so please learn from my mistakes.   

baby stomach virus questions answered

* Sayle continued to have diarrhea for a week, which concerned us as he could have become very dehydrated.  The diarrhea occurred approximately one  hour after he had a bottle.  I contacted the pediatrician’s office and they told me to discontinue formula and to give Sayle Pedialyte or Gatorade. 

When your baby has a stomach virus, formula only irritates their bowels further, which is why Sayle was having blowouts after his bottles.  When I started the Pedialyte and Gatorade, he still had diarrhea, but it certainly was not as bad as it was with the formula. 

* I made the mistake of pouring Sayle a full bottle of Gatorade like I would with the Pedialyte and he ended up screaming.  I felt horrible as I was trying to help his tummy, but I only irritated it further as the Gatorade is full of sodium.  If you are going to use Gatorade, be sure to use half Gatorade and half water. 

* Even though it is technically no longer used, the nurse suggested putting Sayle on a form of the BRAT diet, which is an acronym for Bananas, Rice, Apple Sauce, and Toast.  I never gave Sayle toast as he doesn’t have enough teeth to chew it, but we used bananas, rice, and apple sauce.  The nurse stated it was important to keep them on a high starch diet so we also gave him bits of baked potato.  These foods added some substance back to his bowel movements.

* Sayle developed a horrible diaper rash as I was unable to keep his bum dry.  It got so bad that if he even thought I was going to change his diaper he started crying.  I used the same recipe for the yeast infection diaper cream, I just eliminated the Monistat.  Definitely keep it in the refrigerator! 

* When your baby has 24 hours of no diarrhea you are able to start them back on formula.  That is exactly what we did and that is a BIG MISTAKE-HUGE!  Sayle ended up projectile vomiting all over me and getting diarrhea all over again.  I started him back on Pedialyte for the rest of the day and called the Nurse line that night where I was given a detail I wish I had been given earlier.  When you start your baby back on formula, you need to water it down.  For instance, if Sayle was getting an 8 oz bottle, I gave him two scoops of formula rather than four and I gradually increased the amount of formula with the water. 

Baby’s bowels and stomach becomes very irritated when they have diarrhea so it is important to ease them back into their normal eating routine rather than jumping right back into it.  I wish I had caught that detail prior to being barfed on.        

* Unfortunately, you can’t stop a stomach virus and it has to run its course.