"Pedialyte better than BM (vent)"

[Kitten]

I just wanted to share something sad and annoying I heard yesterday at my mothers group. One of the other mothers' DD had a bad bout of vomiting and ended up in the ER. Some stupid doc there (or maybe her ped, I'm a little unclear which it was) told her that Pedialyte was the easiest thing for a baby to digest and she should only give her baby Pedialyte for the first day or so. This is a breastfeeding mother! Excuse me, how is anything man-made going to be easier to digest than BM? Not only that, the ER docs tried to dump two ounces of it down her daughter's throat. I wasn't too surprised to hear that she threw that up too and only managed to hold it down when they gave her a quarter ounce at a time (really??? do you think two ounces might have been too much at once for an extremely sick infant to handle? )

The info MY ped's office gave me says that breastfed infants should continue breastfeeding when they are throwing up, but to just allow the infant to nurse for a few minutes, every twenty minutes (so they don't overload and make themselves throw up again). Let me just say that I think I have the BEST ped in the city (we LOVE her!). In fact, once when DS was throwing up and I called the office they specifically said NOT to use pedialyte and just stick with the BM since it was better for him anyway.

I looked up Pedialyte online and I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that it is made by Abbott-Ross. It just makes me so sad that doctors can be so uninformed. And I live in a supposedly BF-friendly city.

I wanted to speak up against using pedialyte but decided to not make an issue of this since I thought maybe she would take it as a condemnation of her parenting (not intended that way), and I didn't want to seem disrespectful to a woman I like, whose DD had been so sick. I am just SO TIRED of women at my mothers group repeating bad information given to them by ignorant doctors!!!!

[MamaE]

I hear ya! It's amazing to me, too, that in the year 2005 and in the information age that women (people) still don't/won't question what a doctor tells them simply because of the M.D. behind their name.

[mommytolittlelilly]

I've heard this line before, too, when my girl was throwing up. It just seemed counterintuitive to me, so we didn't bother with PediaLyte and just kept BF.

I think a lot of people feel intimidated by doctors, and it's been my experience that most doctors do not like to be questioned!

[SherryAnn]

I have to tell you, it is so comforting to hear people saying the very things that I too believe. I have not one friend in my area who questions anything, I am thought to be the nutty one. So nice to hear all you aware wonderful mommies!

[crittersmom]

I was told DS had an ear infection at his 6 motn check up.DH made me nervous and I ended up starting him on the antibiotics.He hated it and I hated giving them to him and they ended up giving him diareah(sp).When I called to ask about it they told me to just give pedialyte in between feedings.I had DH buy it but I never used it because breast milk is the esiest thing on the system and the pedailyte was so full of wierd stuff how could it be better?I'm throwing it out.A sensitive tummy does not need dyes no matter what age.

[TiredX2]

Yet another example of how little many medical professionals know about bfeeding.

Formula is considered a milk product.
Bmilk is considered to be a clear liquid.

If your child is throwing up a lot, you may need to quit "milk products" but NOT clear liquids (like pedialyte AND bmilk). Additionally, not only is bmilk *at least* as easy to digest, while pedialyte only provides sugar & salt solutions, bmilk also provides proteins and fats--- much easier to keep baby healthy with those going in!

[Trishy]

J has scarlet fever and was vomiting earlier this week. His doc told me the same thing but went one further and told me to stop nursing for 12-24 hours and only give Pedialyte. The crap (made by Wyeth) that they gave me at the pharmacy not only had artificial dye in it but splenda too :Puke ! I had to take J back in yesterday and I gave his doc a copy of this:

http://www.kellymom.com/health/illne....html#vomiting

[chersolly]

The red or purple foodcoloring must be really easy to digest on a sick baby's stomach.

[TiredX2]

Originally Posted by trishshack

J has scarlet fever and was vomiting earlier this week. His doc told me the same thing but went one further and told me to stop nursing for 12-24 hours and only give Pedialyte. The crap (made by Wyeth) that they gave me at the pharmacy not only had artificial dye in it but splenda too :Puke ! I had to take J back in yesterday and I gave his doc a copy of this:

http://www.kellymom.com/health/illne....html#vomiting

Why would you possibly give a sick child splenda?!?!? They *need* all the calories they can get!

[Evergreen]

Breastmilk is nature's Pedialyte!

[a~...Mamacitaa~...]

I had to take Mateo to the er about three weeks ago for a high fever and weekness. The dr put him on medicine for an ear infection and then Mateo had a reaction. He would throw up after evertime he nursed. I didn't know about the little frequent nursing sessions, but now i do. The dr wanted me to give him pedalite too , i did at first, but stoped. He wanted and needed me not a sippy cup full of crap. He's fine now, but now he has gone on a food stike and only wants to nurse.

[Meiri]

He's fine now, but now he has gone on a food stike and only wants to nurse.

He'll snap out of that when he's ready. Way back when as a toddler, DS went on one of those when not feeling quite right. We never did figure out what he might've had, but the newborn looking poop in the diapers worried me until a more experienced mom pointed out that if all he was consuming was my milk, then of course his diapers would look like it was diarrhea{for his age}.

He wouldn't take pedialyte either, wanted nothing but nursing. When the nurse at the peds practice suggested no milk, I realized the stupidity of withholding from him the only fluid (or food for that matter) that he was willing to take. Umm yeah, withhold fluids from a young child in the summer...sure I will! NOT.

[Past_VNE]

Jett needed a CT scan a few weeks ago and we were told that the oral anesthesia might make him ill. If it did, I was to give him Pedialyte until he was better and then go back to breastfeeding. HA! Are you kidding me???

As though my four month old baby is at all capable of keeping down some man-made crap that he has never had better than the only single thing he has ever known. What a bunch of BS!!!!

So, anyway, they sent me home with a little glass bottle of unflavored P (why oh why didn't I say anything? She was an impressionable young med student.) Anyway, so DH opens it up and has a taste. He comes running over, gagging and hacking and spitting and says, "AAACK...this is sooo nasty. Taste this!!! This sh!t is like pond scum. What baby would ever keep this nasty stuff down? ..... ... ...... ...."
So, like the proverbial sheep, I take a taste. Gag, spit, hack, gag, gag. Oh dear. He wasn't kidding! That is soooooo friggin' disgusting.
It tasted wayyyy worse than than the hideous formula I tasted once when I got a sample in the mail in early pregnancy.

[callmemama]

Yep, when ds was 3 he got the flu and became dehydrated. Took him to the ped (didn't see our regular one) who told me I shouldn't be breastfeeding him because he shouldn't have DAIRY products! Said use pedialyte instead. I pointed out that breastmilk was the best liquid for a sick child and she said "no". I didn't push it, but I was validated at the Children's Hospital where they sent us for an IV. Definitely keep nursing, they said - just not immediately after throwing up (which I didn't realize so is probably why he got dehydrated in the first place).

Way late - disjointed brain/disjointed sentences. :LOL

[sovereignqueen]

Originally Posted by Past_VNE

So, anyway, they sent me home with a little glass bottle of unflavored P (why oh why didn't I say anything? She was an impressionable young med student.) Anyway, so DH opens it up and has a taste. He comes running over, gagging and hacking and spitting and says, "AAACK...this is sooo nasty. Taste this!!! This sh!t is like pond scum. What baby would ever keep this nasty stuff down? ..... ... ...... ...."
So, like the proverbial sheep, I take a taste. Gag, spit, hack, gag, gag. Oh dear. He wasn't kidding! That is soooooo friggin' disgusting.
It tasted wayyyy worse than than the hideous formula I tasted once when I got a sample in the mail in early pregnancy.

They made us feed dd that stuff in the hospital when she was born b/c she wouldn't pee (and no knowing any better we did) and DH tasted it too. We thought the same thing. I recently found the one they gave us to take home and threw it out (it was expired anyway).

[TigerTail]

they were so freaked out at the er when i brought #1 son in after a 4 day bout of diarrhea & vomiting (that's how long my dr said to wait if it didn't clear up), but then checked him out & *surprise* he wasn't showing any signs of dehydration. every other kid that had this bug at the same time ended up hospitalized with an iv in 'em, even with pedialyte. gee, i guess endless nursing couldn't be responsible for his staying hydrated, huh?

suse