# Co-Sleeping With A Sick Baby



## Aziah (May 10, 2005)

Can anyone tell me what you do in the situation where a baby is sick and vomiting (and diarrhea) and you are co-sleeping? I am finding it extremely difficult as everything is getting covered in vomit (including me and DH) and it is impossible to change all the bedding that many times in the night. I tried a towel under DD...but when she projectile vomits...it just goes everywhere.


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## lilarienne (May 15, 2005)

Hi, I'm new here, but just experienced this very thing. My son, who is 9 months old, just had a rotavirus infection last weekend, and we co-sleep. Supplies we used for this experience: chux pads (aka blue underpads, like they use in hospitals) that we put under our sheets to protect the mattress, a small Glad container as an emesis basin, two extra sets of sheets, a variety of towels, and about a a dozen prefold "burp cloth" dipes. We put a DSQ diaper under his head and shoulders. I wasn't sleeping very well anyway, so I almost always knew when vomiting was imminent (you can tell by either sounds in their tummies, or watching them...) and sat him up, put a towel over the sheets, and held the Glad container in front of him.

Prior to discovering the Glad container thing I would take him out of bed and sit on the floor with, him holding him up over a Rubbermaid waste basket, but that didn't work out a few times (vomiting happened too quicky







).

HTH

Co-sleeping, BFing, part-time CDing Mamma to one







boy: born on August 3, 2004


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## Aziah (May 10, 2005)

lilarienne: those are some good ideas that I will use.

Listen, not to scare you...but DD was hospitalized for a week and a half with rotavirus...she almost died (this was in April). The on-call doc didn't think she needed to go to the ER...turns out she did and by the time I brought her in she was so dehydrated her sodium was 174 (almost lethal). Just watch him and YOU determine if he looks like he is getting emaciated or if the diarrhea is coming out so bad that you almost can't keep up with the diapers. Keep checking for tears...when he runs out of tears that is a good sign of dehydration. They are admitting 30 kids a day up here in CNY. I hope he feels better!


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## lilarienne (May 15, 2005)

My son is completely recovered from his bout with rotavirus. The vomiting was only frequent the first few hours of the first day, decreased the second day, and was gone in the evening the second day. The diarrhea lasted 3 days, but was only really watery the first day. His poops were still loose for a few days after, but our pedi said that it wasn't really diarrhea. Actually it was more like poops when he was much younger, and that kind of made sense since while he was sick he was only BFing, no solids.

We called the on-call pedi several times and were very careful to watch for signs of dehydration (decreased urine output, tearless crying, dry mouth, sunken soft-spot...). We used the cotton ball trick to tell if he was urinating: put cotton balls in his diaper in the appropriate location to tell if it was urine.

We never stopped BFing, even during the vomiting phase. We just switched to more frequent smaller nursing sessions until his tummy could tolerate being full, and also used the pedialyte popsicle stuff a couple times. My son won't take pedialyte, and he doesn't REALLY need it since he's BF, but just to be sure I did give him some of the liquid used to make pedialyte popsicles (as advised by the pedi).

Kari (AKA Lilarienne)

Co-sleeping, BFing, part-time CDing Mamma to one







boy: born on August 3, 2004


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## mamasarah (May 28, 2002)

i am so bad about this stuff. usually i attempt to throw something in front of my dd when she's about to puke, but it generally gets all over me! i think you just need to lay down a lot of towels and maybe use an old blanket you don't like. co-sleeping is such a good thing when they're sick like that; you can be that much more in tune with what's going on and how sick they are.
hope everyone feels better soon!


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