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Sunday, February 15, 2009
Vomiting, diarrhea hit our baby hard for whole week
Two trips to the doctor and two trips to the ER, and she finally seems a little bit better.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was supposed to be a week filled with heart-shaped confections, dress-up parties at school and a jumping party with our little buddies during the weekend. Instead we spent the entire week nursing a very unhappy, very sick baby with severe vomiting and diarrhea.
Everything was fine with our 23-month-old angel early in the week. She seemed perfectly healthy and playful Monday. We went to Toddlersize at the YMCA and followed her big sister to Girl Scouts, playing on the playground during the meeting.
The nightmare started, not surprisingly, in the middle of the night. The 5-year-old had wandered into our bed around 3:30 a.m. A few minutes later, the baby started crying.
Michael brought her into our bed to comfort her. Around 4 a.m., I awoke to the terrible sound of the baby gagging. She had never vomited before.
I quickly got my hand under her mouth and caught the first of the vomit. I yelled for Michael to get Walsh out of bed while I rushed the baby to the bathroom.
Michael tucked Walsh back into his bed and then thought to ask him, “You didn’t get any throw-up on your pajamas did you Buddy?”
“No,” Walsh answered calmly.
“Good,” said Dad, about to walk away.
“I did get a bunch on my head though,” Walsh clarified.
Michael bathed Walsh in one bathroom while I bathed the baby in another. I redressed her and tried to settle her back down. We put as many sheets, pillowcases and pajamas into the washer as we could, and tried to get some more rest.
But the vomiting continued. I called the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Nurse line to see if I should let her have water. I didn’t want her to get dehydrated but I felt like the water was making her throw up. After two more baths and five more vomiting fits, I finally got a call back from nurse. I told her the baby was throwing up bile. She said to take her immediately to the emergency room.
My dad came at 5:30 a.m. to drive me and the baby the hospital. Michael had to get the other kids ready for school, and I didn’t want to be in the front seat if she was throwing up in the back. She threw up two more times the short distance to Emory Eastside.
The ER staff took us immediately. They gave her a drug used for cancer patients to stop the vomiting and nausea. They made sure she could keep down fluid and sent us home.
By noon the diarrhea started. My oldest daughter had the Rotavirus, so I have dealt with massive amount of diarrhea before. I don’t minding cleaning or changing it, but the worst part is their little bottoms get so torn up from the acidic poop even if you change them immediately and use lots of thick creams. Baby Lilina would yell at me “I’m fine. I’m fine” when I would check her diaper trying to ward off the changing. And then when I had to change her she’d yell “Nooo. Go away! Go away!” Fairly heartbreaking to hear.
I consulted with the doctor’s office two times that day. I slept on her floor that night (and every night after) so I would hear her throw up or poop and change her immediately. She had 9 diaper changes from midnight to 8 a.m. Needless to say we headed to the pediatrician’s first thing in the morning.
The deal with diarrhea is now doctors have decided it’s better for them to run it out of their system, even though their little bottoms are on fire. So they don’t want to give the babies Imodium but our doctor did prescribe a cholesterol medicine with a side effect to coagulate poop so her diapers would be less runny. He also gave me a prescription yeast cream.
She hates the cholesterol medicine, which is a gritty powder that you mix with water. I’ve had to feed it to her with a teaspoon dropper with her fighting me the entire time. It’s only 2 fl. Oz. but that makes a lot of teaspoons.
By Wednesday afternoon things were not looking good and I started finding back-ups for all my commitments. I found another mom to fill in for me at Walsh’s party and sent out the last-minute list for what we still needed to do. I wrote to Rose’s room mom and told her I couldn’t help with her party. I sent out a note searching for someone to lead children’s church on Sunday and eventually even had to cancel the jump party for my other kids. I was alerted by a close girlfriend “even if the big kids aren’t sick, we’re still afraid of your whole family.”
By Friday her bottom looked like it was about to be an open wound and the poop had not abated. We headed back to the doctor. He was concerned that it was lasting so long and was also worried about her bottom. He put her on a sulfur antibiotic, which would help heal her bottom as well as treat a bacterial infection like E. coli or Salmonella. He also told us to use anti-biotic cream twice a day on her bottom.
Saturday her bottom looked better and poop seemed to be slowing some. She was eating and drinking water, but she was very lethargic. She didn’t want to play at all and was very limp in my arms. I called the pediatrician. He said it sounded like since I was just giving her water she needed electrolytes. (The severe condition of this is water intoxication, which totally freaked me out.) I got her to eat two bananas and some sports drinks. It perked her up a little bit but not much. We were scared to let her go to sleep not knowing so we headed to the pediatric ER at Emory Eastside. Again, they saw her right away. He thought was a little dehydrated and needed the electrolytes. He also prescribed an antibiotic cream with steroids in it to help heal her bottom.
Throughout this entire week, all I keep thinking about is how blessed we are to live in a country that has medicine to help babies through these types of trauma. All over the world in less developed nations, babies would often die from what we experienced this week. I am grateful that my baby girl will feel better soon.
Have you ever had to deal with the Rotavirus, stomach virus or other type of bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea and vomiting? What are your best tips to help moms through these tough times?
You can email Theresa at ajcmomania@gmail.com
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