My wife and I have a new baby boy: just 5 days old.
we also have a 2 year old daughter. On exactly the same day our son was being born, she came down with a terrile stomach flu. She's getting over it now quite well, and thankfully our son doesn't seem to have it... yet.
But I worry.
What if he does catch it? How does a 5 day old handle viral infections - specially the kind that upsets the stomach and puts you at risk for dehydration (it was bad enough to warrant an IV for our daughter). As I say, he doesn't seem to have it yet, but I worry.
What are the signs in a 5 day old of having the stomach flu and what are the prescribed actions to take? I can't imagine it would take long for things (like dehydration) to take hold on a child just newly born. I heard that breast feeding can work wonders because of all the antibodies in the breast milk. Is this true, and if so, how powerful a defense is this against viruses?
we also have a 2 year old daughter. On exactly the same day our son was being born, she came down with a terrile stomach flu. She's getting over it now quite well, and thankfully our son doesn't seem to have it... yet.
But I worry.
What if he does catch it? How does a 5 day old handle viral infections - specially the kind that upsets the stomach and puts you at risk for dehydration (it was bad enough to warrant an IV for our daughter). As I say, he doesn't seem to have it yet, but I worry.
What are the signs in a 5 day old of having the stomach flu and what are the prescribed actions to take? I can't imagine it would take long for things (like dehydration) to take hold on a child just newly born. I heard that breast feeding can work wonders because of all the antibodies in the breast milk. Is this true, and if so, how powerful a defense is this against viruses?
And chances are, that little, he probably wont get it. Especially if sister is already getting over it, he would have had it by now I'm thinking. I just wouldn't allow too much close contact with sister until she's all better, and wash your hands/use hand sanitizer often. I wouldn't worry too much, I be he wont pick it up. If he does though, you'll know pretty much right away. Its not a mysertious thing. DS had the stomach flu a few times as a baby, the youngest being probably like 3 months old (ugh, awful) and the first few things you will notice would be like loss of appetite, lots of crying for what appears to be no reason (but you might be able to tell its out of discomfort), then of course throwing up. DS would just throw up and throw up and throw up oh my goodness it was awful. We were always pretty good at preventing dehydration, we just kept giving him small amounts of pedialyte pretty often, even if he kept throwing it up we would offer it to him if he would take it. One way or the other, at least he wasn't dry heaving (ouch) and at least the few minutes it did stay down he was probably absorbing something. I always felt terrible when he got the stomach flu though, he would generally lose a couple pounds, which is a lot when you only have like 10-15lbs to work with to start, you know? 