[blparent] Stomach flu

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Erin,

We use diet ginger ale- no sugar, no caffeine. I always keep diet ginger
ale on hand because I experience nausea at times due to my sinuses. Pen
also loves, loves ginger ale. She doesn't get it a lot, but instead of
soda, for a treat we will give her some ginger ale. In my experience,
Pedialyte has always been recommended, but like others on the list, the
sugar content in Pedialyte makes me pause. Unless severely dehydrated, I
suggest avoiding products like Pedialyte because of this.

But diet ginger ale is available. And if your local market doesn't carry
it, most stores allow customers to request products. Just ask at
customer service.

If sick but not experiencing diarrhea, liquids with sugar are
recommended at times just so calories are consumed. One-hundred percent
fruit juices will work too instead of soda which is full of chemical
elements. Because I'm diabetic, as a child, when sick and not eating, my
parents would give me regular Sprite or 7-Up since it doesn't have
calories, but the caloric content from the sugar kept my glucose levels
from dropping, and it was liquid even if not water.

When Penny went off her bottles, she started getting dehydrated because
she wasn't drinking as much. We started pushing water and leaving a
sippy with water where she had easy access to it. Within a couple of
days she was doing much better. Back this summer, she had a minor viral
infection that caused a runny nose and sore throat. We skipped milk, and
the doctor actually suggested regular Sprite or 7-Up because she was
barely eating. We didn't give her the soda each time, but we did allow
her some during meals especially if she didn't eat much. We pushed water
like it was going out of style though!

Regardless of the illness, I think water is the best liquid. If a child
isn't eating, obviously contact the doc, but giving them liquids with
sugar may help since they will require calories. Again, juice will
accomplish this too. If they experience diarrhea though, I wouldn't
think sugar would be a good idea whether it's from soda or juice. Even
100% fruit juice has sugar so always refer to your pediatrician.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 13
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:36:45 -0700
From: "Erin Rumer" <erinrumer at gmail.com>
To: "'Deborah Kent Stein'" <dkent5817 at att.net>,	"'NFBnet Blind Parents
	Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] Stomach flu
Message-ID: <001401cc94df$c47d5df0$4d7819d0$@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

My mom used Ginger ale for me when I had the flu as an older child at 5+
years but never as a baby.  The bubbles and the ginger help the stomach
but if I were to do anything like that for my son I'd look for the real
Ginger ale that they sell at Trader Joe's and health food stores like
that because he really doesn't need all that sugar.  The sugar kind of
defeats the purpose of trying to settle the stomach with the
carbonation.

Erin