Doctor-worthy, or not?

[Kay in Cal]

OK, my 4 yo ds has a fever and is vomiting. He's been sick since Monday, but has had periods of feeling better and eating. Now he's not been able to keep anything down since last night, not even water.

What is the cut-off for going to the doctor or for dehydration to become an issue? It's been 12 hours at least since he could drink (including time he was sleeping last night)... he's had sips every 20 minutes when awake, but dry heaves have brought it back up since this morning.

I'm sure he has whatever virus is going around, and I don't want to trek across town to be told "keep giving him fluids, rest, a BRAT diet when he can handle it..." I know all that. Mostly, at what point do I worry he's way over dehydrated?

[JudoMom]

It (http://pediatrics.about.com/od/symptoms/a/05_symp_dehydtn.htm) gives you some things to do to check for dehydration.

[RoughCollie]

One thing you can do to see if your DS is dehydrated is to pinch the skin on the back of his hand (not so it will hurt). If it stays peaked up for any amount of time, that means he is dehydrated.

If I were in your shoes, I'd call the doctor and ask them if you should bring your DS in. I've done that and saved a needless trip many times.

I would suggest giving him ice chips to suck on instead of water to drink, unless you are concerned he may choke on one of them.

RC

[Stirsmommy]

I was going to suggest calling the nurse at your ped's office. She can tell you what is going around, how long it last and when to be concerned.

[Old Dominion Heather]

Well, My handy-dandy pediatrics guide says if the child has not been able to keep down liquids for more than eight hours, a doctor visit is in order.

: / Sorry. I've heard that the stomach stuff is bad this year.

[cubsfan]

Could he possibly have strep? Sometimes little kids with strep don't actually get the sore throat. That happened once with dd.

I would call the doctor. It seems to me that 12 hours is a pretty long time. I would worry about dehydration especially since he can't even keep down a sip. At that age our doctor even had me giving a medicine dropper worth of liquid.

[Alice]

I think it's doctor-worthy.

[Eliana]

Have you tried crushed ice?

When a nasty norovirus hit us last month, some of the kids were so violently ill that they couldn't keep down water, but they could do a teaspoon of crushed ice (we started with less than that), no closer together than every 10 minutes (we started with 20).

If he can't keep ice down, I'd call your pediatrician for guidance.

Once the small quantities of ice are being kept down, you can try a teaspoon of water and see how that goes.

When he is keeping very small quantities of water down, you should probably try Pedialite (do you have some? It's really gross, but very effective.) to help rehydrate him and keep his electrolytes balanced

Eliana

[Kay in Cal]

OK, so ds seems to be feeling somewhat better... liquids staying down with no problem, and he even ate some toast a while ago.

Then I started throwing up. :( Fun, huh?

Back to the couch for me. Thanks for thinking of us...

[Amy in Orlando]

Awww - feel better, Kay!