Question: My 3 month old is sick. She’s congested and she keeps throwing up the milk that I give her. The nurse in my pediatrician’s office said I need to stop breastfeeding her and giver her pedialyte. What do you think?
I can’t totally answer that without knowing more information. I think that you should speak to your pediatrician. Severely dehydrated babies could benefit from pedialyte but honestly, my doctors office would push IV fluids for a severely dehydrated baby. So I’m not sure what the nurse’s intention was, if she realized your baby was as young as she is or if she was giving advice based on a doctor’s orders.
However, I’ll address two common “myths” when it comes to breastfeeding baby with an illness. First of all, breast milk does not make the congestion worse. Breastmilk is not the same as cow’s milk. Secondly, not everyone experiences worse congestion when drinking milk in the first place–it simply depends.
The second myth is the idea that perhaps the baby should take something else while sick. If your baby wants to breastfeed, go ahead, even if it means that she’s going to throw it all back up again. First of all, there really isn’t anything else that you’re going to feed her. She is too young for solids. Secondly, don’t forget that your breast milk protects her from other viruses and illnesses that are going around. Filling her stomach with something like cereal (which by the way, she’s probably going to throw up) is depriving her of what she really needs at a time when her immune system is weak. It just doesn’t make sense.
If your baby is crying (assuming she’s old enough to make tears), and she’s having wet diapers she is not severely dehydrated. However, I do think that young infants with diarrhea, fever, etc. should always be checked by a pediatrician if it lasts more than 24 hours OR if she has those symptoms and a dry diaper for more than 12 to 18 hours. Chances are good, that she’s picked up a virus and simply needs to ride it out.
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