I am not a doctor or an dietician, but a mom with experience in what I think is more than my share of gastro in the past 2 years.My little girl was home almost until she turned 1 and life was much simpler with cooking, dish washing and baby sitting was taken care of. (Thank God for all the awesome moms in the world)
Then came the day care days – days of back to back infections, fevers, gastro, projectile vomiting, eye infection, throat infection, more fever, more gastro. OH! MY GOD..the time spent seeing the GP, Paediatrician, waiting for hours in hospital emergency rooms and leave alone being a contractor with no sick day or parental care leave and having to pay for the day care even for the missing days.
Anyway coming back to the topic of feeding a kid. It is impossible to feed a kid when they cannot even retain water.
So here is what I have researched and tried and worked well for me
BRAT diet combined with my mom’s expertise.
BRAT – Banana Rice Apple Toast
No milk or any diary product which aggravates the diahorrea / vomiting
No juice – apparently sugar aggravates too.
Our most recent gastro lasted 5 days
1) We lived on – electrolyte – you get this hydrolyte pack from the chemist – freeze the little sachets and give it to toddler like a icy pole treat
2) Water – sips of water every now and then
3) Lunch – Predominantly rice porridge.
Cooking Porridge for toddlers
1 handful of rice
1 or 2 cups of water
A pinch of salt, few cumin seeds and couple of garlic.
Pressure cook all for 7 or 8 whistles
* I would chunk in a couple of full pepper on a normal day – with gastro No No
4) I give the water first. If retained then little bit rice mashed. After 2 or 3 days rice with little bit of yoghurt and a pinch of salt
5) Snacks – dry biscuits, rice crackers
6) Dinner – Toast with some dips. I gave Carrot Soup
Carrot Soup
Carrot - 1
Garlic – 2
Onion – 1 table spoon (unbelievably little)
Fry the onion in a teaspoon oil
Add the garlic, fry it till turns light brown ( gives a nice flavour, but do not burn it)
Add diced carrot, fry for 1 or 2 minutes
Transfer to a stainless steel vessel
Add water till it just covers the carrot
Add a pinch of salt
Pressure cook for 5 or 6 whistles
Let the pressure settle
Blend till it is smooth with no lumps
* I would have added ½ potato and 1 tablespoon diced tomatoes on a normal day. I preferred to avoid them with gastro
7) Introduced little bit Masoor dhal/Moong dhal along with rice after 3 or 4 days.
8) I gave sips of home made Omam water
Omam water
Ajwan/Omam is available in all Indian/Srilankan groceries
Take a teaspoon of omam and crush it with your fingers and fry in a pan for like 5 seconds.
Add a cup of water
Boil till it becomes ½ cup
Filter and give 1 or 2 sips at a time
Caution :
1) Don’t forget to see your GP after 48 hours of gastro, just to be sure if it is not bacterial infection that needs antibiotics
2) Fever, the best bud of gastro or any viral infection visits us for the first 2 days. As long as the reading is less than 40, no visible signs of baby being very drowsy, I guess panadol can be trusted
3) See your doctor if you see blood in the diapers
4) See your doctor if there is no wet nappy in 6-8 hours
5) Make sure there is no dehydration. I use pinching test. If you pinch and the flesh doesn’t go back normal immediately, there is sign of dehydration ( I am no expert, I have seen the midwives do it everytime)
