AN APPROACH TO FLUID AND DIET INTAKE FOR YOUR CHILD WHO IS VOMITING

The following is a diet that is widely recommended to be a good approach for those children who are having vomiting and gastroenteritis complaints.  You can have confidence that this approach is likely to get you through the time of the worst symptoms and help your child resolve their stomach problem over the next 24 to 48 hours.

If your child vomits, please wait initially for 2 hours before giving your child anything to eat or drink.  This means that your child receives absolutely no fluid or solid intake for two hours following vomiting.  This is done to allow the stomach time to settle.

Following the 2 hour wait, offer your child 15cc or 1 Tbsp. of clear liquid every twenty minutes over the next two hours.  Clear liquids would be defined as any fluid that you can see through, but not water or diet drinks.  Drinks such as Pedialyte, Infalyte, ginger ale, 7-up, and similar fluids are good choices.  Gatorade is not the best choice (having only about half the sugar and electrolytes needed) but would be acceptable as an alternative in turn along with some of some of these other fluids.  Your child needs the salts, sugar and other chemicals in these fluids.

After this first two hours with the above frequency and dosage of fluids, you can increase to 30 cc or 2 Tbsp. of fluids every 20 minutes for the next 2 hours.  If this is tolerated, you can progress further.

The next step of progression would be to go up to 45cc or 3 Tbsp. (1 &1/2 ounce) every 20 minutes for a further two hours.

If your child vomits anywhere along the course of this fluid intake or later solid intake, please restart with the initial stint of not allowing the child to have anything to eat or drink for 2 hours after vomiting.  Then restart the recipe.

If your child has tolerated the fluids as we’ve progressed through the initial 6-8 hours, you can try what is commonly called the “BRAT” diet.  This is just a term used as a reminder of a group of foods that are easily tolerated after the stomach upset settles—B is for bananas, R—is for rice, rice cereal or rice broth, A is for applesauce and the T isto remind us about the use of toast or bread items.  Bread would include any of the following foods from the bread group:  Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, animal crackers, graham crackers, toast, plain noodles, or even chicken noodle soup with the meat picked out.

If your child tolerates the BRAT diet for 12-24 hours, you can progress to the use of yogurt and vegetables in addition to BRAT diet and clear liquids.

If your child has progressed successfully through all the above, then you can attempt small amounts of meat or milk over the next day, as tolerated.  Mil and meat are the hardest foods to digest and should be left till last to try.

In order to be sure that your child is not becoming dehydrated, keep up with how often your child voids,  If they void 3 or more times in 24 hours (even if the amount seems diminished) your child is unlikely to be dehydrated.  If they are voiding less than this frequency, you should contact your physician.