[blparent] Stomach flu

[Michael Baldwin]

It is not real common among kids that  I know of, but be careful if you are
pushing just water for a kid, or anyone for that matter who is dehydrated.
I am not sure on the exact science behind it, but if the electrolytes are
seriously depleted in the body, giving water can cause water intoxication.
This is pretty common in marathon runners. They are sweating everything out,
and when they only take in water, nothing else to replenish the
electrolytes, they get drunk on the water. It can lead to death.
Most likely nothing for anyone to be real concerned of, but if you have a
sick child, and only are giving them water, and they start to act drunk,
that might explain it.

Michael

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 8:34
To: blparent at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blparent] Stomach flu

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


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