My toddler’s quick trip to Emergency

My son has been sick since Wednesday, he was vomiting and has diarrhea (4 to 5 loose stools a day) and his stool is pale yellow. His has fair appetite, he looked like he lost weight and dehydrated and that worried me. So after work yesterday, I said to my husband, I needed to buy him some pedialyte and some food that he probably would like to try to eat. We dropped by at Walgreens and I bought pedialyte, pediasure (babnana flavor) and pretzels snacks sticks.

We came home and he had another bowel movement. Then after giving the pediasure, he pooped again. So I told my husband, “let’s bring him to emergency” (for my peace of mind). So I changed my scrubs to my regular jeans then we headed to Kaiser.

We met the ED doctor and he assessed my son. Since he is not having any abdominal pain, they ruled out appendicitis. He told us it is a “stomach bug” or viral gastroenteritis. He also told us that he didn’t look like he is dehydrated. Then they gave him zofran half tablet (dissolves really fast) for vomiting and told us to wait for 30 minutes before giving him sips of fluids. He had sips of pedialyte and he didn’t like the flavor so I gave him water instead. Then the nurse had him tried the orange popsicle. Thank goodness, he tolerated it otherwise they will have him to stay in the hospital. We waited for about 45 and they called us in to the treatment room again. The doctor said they would send him home and that he needs to follow up with his pediatrician on Monday. He gave us a prescription for zofran. I asked if milk is okay because I noticed that every time we give him milk, he vomits and the doctor said it is fine and don’t give any sweets as it will make the diarrhea worse. He also told us to give zofran 30 minutes before he eat and that sips of fluids is the best for now so he would be able to keep it down.

We spent about 2 hours in the ED and my toddler was well behaved. His kindle fire tablet made him busy while we wait in the lobby. He is slowly getting better. He tolerated his milk before he slept. No vomiting since after the ED visit.