how to treat vomiting and diarrhea in 9 mo old
I've been struggling with this for over a week. I can't seem to figure out if the vomiting is related to an upset stomach or the gag reflux while eating (putting fingers and spoon into back of mouth). The vomiting happens when eating all different types of food (homemade baby food, jar food, small chunks of other food). The nurse advised me to wait 24 hours after vomiting before feeding another meal. So we've had very loose poop for the past 4-5 days. Yesterday, I spoke to the doctor and she said that I need to ignore 24 hour advice and feed more often. For dinner I tried "binding" foods last night (apples, rice cereal, and bananas) but I couldn't get my baby to eat it. Then he vomited after tasting a small piece of ground turkey. I honestly didn't think the loose poop was that big of a deal but daycare says this means he needs to stay home. Any advice?
Congratulations! So glad to hear he's feeling better (and that you are too!) Thanks for posting the "treatment".
- andrea, Dec 5, 2009
1 Answers
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This sounds really tough! Our daughter went through bouts of week-long (and longer) constipation when we first started solids at 6-8 mos. The doctors weren't particularly worried, but I felt like there should be something that we could do to help her. Some things helped a bit, but I think for our daughter the only "real fix" was to wait for her intestines to mature a bit more.
I've never dealt with the specific symptoms you mention, and I'm not a doctor. My understanding is that under 1 year, a baby's nutrition comes almost entirely from the breast milk / formula that he's drinking (and the solid foods are just to practice eating and be social at the dinner table), so I wouldn't worry about him not getting enough / needing to keep it down for nutrition reasons.
From what you've written, I wonder if you might want to try some food delivery methods that might sidestep the gag reflex, for example:
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some liquid food - like thin butternut squash soup - delivered via bottle/sippy cup, or
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a fruit smoothy, out of a regular cup, or
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some solid food's juice (like a chopped up pear), delivered via one of those little mesh teething things.
On another tack, did anything change a week ago? Like a new diet? Could it could be that he's allergic to some recently-introduced food? Vomiting and diarrhea are possible symptoms of food allergies according to Dr Sears.
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We seem to have solved the problem through a combination of Florastor (which fights stomach bugs) and switching to BRAT (banana, rice cereal, applesauce, and toast) diet. He also had a bit of pedialyte and soy-based formula (which is constipating). While I still don't understand what was the root of this condition, I'm glad it is GONE!
- momofQ, Dec 5, 2009