"Why is the stuff so expensive?" Anthony asked, after forking out over $5 for a liter of Pedialyte. I don't know, since really it basically is just sugary salty water.
The pediatrician who saw Colin on Tuesday said he was in that grey zone of dehydration, where he could go the the ER for a bolus of IV fluids, or we could just push the Pedialyte at home. "I know what I'd do," she said, and we agreed, not relishing the thought of arriving at the ER at 5 pm and waiting for them to stick a catheter in Colin's little arm.
Then I remembered that our usual pediatrician had a recipe for homemade electrolyte replacement solution in her book. I also knew a good source of KCl (potassium chloride) was Morton's Lite Salt -- and it costs only 88 cents!
We are truly in awe at how much diarrhea the gastrointestinal tract of one 2-year-old can produce. I don't want to gross the childless out too much, but suffice it to say that it sounds like a veritable FOUNTAIN when it hits the diaper. And when you open the diaper, that's what you get, a fountain. Our hands are chapped from washing and the washer/dryer is tired.
The homemade stuff worked: Colin drank it readily, and he is back to his perky self.
HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTE SOLUTION
4 cups water
1/2 tsp salt (or better, Morton's Lite Salt)
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp flavored gelatin for flavor, optional
Colin likes his plain with a little juice -- delicioso!
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4 comments:
Awh, poor little guy. I feel so bad for him. Now I don't feel as bad for myself and my chapped chapped hands. Or, as Graham calls them "Mommy's hands all chap." Pottytraining has me leading by example twenty million times a day. Like this, "Okay, good job, way to go, now let's wash our hands"...or worse, scrubbing poop out of big girl undies and then santizing my hands only to turn around and change an equally filled up diaper from G. But like I said, thinking of the large quantities of foul-smelling diarhea that you are dealing with, um, I'll just grin and bear it with my woes.
We will have to keep your recipe on hand incase we are ever short of our electrolyte standby -- glaceau vitamin water. It works great to stave off hangovers (which one can ill-afford when parenting small children), too.
Sounds gross, and I pity you! I gotta say, the more I learn, I'm rethinking the whole having kids thing...
Awww the poor little mite...hope he keeps it at bay now..not a very pleasant part of bringing up children is it...we would rather suffer ourselves..xx
Poor little bloke, at least he is getting rehydrated now, must say you're a very clever mommy - I wouldn't have a clue about making up the stuff myself, I'd have panicked and carted him off to ER. Hope he gets back to normal asap XX
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