Diarrhoea and/or Vomiting

• Avoiding dehydration and low blood sugar is important – give your baby/child extra fluids and make sure that they contain sugar. In the hospital, diluted apple juice is often used. To make this, simply mix half apple juice and half water (50/50). Please give this between feeds or after each watery stool. Little and often works best – in hospital babies and young children are given 1 or 2 tablespoons (5-10ml) of apple juice to drink every 5-10 minutes. You can try using a syringe to give fluids to your child.
• Continue to offer your child their usual feeds, including breast and other milk feeds.
• Do not worry if your child is not interested in solid food. If they are hungry, offer them plain food such as biscuits, bread, pasta or rice. It is advisable not to give them fizzy drinks as this can make diarrhoea worse.
• Your child may have stomach cramps; if simple painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen do not help please seek further advice.
• Most children with diarrhoea and / or vomiting get better very quickly, but some children can get worse. You need to regularly check your child and follow the advice given to you by your healthcare professional and / or as listed on this sheet

• Tummy bugs are extremely common in young children and are almost always caused by a virus.
• They are easily spread, resulting in outbreaks in nurseries and schools.
• Diarrhoea can often last between 5 – 7 days and stops within 2 weeks. Vomiting usually stops within 3 days. If your child continues to be ill for longer than these periods, seek advice.
• Severe diarrhoea and / or vomiting can lead to dehydration, which is when the body does not have enough water or the right balance of salts to carry out its normal functions. If the dehydration becomes severe it can be dangerous.
• Children at increased risk of dehydration include:
  • young babies under 1 year old (and especially the under 6 months)
  • babies born at a low birth weight and those who have stopped drinking or breastfeeding during the illness
  • children with faltering growth

Once your child is rehydrated and no longer vomiting:

• continue breastfeeding, other milk feeds and fluid intake - give full strength milk straight away.
• reintroduce the child’s usual food.
• avoid giving fizzy drinks until the diarrhoea has stopped
• if dehydration recurs, start giving ORS again
• anti-diarrhoeal medicines (also called antimotility drugs) should not be given to children
• your child cannot return to nursery / school until 48 hours after the last episode of diarrhoea and / or vomiting