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Posted: 19 July 2007 at 9:55pm | IP Logged

You may have seen on one of my other posts in one of the other forums that I mentioned on Tuesday that Seren hadn't been well. She was throwing up every feed and even bringing up bile so I went to the doctors with her. The doctor advised me to stop bf for a few hours and just give her diarolite and water which I did. She looked so pale and ill at the doctors suddenly I seriously thought for a minute they were going to send her to the hospital.

Yesterday, I started to feed her again but just for 5 minutes at a time and slowly built it up to 10 minutes during the day, later in the afternoon she started to throw up again so I just stuck to the diarolite during the night to see how she was this morning.

She threw up her first feed this morning (which again was only 10 minutes) so I booked another appointment at the doctors. Despite perservering she won't take any water and I was out of diarolite and it's been very hot over here so I have been worried about her dehydrating. I did however manage to get two feeds into her before the doctors appointment which she managed to keep down of 5 minutes each.

Sorry long winded but I wanted someones words of wisdom. I am concerned whether she is getting enough. She is now 15 weeks old and usually feeds for at least 30 minutes each feed. She only feeds about 6 times a day and sleep right through the night. If BF works so that the first bit is almost just water and then milk followed by the, is it hind milk or something that has all the goodness. Is she getting enough from a 5 minute bf if she usually takes 30 minutes?

I have told the doctor all this and he says to carry on bf now and just go with what I feel is the right thing to do. He has also given me some more diarolite which is good as I'm saving that if she wakes during the night as I know she is keeping that down so I don't have to worry about her throwing up in her sleep.

I'm demand feeding so we don't have a set routine, she's only waking once during the night at the moment since she has been ill as well so doesn't appear to be asking for any extra feeds, except this one during the night.

Also I wonder if I express some milk off and feed her from a bottle whether she might keep it down better. If she is keeping the diarolite down without a problem could some of the problem be the way it coming out of me? (sorry can't think of a different way to word it) Although she's not throwing up straight afterwards it's normally about 10 - 20 minutes after a feed.

Posted: 19 July 2007 at 11:05pm | IP Logged

Cheers Dizie,

I think I will try to express some and give her that - at least then I know she will be getting more of the benefits from it to help her fight this bug.

That is my main concern that she will need the strength to fight this bug, it's been 3 days now and she is getting better as she is keeping something down at least.

The doctor didn't say when to go back if she doesn't improve, however if I'm not happy over the weekend and she is still being sick then I will go straight to the hospital as it's nearer than the out of hours medical centre. The trouble is they look at her and she is so mellow that she just lays there smiling quite happy to go with the flow but that is what she is like the majority of the time... very rarely does she scream.

DH was sick this morning as well so the only person in our house now who hasn't been ill is Cerys (touch wood it will stay that way as well). I wan't 100 % on sunday but thought I'd just been overdoing things, I think it may be this same bug now.

Posted: 20 July 2007 at 8:28am | IP Logged

Sorry - don't have any new advice, but definitely take her straight to be seen if you are at all concerned that she's getting any worse, or just doesn't seem to be improving. Hope that Seren is managing to keep her feeds down today.

Hope you are all feeling better very soon.xxx

Posted: 20 July 2007 at 12:27pm | IP Logged

Well she seems a lot brighter today. Although we are still on the 5 min feeds. She did manage 7 minutes earlier and then threw it all back up 5 minutes later. Although it seems like she is asking for more feeds today which is a good thing so although they are short at least she seems to be asking every hour or just over rather than going 3 to 4 hours.

I have to take her off the breast after 5 minutes she would happily stay on there and have more. She whinges for about a couple of seconds and then just chills out about it. If I leave her until she feels she's had enough then it all comes back up. 

I didn't think about my milk diminishing... I hope it's not too late already. I've just put the pump back into the steriliser. I'm going to express a feed off for her to have now and then I'll express a bit more of afterwards and then express after every feed to keep it up. I've been so worried about her being ill I really didn't think about having enough milk for her afterwards and I'm not ready to stop bf yet!!!

Posted: 20 July 2007 at 1:34pm | IP Logged

sorry to hear seren isn't very well, hope she is better soon...

I am v jealous she is sleeping thru, hannah is still on 3 night feeds greedy madam lol

I think madz is right, she's taking what she wants by the sounds of it and as long as she's having fluids, that's ok...her appetite will prob come back slowly so your milk should be ok, good luck, xx

Posted: 20 July 2007 at 8:43pm | IP Logged

Well I managed to express off 4oz earlier and fed her that and she looked a lot more happier and content from that feed, she went straight to sleep whilst I was winding her. She did throw up again but it was a good 45 minutes or so afterwards so she would have absorbed most of the feed. She usually has 6 / 7oz bottles if it's expressed so I'm just assuming that like us when we are ill it takes a few days for our stomachs to cope with the same amount of food that we usually eat.

Since then she has had two 3.5 oz bottles... and a quick 3 minutes from the breast as we were out at the airport picking my stepdaughter up. She has kept both these feeds down so far (only just had the 2nd 3.5oz) so hopefully all being well this will be the way forward until she can cope with the usual quantity - I'm just happier that she is managing to take a quantity of milk rather than just a few minutes on the breast, she seems a lot more relaxed as well... not that she appeared particularly stressed at all but when I think back compared to now there is a difference. She very nearly rolled over today as well so her energy must be starting to return.

I hate it when Cerys is ill but I'd forgotten how much worse it is when they are so little.

Thank you for all your messages they have all been really helpful.

QUICK UPDATE:

Seren seems to have perked up a lot today and maybe it's just coincidence but it seems to have been since giving her expressed milk.

Her last feed today has been a direct bf and I left her until she was ready to come off and she has kept the feed down in fact today is the first day she hsn't been sick at all since Tuesday so looks like we are back on track to being back to normal... yippee.

Thank you all so much once again for all your advice it has been really helpful.