Feeding a child for recovery from illness

[eastkygal]

My DD1 has just gotten home from spending 3 nights in the hospital with UTI and a stomach virus. This combo left her severely dehydrated with low potassium and low sodium. She got IV fluids and 2 rounds of IV Rocephin. She lost 3 pounds and is looking so poorly though feeling much better. She is very reluctant to eat and/or drink still. It is so important that she doesn't end up back in the hospital. She is going to a urologist Monday, back to the ped. Tuesday that saw her in the hospital and saw our family doc today. She likes very plain and not so fancied up things, but likes her veggies seasoned. She is dairy allergic. Chicken is her favorite meat. What do I feed her to help her heal properly in her gut from the abx. and everything else? I do have her on a multi-vitamin, Omega-3, and probiotics.

[AJP]

Bone broths are great restoratives, very soothing and strengthening to digestion, and good for maintaining hydration. Would she drink warm chicken broth from a cup, or eat a lot of very liquid-y homemade chicken soup? For recovery from the abx, get any kind of fermented, live foods into her that you can - yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut (not the stuff from a can, but live sauerkraut), IMO food sources are better than supplement sources of probiotics.

[USAmma]

Oh ugh!

My dd has a lot of digestive problems and gets very very sick with vomiting when she is ill with just about anything. My "diet" for my dd is the first day back from illness, water and baked potatoes. You can put some salt on the potatoes to make them taste better, or maybe a bit of shredded chicken with gravy. Potatoes have potassium which is good for sick tummies, and they are easy to digest and give good energy. Just don't overdo the fat/grease on the first day. On day 2 I give my dd half watered down pediatric formula (she has a feeding tube) but you can probably give watered down yogurt as a drink instead. Add rice and cooked carrots, and a bit more protein. By day 3 she should be almost back to normal.

You can give her Gatorade popscicles for hydration, or even clear soda if she will drink it.

[saratc]

I second the broth. Broth, and lots of broth. Then ease into soups and stews made with broth.

[eastkygal]

DD won't do broths or soups. We've tried hard to get her to like them. The only probiotic food I can get her to eat is soy yogurt. She can't do regular. She likes pickles. She won't do potatoes much unless they are fried. Her fav veggies are broccoli, corn, peas, and green beans. She likes raw carrots.

[nathansmum]

How about rice? If so, to get broth into my kids (if they're over soup) I cook things up in the broth like lentils or whatever so they absorb it as it cooks.