Emergency Room Last Night

[Lyrebird]

Hi Everyone,

We had a bad experience last night and I wanted to see if anyone here has had this happen.

DD is 7.5 months old. She is EBF. We started her on solids at 6 months. She is essentially a perfect baby and we haven't had any issues to date.

Last night, I happened to be up with insomnia at 2am. As I sat eating a sandwich, I heard DD let out a cough/gag sound from her crib. I shot up and walked in to find her on her back gagging and choking on what seemed her own saliva. I scooped her up to put her upright. She kept gagging. I turned her over face down at a 45 degree angle and started patting her back. Some snot and clear liquid came out of her mouth. I took her in the bathroom to look at her in the light and she seemed okay. My wife and I held her for a bit and she seemed okay. We put her back down after about 15 minutes and retreated back to the bedroom to watch her on the monitor. Withing a few minutes she started choking and gagging again. I flew in and scooped her up again. My wife took a turn holding her and she threw up A LOT all over Mum. There seemed to be a lot of clear mucus mixed in with the vomit. We thought she'd recovered and then just kept throwing up on us. We packed her up and went to the E.R. at 3am. Through all of this, she didn't ever cry or get upset. She just kept looking at us and wondering what we were all doing up. She passed through it all very calmly. While at the E.R. she threw up on me a third time--soaked my shirt.

The doctor was useless. He have her a tablet for nausea and told us to only give her Pedialite for 24 hours (there is no way she can go 24 hours with no milk from Mum). After the last throw up, she was back to her playful self dancing around and giggling--but a bit knackered. We gave her some Pedialite and took her home. She eventually crashed at 5:45am.

Today she is mostly herself and full of fun (aside from being more tired than usual which is understandable).

We will see our Pediatrician in the morning for a follow up.

The only things that were different yesterday were the following:

We introduced a new solid (Summer Squash) at 11am (would think this would've caused a problem earlier than 2am the next morning).

She managed to get a hold of the wash rag in the bath at 7:30 and sucked some water down from it....that's it.

My wife had food poisoning earlier in the week on Monday, but fed her all week with no problems. Everything we read said it was okay to keep BF if Mum had food poisoning as the bug stays in her intestine and cannot affect milk.

So far today she has kept down two feeds from Mum and seems fine.

Anyone ever experience this kind of thing? We were quite shaken with the ordeal.

Thanks.

[Lyrebird]

Sorry. Posted this again over in General, health, colic, reflux, crying. Don't think it was an allergy issue...aside from all the mucus in her vomit...

[Shiv52]

Sounds like she has maybe caught a wee bug and I doubt it's anything to do with the squash or washcloth but do keep a close eye next time you give her squash to eat.

My 9 month old did something similar 2'weeks ago and then even once she had thrown up everything in her tummy she kept dry retching but by next day she was totally fine.  I continued to feed her though. She is ebf and keep down my milk grand.

Hugs for your ordeal as it's very scary when they are sick. I'd just keep an eye through the night incase she's sick again. My main worry was she'd be sick in her sleep but luckily was fine.

Hope she is feeling better soon.

[Lyrebird]

Thanks, Shiv. I appreciate the support. She seems back to normal and is keeping food down great. I agree about the watching through the night. Honestly, I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have been up with insomnia. I shudder to think that she might have thrown up all those times on her back and drowned. It's too frightening to think about, but it's one of those things were I believe something made sure I was up last night mucking about.

Needless to say the wife or myself will be sleeping in her room with one eye open tonight.

Thanks, again.

[Buntybear]

Hi, it does seem to be a one off and probably a bug. Olly had a stomach bug last week and I was the same. Happened to hear a noise which I thought was a cough, turned into a gurgle so I rushed in and he was pointing to the sick saying 'uh-oh'. Not fussed by it at all!

Of course watch again if you do think it was an allergic reaction but if she has no other issues then I would think it is a bug, especially if your wife was sick recently too.

[Mashi]

Sorry your LO was so sick - my DS did the same at 16 weeks old (and ironically he had sucked on the wash cloth in his bath the night before and DH and I were all worried it was from that - the doctor very politely and sympathetically laughed in our faces! LOL! So don't worry I doubt it was the wash cloth!)  We stayed up all night on the phone with the on-call doctor and as he kept being sick, we took him to A&E in the morning.  They really did just the same as your doctor did - pedialyte to keep him hydrated and that is about it. I do agree with the others that it does just sound like a tummy bug and not a food allergy, and she seems to be recovering - I think it took me about 3 weeks to recover from parenting a baby through it while it only took my 4 month old 48 hours to get through it   Hope she is on the mend now!

[Shiv52]

Glad she seems back to normal.  I imagine it has had more of an impact on you and your wife than your LO.  Hope thats the end of the vomiting x

[Lyrebird]

Thanks to all you guys for sharing your same experiences. It is a huge comfort. Our Dr. did laugh about the rag sucking in the bath. :-)

We saw him this morning and he confirmed that she has just had her first tummy bug. He said the mucus was probably from the bug and that she seems fine. He did say that we just have to realize that her body took it's first "HIT" in life and it may take her a few days to bounce back completely.

I slept in her room on the floor last night (ouch my neck is soar). I was also worried about my wife's recovery from her illness during the week and wanted her to sleep. She slept through the night and only coughed once. She rolled around for a few seconds and settled. I felt like a Ninja in the dark ready to swoop in, but that was it.

Today she is still a bit sluggish, but showing more signs of her usual joyful, happy, self. We managed to get her to take Pedialite with a syringe throughout intervals but she doesn't quite have her appetite back just yet. Fluids going down and no vomit is good for us. She is also slightly constipated, but Dr. said apple juice/water or prune juice/water 50/50 should help that.

I'm gonna sleep in her room again tonight and if all goes well, that should be good.

Not a good week for the girls in this household.

You were right the impact on us was far worse! Seeing her little spirit diminished for the first time in her life was heartbreaking.

Thanks again to everyone. Your support has been a tremendous help.

[mianita]

So good your LO feels better!
Just wanted to share that my DD has similiar episode at 7,5 mo. It happened during the day and I thought that she vomited because of the extremely hot weather. I didn't go to ER, she threw up once, and I bathed her in cool water and she felt asleep. Next day she was fine. But week later this happen again, she vomited twice and I was ready for ER but decided to watch her for an hour or so. And she seemed to be fine, so just gave her Pedialite.
So the only different thing she had on those days was banana. I was just introducing it. So since then I'm afraid to give it to her and still didn't try again, she in 9mo now.
I'd watch for the foods too just in case.

BTW my DD was constipated all the time, and I had to look carefully what she eats. I was giving her cereal every second day only, also never sweet potato and cereal the same day, she had prunes and papaya every day. And prune juce. It helped a lot and now her tummy is more used to foods, and she can eat almost anything ) no constipation! she looooves food

HTH

[Lyrebird]

That's great!

DD is constipated a bit now and we are also going with the prunes. We had to switch to formula because my wife had a bad case of food poisoning. It took her a week to feel better, but she couldn't eat much for days and as a result her milk supply has gone down.

Hopefully the prunes will help. We've also started her on vegetables like peas for more fiber.

Thanks again, Mianita.

[maggie2]

Just wondering how your lo is doing now?

Have you tried any more squash?  only reason I ask is because my dd has something called FPIES and it's a food intolerance - a common trigger is squash (but mostly winter squash - I think you said it was summer squash) but any food can really trigger it.

Your description sounded just like what happens to my lo - right down the the doc saying it was a GI bug   Although it's *just* an intolerance, it requires emergency medical intervention as it is life-threatening.

And the reactions are delayed - but usually more like 4-6 hours later after the food is eaten, and most often it will happen on the 3rd or 4th exposure to a food, too - not on the first.  So it's tricky to figure out what is going on.

Hope that's not what it is, but wanted to mention it just incase you try the squash again and the same thing happens - most doctors are not really familiar with it - it took us 2 trips to the ER, a week stay at CHOP and 3 months of waiting to get a diagnosis!!  (which, by the way, we only got because I googled "squash and vomiting" or something ridiculous like that and stumbled across it!)

Hope your lo is doing much better!!