The Wonders Of Haribo

I was making our dinner on Thursday evening and Bob was happily playing in her activity centre in the kitchen.  Suddenly, out of nowhere (well out of her mouth, actually) Bob projectile vomited everywhere!  She has been sick before but I have never seen anything like this.  Her clothing, my slippers and the activity centre could not be saved!

For the next hour Bob was very quiet.  We snuggled together, watching In The Night Garden.  I was glad that my husband arrived home before the next onslaught!  Bob began to be sick every 15 minutes and it got to the point where she could only bring up bile.  (Sorry is that too much information?).  I kept trying to get her to sip water but she refused.  We rang the out of hour’s doctors who told us to take her to the clinic at the hospital.

Although we only live 10 minutes from the hospital, Bob was sick before we left, on the way and twice in the waiting room.  When we went in to see the doctor the sickness magically stopped!  I think he was a magician!  She also began to accept a drink.  The doctor said that she was slightly dehydrated but if the sickness stopped and she kept drinking we could go home.  If she were sick again he would have to admit her.  He observed her for half and hour then we sat in the waiting room for a while.  The sickness seemed to have stopped and she was still taking sips of water and milk so he told us to go home and to go to our GP in the morning.

Bob was very unsettled so we stayed awake, giving her tiny bits to drink every 15 minutes, as the doctor had requested.  At about 3am she fell asleep so I laid with her on our bed and closed my eyes.  5 minutes later, all of the milk and water we had given her and, somehow, a lot more covered us!  We both had a shower and I threw some more clothes in the bin!

She was sick a few more times before morning and every time I changed her nappy it was bone dry so I made an appointment to see our GP.  All of the normal doctors weren’t there so we had to see a locum doctor.  What a waste of time!  He was practically asleep and running half an hour behind so he took one look at Bob, told me it was a virus and told us to go home!

The sickness settled down by the afternoon but I could not get Bob to eat or drink anything!  I tried everything I could think of but she clamped her mouth shut and turned her head.  Not wanting to go back to the useless asleep man, I decided to wait until after 6, when the out of hour’s team took over.

Killing time, watching CBeebies and having cuddles, I began to trough my way through a bag of Haribo Starmix.  Bob seemed very interested in what I was eating and started to reach for the bag.  I have been a stickler for weaning up until this point, following Annabel Karmel’s books to the letter.  Doubt crossed my mind at first but then I thought that if Bob would eat anything, anything at all, it had to be better than nothing!  I started biting off tiny bits of sweets and popping them into her mouth.  She loved them and they didn’t make her sick.

That night, we returned to the out of hour’s clinic where they admitted Bob to hospital.  She was dehydrated and her fontanelle (the soft spot on her head) was sunken.  The pediatrician told us that we must keep trying to get her to take some fluids as if she became anymore dehydrated she would have to either have a tube through her nose into her tummy or be put on a drip.  They needed a urine sample, to rule out infection, so they stuck a bag on her to catch her wee.  After about 5 minutes Bob did the tiniest poo you have ever seen so the bag had to come off.  Poor Bob, it must have felt like it feels to have your bikini line waxed.  They didn’t want to make her sore so, instead of attaching another bag the nurse put some cotton wool balls in her nappy.

All night my husband, 3 different nurses and myself tried to get her to take some fluids using bottles, cups, spoons and syringes.  I kept telling Bob that they were going to stick pins in her if she didn’t drink but she didn’t seem to understand.  The only thing she would drink was her milk but that would stay down for half an hour and then return with twice as much liquid.  The nurse said that this would make her worse as she was losing the little goodness that she had.  She managed to do a tiny wee onto the cotton wool balls but when the pediatrician returned she said that they couldn’t test them as they would be contaminated.  They attached another sticky bag and we waited.

The next day we continued to try and get Bob to drink.  We even tried giving her various things to eat but she wouldn’t take anything, except the odd little bit of Haribo.  6 hours after the second bag had been attached, Bob did another teeny wee. They tested it and it was clear.

Eventually she started to take tiny amounts of fluid but she was sick after each sip.  It got to the point where she would gag when she saw the syringe.  That evening, when we had run out of options, the nurse told us to try her again with little sips of milk.  She said it was against everything she had learnt but that she didn’t know what else to try.

That night Bob took 2 ounces of milk every 2 hours and she kept it down!  The next morning she looked much better in herself, we were so relieved!  I started to pack, sure that they would let us go home but, just as I was opening the suitcase, Bob was so sick!  It looked like all of the milk that we had given her.  I went to find the nurse who told me not to pack just yet.

The consultant came to see her and he said that, as she seemed better in herself, we could go home.  They would not put her on a drip unless she was severely dehydrated and what we were doing at the hospital we could do at home.  They told us the signs to watch out for and they gave us a pass, which would allow us to return to the ward, without having to go through a doctor, within 24 hours, if we were at all worried.  I was sure that Haribo had something to do with Bob not having to have a tube or a drip.  I asked for some on prescription but they thought that I was joking?!?

We came home and yesterday, Bob continued to sip juice and eat little pieces of biscuit and toast throughout the day.  She has not been sick since we left the hospital and, although she is sleeping much more than usual (this doesn’t take much – see Let Sleeping Babies Lie post), when she is awake she seems o.k. in herself.  Fingers crossed we are out of the woods and that our little Bob will be back to normal very soon!