Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Question of the Day

Joseph spent much of the weekend experiencing some significant regularity (the poor little guy kept holding his tush and saying, "Ow, Mama, poo poo ow!").

As awful as it was, it also leads me to the next question of the day:

Does anyone have a child that actually drinks Pedialyte willingly?

4 comments:

Julie Weaver said...

OK...here's the trick with Pedialyte. If vomiting is present, do NOT give anything by mouth for 1-2 hours after an episode to let the stomach calm down. You should then introduce Pedialyte very slowly as I'll describe below. If the child does not like the taste, you can make it taste a little better by keeping them very cold...DO NOT ADD WATER OR ICE...and flavoring them with a pinch of sugarfree Koolaide powder, sugar-free Jell-O and or Equal. Do not add sugar because this will defeat the purpose of these specially mixed salt and sugar solutions...also if you mix anything into it, choose a flavor that is not red colored.

A child less than 2 yrs should receive 1/2 cup of Pedialyte every hour given with a teaspoon or medicine dropper every 1-2 minutes. For a child over 2 yrs, 1 cup every hour using a tsp every 2-3 minutes. When tolerated for at least an hour, you may increase the volume at slightly more frequent intervals. If vomiting starts up again, go back to the beginning. After 4 hours without vomiting, other clear liquids can be introduced, after 6 hrs you can try bland foods.

I know this is very time consuming, but sometimes it's necessary to avoid having to go to the ER for rehydration with an IV and probably several attempts to start it on a dehydrated baby.

xoxoxo
Nurse Julie

Samantha said...

Wait, what's the issue? Dehydration or constipation?

Samantha said...

Never mind... I read backwards and figured it out. Poor thing. :(

Samantha said...

... the problem is that my mind is so singularly focused on constipation due to issues that we've had in our house that I just assumed that "regularity" was a type-o. I could hardly conceive of a child pooping TOO much. :)