# Pedialyte, Jello and diarehea??!!



## oatmeal (Nov 15, 2002)

My 1 YO Darling DD just came down with her first and the most awful case of diarehea yesterday morning. I went all day without calling the doctor and when it persisted (every half hour and in the bath tub too







I relented to my Sears book which dictated that I take her off foods and only give her Pedialyte and of course the 3 minute boobie she still takes once daily. She has a lowgrade fever and squirted acid liquid in her diaper all night last night, neither of us slept.

This morning I called the doctor who didn't call back and went to the store and got grape Pedialyte which DD has been drinking today. I finally got through to the receptionist at the Drs ofice who said I should be giving her Pedialyte and rice cereal. She also highly reccommended Jello.

Well I went and looked at the Jello package which is just nothing but gellatin (we're veg) and ARTIFICIAL EVERYTHING. Pedialyte is 90% ARTIFICIAL flavoring, coloring etc.

This baby has never eaten anything not organic. How can our doctors prescribe these artificial rememdies like they are healthful? Is there anything else that rivals Pedialyte that I can give her instead until this thing blows over? Is there such thing as natural jello? Help! I want to help my baby but I don't want to have another day of filling her with artificial garbage.


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## oatmeal (Nov 15, 2002)

hmmm. 12 people have looked at this, none have any experience with Pedialyte or natural Pedialyte substitutes? C'mon mamas. I need your help!


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## acystay (Aug 15, 2002)

Sorry about your babe. My dd (1yr) has some diarehea too but not as bad as your little.

I did the pedialyte w/ her too, but I nursed her a ton. The doctor on call said to nurse her for a few minutes at each time.

I think right now you really want to stick w/ non-iritating foods. Her intestines are going to take time to recover. Have you thought of the BRAT diet? It's bananas, rice, applesauce, dry toast. DD ate 1/2 a 'nana today and some otameal. She also had some yogurt and applesauce. Dr. Sears recommended no milk products and that yogurt was okay and probably good (you know the good stuff it has!). You can also make your own rice cereal if you want. Grind the brown rice in your blender for 2 minutes until it's a powder then add to boiling water and cook for about 10 minutes. You add homemade applesauce to it if you like to give it some sweetness and flavor.

I don't know what you could do different for the the pedialyte, but I'd still give it to her as much as you can.

Hope she's better soon!









stacy


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## YiddisheMama (Dec 23, 2002)

b'h

there's a product my sister-in-law recommended to me when dd was going thru something similar. it's called Smart Water. you can probably get it at any health food store. basically, it's water with electrolytes. it's pedialyte without the junk, sugar etc...

(the water happens to taste very good too)


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## *~*SewHappyNow*~* (Sep 25, 2002)

Well I know you can buy non-colored Pedialyte solutions. I am unsure if you can find them unflavored already prepared. You might want to see if there are any local pharmacies (probably independents) that specialize in compounding and or natural products. They can probably make you a solution with the proper elctrolyte balance without artificial coloring and flavoring.

As for jello.. jello is made from gelatin which is a colloid made from the bones and connective tissues of animals. Not a very vegan friendly substance. You could _use_ unflavored, uncolored knox gelatin and flavor it yourself with fruit juice.

I did a search and came up with this recipe for an elctrolyte solution. It says the sugar free kool-aid is optional as well as the salt substitute. The salt substitue is recommended because it contains potassium chloride. You're body loses potassium when it becomes dehydrated. Basically you could use any 'salt-substitute' from a grocery store that is potassium chloride.

http://www.geocities.com/cptpungent/kid.html


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## Piglet68 (Apr 5, 2002)

Quote:

_Originally posted by oatmeal_
*hmmm. 12 people have looked at this, none have any experience with Pedialyte or natural Pedialyte substitutes? C'mon mamas. I need your help!*
i felt so bad when i read this. you've gotten some good replies. but i really _don't_ know anything about the subject!!










i am so sorry about your dd being sick!


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## BowenTherapist (Apr 25, 2002)

this link might help out
http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...ight=Pedialyte
i hope your little one is feeling better soon


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## kerikadi (Nov 22, 2001)

We only got diahrea a couple of times and we did the BRAT diet:
Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast
This was all he ate until it was gone.
When you think about it bananas are constipating this will give you some options. I never gave Pedialyte or Jello.

Keri


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## Milkymommy (Apr 30, 2002)

There is vegetarian "jello" that is made from agar agar. It's available in most health food stores. I think that it's made by Hain.

I'm not sure if it's organic though.


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## bhmomof3 (Dec 29, 2002)

Okay, here's my input FWIW. Every time my kids got the big "D" I was told to give them rice and bananas. Peanut butter and cheese work well to stop them up too, but those are just my own personal inputs. "Rice and Bananas" is the advice of two different pediatricians, along with pedialyte. Good luck...and don't forget the diaper rash ointment. (I have some wonderful herbal diaper rash ointment, if you are looking for a natural alternative, and it acutally works!)


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## sunmountain (Nov 19, 2001)

The only thing that worked with any of my kids is to take them of all soilid food for at least 48 hours. That meant broth (vegetable broth is great! Pacific makes a good one) and an electrolyte solution and lots of breastmilk. I made my own electrolyte solution by putting 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon sugar into a liter of water. I got the recipe from a UNICEF site, you can do a search for it.

As far as the diaper rash, Bag Balm works wonders, and when I ran out I just used vasaline, anything to keep the D from making contact with their tender bottoms. Forget the zinc ointments, I found them irritating.

Hope your little one is feeling better soon!


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## jkwatkins (Jan 16, 2003)

I found something that works great for diarehea. You can buy it from your healthfood store. You can even purchase it at the vitamin shop. It's made by Boiron. It's a homeopathic remedy for flu and diarehea symptoms and has worked well with my children. It's called Oscillococcinum. I lower the dosage for my children. I have used it for my ds and dd when they were at the 1 yr old age. It comes in small tubes and the tubes are filled with very small pebble sized balls. Nothing that your little one will choke on. The balls taste very good and your little one will enjoy sucking on them. You can also dissolve the small pebbles in water and give it to her through a dropper. Something else you may try is giving her small amounts of powdered acidophilus you can add it to water and or just put a little on your finger and put it in her mouth right before nursing. Acidophilus will help her gut get rid of the bacteria or virus that's living there. It may take a week for her to get through this but just keep being consistent with what you are doing. I personally have never used Pedialyte or jello. I have only used naturally remedies to help my kids with their health. I am their family doctor. They see doctor mom







when they are sick. I have done alot of personal reading and research on my own. Just trust my own God given instincts and feelings about my kids than someone else.








Please keep us posted on the progress. I've been right where you are at.







Also, just thought.....when my ds and dd were teething they would get diarehea.
Hope this helps.


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## jkwatkins (Jan 16, 2003)

Somehow my post got posted twice so I thought I'd also encourage you to keep nursing your dd. Make sure you are drinking enough water during this time. I have found that when my kids have been sick, they much rather nurse than eat anything. It will not hurt her to go without food. It may help her get through it faster. Don't worry about her losing any weight either. Kids make it up after they are sick. Trust me!!


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## motherofmany (Nov 14, 2004)

hey, was just on the website checking out alternatives to what i'm already doing for our 1 year old and came across your discussion board!! i can't really see you getting away from the pedialyte (even though you don't really want to use it!) because your baby needs the electrolytes. our little boy has the worst case of diahrea i've ever seen (12 green poops yesterday and almost that many today ~ and it's only 3 p.m.!!!) your best bet is to stay away from ANY dairy products with the exception of yogurt (the cultures in yogurt firm up the stools). also, BANANAS, BANANAS, BANANAS ~ not only do they firm up loose stool but they make your baby's tummy feel full. dry toast is fine in small amounts as is plain pasta. your child will not starve but it does seem that way sometimes. i'm not in a panic mode because our almost 4 year old went through the same thing several times so i know from previous experience that even though they're pooping amazing colours and throwing up, they do survive. i'm hoping we're getting close to the end of this bout because the diapers are piling up look at it this way ~ i think it's harder on us moms than it is on the kids!!! good luck!


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## Periwinkle (Feb 27, 2003)

When my ds had rotovirus (HORRIBLE diarrhea for 3+ days) I had the same problem, also he HATED pedialyte and wouldn't drink it.

* Filtered water with a splash of white grape juice (unlike apple and many other juices, white grape juice does not contribute to loose stools). Maybe 4 oz. water: 1 oz. juice. At first, I had him drink it with a "crazy straw" which he loved and seemed to forget he was shunning all liquids. This got him drinking / rehydrating again.
* Bananas. This was for the sugar / potassium.
* The organic version of Ritz crackers. For the sodium.
* Cooled beef stock (made from boiling organic beef bones forever) - in a cup with a straw. I know if you're vegan this is a bad one, but the gelatin helped with the diarrhea and settled his stomach, and also provided a little protein and sodium.
* Yogurt - whole milk, organic, SF yogurt - mixed with a teaspoon or so of Baby Jarrow probiotics powder. To help heal his gut / repopulate his intestines with good flora. Also to provide some other nutrients, protein, etc.

He lived quite nicely on this and this alone for about 5-6 days until he was able to eat other things again.


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## kavamamakava (Aug 25, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *oatmeal*
My 1 YO Darling DD just came down with her first and the most awful case of diarehea yesterday morning. I went all day without calling the doctor and when it persisted (every half hour and in the bath tub too







I relented to my Sears book which dictated that I take her off foods and only give her Pedialyte and of course the 3 minute boobie she still takes once daily. She has a lowgrade fever and squirted acid liquid in her diaper all night last night, neither of us slept.

This morning I called the doctor who didn't call back and went to the store and got grape Pedialyte which DD has been drinking today. I finally got through to the receptionist at the Drs ofice who said I should be giving her Pedialyte and rice cereal. She also highly reccommended Jello.

Well I went and looked at the Jello package which is just nothing but gellatin (we're veg) and ARTIFICIAL EVERYTHING. Pedialyte is 90% ARTIFICIAL flavoring, coloring etc.

This baby has never eaten anything not organic. How can our doctors prescribe these artificial rememdies like they are healthful? Is there anything else that rivals Pedialyte that I can give her instead until this thing blows over? Is there such thing as natural jello? Help! I want to help my baby but I don't want to have another day of filling her with artificial garbage.









Is she nursing? Breastmilk is better than pedialyte for those issues. I've also seen clear pedialyte. I give emergen-c or recharge for electrolyte replacement. You can also get Hunt's fruit gels which are vegetarian if you still want to use "jell-o"


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## Dar (Apr 12, 2002)

Yeah, I'd skip all the other stuff and keep her on just breastmilk for a couple of days...

Dar


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## wenat (Apr 17, 2004)

I went with the BRAT diet too, for my little guy's diarrhea -- Bananas, Rice, Apples and Toast. Cleared up in a couple of days, and then he also got some acidophilus just to get some more good bacteria into his system.

I'm not sure if this is accurate or not, but one of my girlfriends was advised that gatorade has the same effect as pedialyte -- apparently it's got a lot of the same ingredients. But since you're looking for something more natural than pedialyte, this is probably useless advice. (But there is clear gatorade out there ...)


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## acrathbun (Apr 27, 2004)

Hi there.

I'm an LC in a WIC office and we were recently given *new* guidelines for diarrhea. They are now in line w/ what the WHO has been doing for years.

I hope you find this helpful:

When your child has acute diarrhea, you should follow 5 basic steps

1. Immediately give your child an electrolyte solution like Pedialyte to drink.
-always have a supply of electrolyte solution in your home so that you can offer it immediately.
-for children less than 22lbs, give 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup (2-4 ounces) per diarrhea stool.
-for children more than 22lbs give 1/2 cup to 1 cup (4-8 ounces) per diarrhea stool.
-Offer the electrolyte solution by bottle, cup, teaspoon, syringe, medicine dropper or freezer pops.
-If your child is vomiting, you may have to offer the electrolyte solution in smaller amounts more often (for example 1teaspoon every 5 minutes)

2. Watch for signs of dehydration. The signs of dehydration include:
-Increased thirst (a severely dehydrated child may drink poorly)
-Decreased urine or no urine over 6-12 hours. Urine will be a darker yellow.
-Weight loss
-Dry mouth and tongue
-Decreased tears or no tears when crying
-Sunken eyes
-Sunken soft spot on an infants head
-Tired, restless or irritable child. (a severely dehydrated child may become unusually sleepy or unconscious)
-Rapid & deep breathing
-Pinched skin stays folded like a tent.

3. Contact your doctor if your child is dehydrated.

4. Contact your doctor if you have other questions or concerns. You should definitely contact your doctor if your child:
-Is less than 1 yr old
-Has blood in the stool.
-Has a fever
-Has persistant vomiting

5. If your child is not dehydrated, continue to offer your child an electrolyte solution, other usual foods and fluids.
-for children less than 22lbs, give 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup (2-4 ounces) per diarrhea stool.
-for children more than 22lbs give 1/2 cup to 1 cup (4-8 ounces) per diarrhea stool.
-Offer your child his/her other usual fluids and foods. These usual foods include breastmilk, formula, water, milk, etc.
-Avoid Sugary foods and fluids like soda-pop, Kool-Aid, and other fruit-flavored drinks, juice, jello & jello-water, Gatorade, and other sports drinks, pre-sweetened cereals, popsicles and other sugary foods.


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## acrathbun (Apr 27, 2004)

I also wanted to say that at home we also give a special kind of lactobacillus gg called Culturelle. Our ped. gi recommended it & it has been wonderful.

Culturelle

and...Gatorade (and the like) are electrolyte solutions, but they are made for totally different things. Gatorade is made to replace electrolyte loss after *sweating* from exercise, etc. Pediatric electrolyte solutions are have a higher concentration of electrolytes because the amounts you lose in diarrhea & vomiting are obviously much greater. Also, gatorade has a lot more sugar in it which can exacerbate the diarrhea.

The BRAT diet is fine, but make sure you are offering other things as well (breastmilk, formula, electrolyte solution, etc), because it is quite restrictive.


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## Periwinkle (Feb 27, 2003)

Grrr. I wish every pediatrician or health authority who recommended pushing Pedialyte would personally come to my house every time dd or ds got diarrhea and try to make them swallow it themselves. And good luck getting a breastfed baby to drink pedialyte (at all) much less from a bottle or cup.







: The stuff is NASTY and not all babies are used to bottles!

I definitely second breastmilk - it's ALL a child needs - if they drink enough of it. Otherwise, if the child is weaning/weaned and they won't get enough fluid from you, do whatever you have to do to get them to drink something. I resorted to spoon feeding white grape juice / water then when he perked up a bit, got out the super cool crazy straw which he loved. Again, you can give your child potassium, sugar, and sodium through other means.

I also wanted to add that many of the signs of dehydration are signs of SEVERE dehydration - and if your child has them you should probably go straight to a hospital for IV rehydration. My ds had lost 2 pounds of water and STILL didn't have a sunken fontanel or skin that would "tent" when pinched.


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## Bethkm (Jun 27, 2003)

I agree that Pedialyte is not the best source of electrolytes for a baby or young child. I think too many peds see it as a cure-all. My ds's doctor recommended I give it to him at 5 WEEKS old when I called about a possible bout with diarrhea. SHe suggested I STOP nursing him and do pedialyte for 48 hours! HELLO! I called my LC crying and she helped me realize he had green wwatery poop from foremilk/hindmilk imbalance...that's another story. BUT, I think a lot of people think this is great stuff and it's nothing compared to breastmilk!


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## SmilesALot (Nov 20, 2001)

I had experience with very loose stools with my dd eventhough it was not severe
diarrhea. The doc suggested Pedialyte and i saw that the options were highly artificially
flavored ones. I chose the unflavored one and as mentioned by other moms, my dd completely refused it. So i went to preparing my own solution with 3 pinches of salt and 1 pinch of sugar in say about 100 ml of water. We also did more stool hardening starchy foods. She was ok in about 5-6 days.

Next time, i will check out Whole foods store where i am sure i will find something that is more natural.

Peace & Love!


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## dotti (Mar 8, 2008)

I just got thru a sick time withmy little ones and my mom just gave me a recipe for homemade Pedialyte. Both of my kiddos took it great either plain or mixed with juice. It is as follows:
1 qt. water
8 t. raw sugar
1/2 t. soda
1/2 t. salt
Shake well--refrigerate.
It works wonders for sick stomachs and is supposed to help avoid dehydration. Plus it doesn't have all the yucky chemicals and coloring.


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