2 year old hasn't peed in 9 hours

[Thing1Thing2]

I'm going to wait another hour and then take him to the ER. I just had him drink quite a bit of coconut water and I want to see if it helps.

I am a non-medicating mom and would rather not have to take him to the ER for antibiotics and fluids to be put into him. Please help if you have had any similar experiences.

DS caught a bug on Tuesday while he was with his cousin. The cousin has just gotten over a virus but was still healing, and no one cared to tell me about it... gotta love that!

Wednesday morning woke up with a fever and vomited once. Fever went to 103 the highest without medication. Fever broke on Thursday morning and DS had some diarreah and didn't eat or drink much. Plenty of breastmilk though.
Friday (today) DS peed (dark yellow) at 8:30 this morning. Threw up his breakfast around 12. Drank about 2 cups of fluids since and some breastmilk. Not sure how much breastmilk because its hard to measure that.

He's congested and keeps complaining that his lower back hurts. I now he needs to go to the ER, but if I could get some kind of idea of what we might be dealing with first, it would be helpful...

[BeeBliss]

Your son sounds really dehydrated.

I know you don't like ERs, but for dehydration, they would give him an IV with electrolytes. He'd only get meds if he had an infection, which may also be possible.

Originally Posted by BonnieNova

I'm going to wait another hour and then take him to the ER. I just had him drink quite a bit of coconut water and I want to see if it helps.

I am a non-medicating mom and would rather not have to take him to the ER for antibiotics and fluids to be put into him. Please help if you have had any similar experiences.

DS caught a bug on Tuesday while he was with his cousin. The cousin has just gotten over a virus but was still healing, and no one cared to tell me about it... gotta love that!

Wednesday morning woke up with a fever and vomited once. Fever went to 103 the highest without medication. Fever broke on Thursday morning and DS had some diarreah and didn't eat or drink much. Plenty of breastmilk though.
Friday (today) DS peed (dark yellow) at 8:30 this morning. Threw up his breakfast around 12. Drank about 2 cups of fluids since and some breastmilk. Not sure how much breastmilk because its hard to measure that.

He's congested and keeps complaining that his lower back hurts. I now he needs to go to the ER, but if I could get some kind of idea of what we might be dealing with first, it would be helpful...

[BeeBliss]

My mom who is a nurse said you should go to the ER. 9 hours is way to long for a 2 yr old to go without urination and the back pain really bothers her, along with the earlier dark urine. Severe dehydration sounds possible.

[confustication]

You need to take him in now, not later. The back pain really worries me as dehydration and kidney damage are very real risks.

[Mama Mko]

I agree. Please take him in. Hope he feels better soon.

[Thing1Thing2]

Thank you all for your responses. After hearing from Beebliss, I rushed to get us dressed. Got all packed up for the ER and then he peed! He peed alot, actually, and he seems ok now.

When I ask him how his back feels, he says "good".

I think he may have been dehydrated. But Im a little confused. I don't think he's getting as much breastmilk as he needs. He's nursing constantly, because he's sick- and I thought he was getting all he needed. He is a two year old and maybe my supply is dwindling.

Im still keeping a close eye on him to make sure he drinks and pees. And I'm not relying solely on my breastmilk to hydrate him. Is there any way I can tell how much he is drinking? When he's on the breast, he's constanly pinching the other and sometimes he ends up switching sides like every 5 seconds.

I feel so naive...

[~Demeter~]

I like Dr. Sears guidelines on vomiting and dehydration... my daughter at 2 had a virus where she was only peeing once every 12-18 hours. I was freaked out but honestly she was mostly herself other than the lack of peeing. Anyway.. I checked out Dr. Sears' website and followed his thoughts and practices. He's not into scare tactics and fear mongering.

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T081300.asp

He's really quite informative and breaks it down into mild, moderate, severe...

[Thing1Thing2]

Thanks Demeter, the site was helpful. I think he had mild dehydration.

His lips were dry but mouth wet. Eyes wet, and lots of tears.

But I do remember thinking that his heart was beating pretty fast (one of the signs of severe dehydration).

I didn't know how to figure out his heart rate. I counted the beats of his heart, which was about 80 beats in 30 seconds, but I'm not sure how that relates to taking a pulse.

Of course, I had no idea that would be a sign of dehydration at the time... so it wouldn't have helped me too much.

[sapphire_chan]

80 beats in 30 seconds would be 160 beats in one minute, or 160 beats per minute and is his heart rate. That would be elevated for a toddler.
http://childrensheartinstitute.org/e...t/beathome.htm
But also note that a fever will cause an increased heartrate as well.

It'd be most accurate to count for 10 seconds a few times (note the number for each time) to see that you're getting about the same count each time, and then multiply that number by 6 to get the heart rate. Just because the longer you count, the more chances to miss a count or think you have and add extras.

[Thing1Thing2]

Thanks Sapphire Chan - I will try that. You're right, it's easy to miss a few beats the longer you count. The ten second counting makes sense.

Hopefully, my poor DS never has to go through this again. But in the event that he does I feel much better equipped.