Urgent! Friend milk gone, she had flu

[Mum-of-Two]

My friend needs urgent help. She is exclusively pumping and feeding her 6 month old and fell ill with puke flu today. Her milk is gone. She wants to know if an IV of fluids would help?

She has a thing where her milk spoils quickly so she had to get rid of a freezer full of reserves last month. Normally, she has enough milk for 3 babies.

Thanks for the advice! She's worried. Her baby has the pukey flu too and obviously can't dehydrate either.

[Erin M]

I'd encourage her to drink little sips of water, pretty much constantly -- the little sips seem to stay down better than bigger gulps. 
You can offer her the recipe for oral rehydration solution -- something like Pedialyte is way better than something like Gatorade -- or you can make your own (like this: http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm)

And latching as frequently as possible to stimulate supply, even if nothing is coming out. 

I'm not sure about the IV.  I will mention that I had an awful stomach flu when ds was 3 months old (I think I lost 8 pounds in 5 days) but lots of little sips of water, some Pedialyte, and basically letting him stay attached to me for hours at night got us through -- it obviously didn't impact supply long term as he nursed until 16 months. 

[Mum-of-Two]

Thank you! She is headed to the hospital figuring its better she is on the IV and can feed then have her ill baby dehydrate. I'll update when I can. 

[Erin M]

Better safe than sorry.  Hope she's ok!

[Fiver]

Oh dear, hope she and baby are ok.  Like Erin said, lots of skin to skin, plenty of feeding as and when LO wants it and trying as best as she can to keep hydrated.

When you say her milk spoils quickly, do you mean she has excess lipase in her milk?  That can cause the milk to taste soapy.  If that's the case, I assume she knows now that she can scald the milk as soon as possible after expressing which reduces the amount of lipase and makes the milk last longer (instructions and more info here http://kellymom.com/bf/pumpingmoms/milkstorage/lipase-expressedmilk/) so that it can be stored.

[Mum-of-Two]

Amanda, yes, that's it exactly. She scalds now or feeds right after pumping. They discovered it a month ago. Baby was never a good eater, horrible up every half hour sleeper. fixing the milk problem and a few other tweeks snd she was doing a lot better, now the flu.

She worked with a lactation consultant but never could get her baby to latch. She exclusively pumped for 12 months with baby #1 a decade ago, she really wants to do that again. That time it was accidental because she was readmitted to hospital with an infection post birth and turned to pumping to keep BFing. This time she tried with her infant then again 2 months later but it just didn't work. She was sad but knows the pumping thing well and is dedicated.

Last I heard is she was hooked up to IV quickly, no waiting. It's early here, I'll text her later to see if it helped the milk.

[Fiver]

Fingers crossed for her.  Hope they're both feeling better soon and bummer about the lipase

[Mum-of-Two]

She texted me a photo of the frozen milk they had to discard. It was enough to make me cry.

[Fiver]

   Liquid gold.  Some babies will still drink milk with excess lipase, apparently, but I would imagine most wouldn't.  Can't imagine it tastes very nice

[Mum-of-Two]

Quick update - friend got home about 1 a.m. last night after an IV and had enough milk to feed her baby. Baby is cranky but no longer puking and it sounded like her fever was better too. Thank goodness for that. She is in bed and her DH is taking care of her 11 year old who is also in bed. All safe for now.

She is still freaked out because typically she has enough milk for 3 babies but she has enough for now and that is what matters.

[Erin M]

Great!  From my experience, it all came back when I was better, though my LO was much younger.  Fx it's just as easy for her!

[Fiver]

Great news!  Thanks for the update