Would you like to hear some advice? —This, by the way, is how my mom prefaces advice, and I recommend it for mothers of grown daughters. I always say yes, but it establishes that I have the OPTION to say no (note: this only works if the mother does not go right on with the advice even if the daughter says no) and that I also have the option to completely reject said advice and that she REALIZES all this, which puts down my natural daughterly defenses. Also, it allows me to make some pre-advice requirements, such as “Only if it’s NOT ____” or “Yes, but I want to warn you that I am feeling PRICKLY about this.”
Hm. In this format it works less well, because you can’t say yes or no and I know it, and because I’m going to tell you anyway, and also because you can’t make pre-advice requirements. …I’ll come in again.
Hey, I have some advice! Feel free to disregard it and/or modify it to your own requirements, of course! But here it is! Don’t feed a barfy child!
This is a lesson we learned with Child One, but we have had to relearn it occasionally. The child seems so ILL, and he/she has been throwing up all his/her nourishment so it seems like he she MUST EAT or surely he/she will be in MORTAL DANGER! But no. Our children have occasionally declined food for DAYS and never even look thinner.
Of course I don’t mean DEPRIVE the child of food if the child WANTS food. But our error is always trying to tempt or even COERCE the non-hungry, non-food-wanting child into eating because we feel in our panicky parental way that it is necessary to sustain life. This just makes more work and suffering (i.e., barfing) for everyone.
The very minute the first barfing occurs, we stop all dairy, meat, citrus, and fibrous produce. No pudding, no yogurt, no milk, no cheese, no chicken, no oranges, no orange juice, no grape/apple/etc. skins, no pineapple or whatevs. All those things make barf WAY worse than it has to be. We feed from this list:
- apple juice
- water
- applesauce
- bananas
- saltines
- graham crackers
- rice cereal for babies, Rice Chex for older kids
- toast with the tiniest bit of butter and/or jam and/or peanut butter
A child who has thrown up has to wait ten minutes to have anything to drink, and then they get water or apple juice in small amounts with breaks in between to be gentle to the recovering tummy. After thirty minutes they may try something small to eat (one saltine, for example), and then they have to wait twenty minutes before they can have anything else—again, to be respectful to the sensitive tummy. After 24 hours of no throwing up, they can go back to regular foods.
Obviously this is not a good and balanced diet for long-term use: we use it only for the kind of barfing that lasts 1-3 days, gradually improves rather than worsens, and doesn’t give us any reason to call in a doctor. And NONE of this is for babies who are still breastfeeding or bottlefeeding—this is all for older children. And OBVIOUSLY I am not any kind of medical professional (I have to think first in order to correctly use a toy stethoscope). But this is the Barf Plan we implement at our house, and it has greatly reduced the Barf Distress around here.
We always did something similar. Mom would make hot tea and after throwing up, and waiting a few minutes, we were given 2 tablespoons of tea followed by nothing but ice chips. In half an hour, a few more tablespoons of tea… and more ice chips… and THEN if we felt less queezy we were allowed to try a few crackers. It ALWAYS worked to ease the upset stomach with far less interum barfing. I use this method with my kids too
Yep, I push fluids because puking water is so much easier than dry heaving, but I offer food and don’t push it. And then it’s the BRAT diet for a few days. (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast)
And by the way, I love the advice caveat. I am going to adopt that.
Good list! The worst barf ever was after my husband fed our kids spaghetti, cheddar cheese sticks, and yogurt for dinner. In his defense, no one had gotten sick yet but man that night stands out as one of the worst parenting nights of all time!
So with the advice, that wouldn’t work with my mom. Because even if I said no, which I most likely would, she would huff and puff and sigh in exasperation until she told me her advice anyway. Which would either lead to dead silence or an argument. Usually the former, because really, arguing with my mother is pointless.
Would it be bad form to ask my mom if she would like to hear some advice, and if she says yes suggest that this would be the preferred method for her to use when offering advice?
Also, that list works well for adults too. I add gatorade to it for adults, but only after ice chips & saltines/oyster crackers have been working first.
Yes, this is what we do too. Sometimes, our kids will even barf up the tiny sip of water. So then we wait even a bit longer before offering another tiny sip (like 20-30 minutes).
Basically this is what we call the “BRAT” diet: Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. Oh, and freezies work ok too, since they can’t eat them very fast. Easy on the tummy!
Oh, I have to relearn this EVERY. TIME. there’s a barf situation at my house. I also add Ginger Ale to my list of acceptable barf situation foods. Ginger, good for tummies! Am so smart. Am practically a health food store over here.
(my word verifcation=snesse)
See, now THAT is good advice that I’m happy to hear. I push water at least to rinse out the mouth, but I’m not as big on pushing food. My kid is the one that wants to eat and drink TONS and I have to restrain him from stuffing himself only to barf again later. He’s almost 4 and still hasn’t learned this lesson!
SO TIMELY. I had a barfing child on Monday night! She barfed… in a restaurant! And then in my NEW CAR on the way home from the restaurant!
I agree with your list. My pediatrician recommends that you don’t give any food after they barf, but rather offer a sip of water every 5 minutes. If they are able to keep that down for a couple of hours, then try one of the mild foods. I used Rice Chex yesterday and it was quite successful!
Rice Krispies, one at a time, are what the doctor (at the hospital when our 20 month old was hospitalized for THREE DAYS for wicked rotavirus/spewing from all ends) recommended as they are small, easy on the tummy and…well…mostly air and crunch.
Thank you!! We had two barfing children (and a barfing husband) a couple of weeks ago and this would have come in handy. I’m printing it out and putting it with the medicine.
Smart, so smart.
Also, I do the same thing with my SIL regarding the advice. I always say, “Want some free advice?” If she doesn’t like it I tell her, because I am corny, “Well, you get what you pay for.” I am so funny.
I have learned so many things from this post. Thanks Swistle!
for barf or diarrhea we go with BRATY diet. bananas, rice, applesauce, toast, yogurt (the bacteria in yogurt can supposedly help fight whatever yuckiness is causing the barfing/diarrhea) and we only feed those things when the kid is willing to eat.
I also recommend teaching them to run for the nearest barf receptacle at an early age. Mine are fully trained. I can’t tell you the last time I had to clean up barf. This is probably one of the areas I am most proud of them. hehe
I love the advice plan, I am forwarding it to my mothere & mother in-law!
About the barf feeding plan, you may not be a dr. but the plan you just listed is the very same one our Dr. told us to use back in Dec. when our 4 year old was barfy for a week =o) A
Also if there is diarrhea involved she told us yogurt was okay but ONLY IF it contained live active cultures and said so on the label.
So way to go Dr. Swistle =o)
I never comment, but I have to speak up today in AMAZEMENT at how the Barfing Sickness seems to have hit the entire world at once! (I’m assuming, of course, that a Barf Situation prompted this post). Children are barfing everywhere in this country, but abroad as well! One week after the vileness hit our home, my sister-in-law and her family in England got it. Wicked, wicked traveling germs.
Thanks for the good advice. For the infants, just wanted to put out there that my pediatrician recommended using a syringe to administer 5 ml of unflavored pedialyte to my 9-mo-old at a time, similar to the sips of water for older kids. Pissed her off a treat but it worked til she could tolerate more.
We have a similar plan, except they must have not thrown up for an hour before eating. Just because we’ve had too many incidents of eating too soon and throwing up again. Saltines, water, soup, etc…
How did you know we are barfing today? So far just watered down juice in very small increments. Though, the “can I have more now? How about now? Now?” is killing me. Poor dude is thirsty but just yarks it up a few minutes later.
12 hours of barfing and counting. Fingers crossed the other 2 kids and myself don’t catch this bug.
One word: Emetrol
Miracle. Trust me – I had nerve damage as a child that made me be on 3 medications to have my stomach pumping properly. Barfing was an almost daily occurance until I hit puberty and outgrew it like the Dr’s said I would.
You can give it in 15 minute intervals after puking until the vomiting stops. It worked every. single. time. for me and also for me and my brother when a bug or virus hit.
Our Barf Plan is very similar, and we have a Frequent Barfer (FB) so lots of R&D opportunities! The big issue here though, is that our FB is ALWAYS STARVING in between spews. So a day with the FB in action goes like this: barf barf gah barf, I’M HUNGWY WHAT CAN I HAZ TO EAT PEEEEEESE I EAT NOW barf barf barf gah HUNGRY! SO HUNGRY etc. It is impossible. Any thoughts?
Also, if you saw my tweet last night? He tends to barf in bad places, like MY EYE.
Sorry for the yelling. It’s been an all-cap kind of week.
I made that mistake MULTIPLE TIMES with my first child. But then, I finally LEARNED. No appetite for dinner? NO PROBLEM. The last time I practically force-fed her TURKEY and PASTA WITH SAUCEOMFGHORRRRRRIBLE.
I like your plan b/c anything that reduces barf-stress is GOOD WITH ME.
PS. I also learned of the baking soda bath/laundry from you. And to lasagna the sheets (was that you? THAT is an awesome trick, too.)
Now that I have stopped laughing at “shreik house” I can comment that I learned from a friend with older kids when my first was tiny that it is much easier to throw up something than to throw up nothing. So I let them have water any time they ask when the are barfy. Just a sip at a time though. Then when they haven’t barfed in a while we go the saltine route. We also use 7Up (NOT Sprite) and ginger ale as neither is too terribly unpleasant to barf if you started too soon. And we employ a bucket for portable barfing if you are too weak to make it to the bathroom (also works in a going-at-both-ends situation).
BTW in my own morning sickness experience, the worst thing/hardest thing I ever spewed was…grapes! Very painful and just.really.bad!
The doctor told me to give my children flat coke when they were little. (they are now in their thirties) You could even buy a very small bottle of coke syrup at the drug store and mix it with water. Coke stays down better than even water. I say that with authority because after many barfy years with 3 kids, I saw the results. When they were soooo sick that a teaspoon of water wouldn’t stay down, coke would. (it also gives them a little sugar) I would leave the coke (the coke syrup had no fizz) out on the counter for a while and stir it to get ALL the bubbles out. At times, it was the only thing that would stay down. I do agree on your barf timing. I also gave my children Jello and popcicles.
Oh yes…the Barf Plan Diet. I’d like to toss in a few things that you should ABSOLUTELY NOT feed a barfing child for those young moms among us. Not because the food will make your barfing child barf more, but because it will save you a lot of grief and permanent stains on carpets, bedding, mattresses, toys and clothing.
1. Do not give a barfing child any food or drink of any kind that has even a trace of artificial coloring in it. Some weird science happens in child’s belly that renders said food coloring absolutely permanent when it hits the carpet. This includes blue gatorade, pink yogurt, any sort of fruit rollup, unhealthy multicolored cereal or storebought popsicle.
2. Do not feed a barfing child any food that has, ahem, extreme natural coloring, for the same reason as number 1 above. This includes such things as blueberries, strawberries, grape juice, tomato products of any kind, cantalope or spinach.
3. Finally, do not feed a barfing child any food that is in the least bit smelly, including cheese products. That same weird science happens to smells, too, and regurgitated cheese will send You running for the barf receptical AND leave a gosh-awful olfactory remnant that you will detect every time you walk into the room for the next six months!
Swistle – I hope your Barfer recovers quickly and that the poor baby doesn’t share whatever is causing it with the siblings!
My mom used to feed us Toast Bites, which was toast with a touch of butter, cut into the tiniest pieces possible. You could have ONE every 5 minutes. This is such a good list.
Shriek House- ACK! Mine are all appetite-losing barfers, so I have no experience.
C C Donna-Yes! My parents had a bottle of coke syrup that I had completely forgotten about until you commented!!! Does anyone know if they still sell it?
This reminds me of what was recently going on at my house, both the barfing and the motherly advice. My mom was visiting and INSISTED that my 9 month old baby must be hungry, look at how he WANTED what she was eating, couldn’t he just have a little food? (He had been barfing for two days, but still nursing, so he was not starving to death). I held my ground to my mom’s chagrin, but he vomited again soon after the conversation. :)
I’m a little overwhelmed just thinking about the amount of barf you must have to deal with, Swistle, in order to have come up with something called a Barf Plan.
wow, i should hang this and all the comments on my fridge or something! you guys are all awesome. and i am so curious about ‘the new girl’s p.s.?
Klutzy K- Baking soda is, I think, the ONLY thing that has worked to take barf smell out of laundry and hair. I put it in the washing machine, I put it in the tub. “Lasagna-ing” the sheets wasn’t my idea but it’s a good one: when a child is barfy, you do several layers of your usual sheet set-up (mattress pad, vinyl mattress protector, sheet, whatever you use) on the mattress so that when the child barfs, you only need you remove the barfed-on layer and then you have a fresh layer all set to go underneath–you don’t have to remake the bed.
so a pepperoni hot pocket is probably out:)
Whenever we’ve had a barfing situation, our pediatrician recommends taking a fruit cup and spooning out some of the syrup and feeding them a spoonful at a time, every 1/2 hour or so, before eating anything else (crackers, toast, etc). I guess it coats the stomach or something but it does seem to help. any kind of syrupy canned fruit works; pear, peaches, etc.
I never seem to be able to recall this info when I need it though, b/c they’ve had to tell us every single time!
I read a whole book for people with lousy digestion and it declared ripe bannanas to be the easiest to digest food ever, so good on you for that one!
I have emetophobia so this whole post has me nervous and sick feeling. My BIGGEST fear in life is that my children will get the stomach flu while my husband is at the firehouse, which means he is 2 hours from home. Thanks for the list, I will pass it on to any person who steps up and cares for my barfing child since I CERTAINLY will not be the one dealing with him/her. I have three kids, the day is bound to come. I live in fear of it.
Aww Swistle! You care! You wrote this for me. :D Barfy toddler is almost ready for regular food tomorrow. I think the beany dinner from two nights ago clogged her up, so to speak, (and judging from the first vomit on Monday night) and she wouldn’t keep anything down for about eight hours and then water was okay and breastmilk… but then the applesauce kicked her butt and we went back to square one. Strangely enough, the sour cream and onion chips went down and stayed down. I was truly surprised. Today was a lot of nursing, some water, a bit of carbonated soda, applesauce and some spagetti noodles with butter for dinner. Thanks for your great list!
I always stick to the BRAT diet for a pukey kid – bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.
Wow you come from a family where you are asked first before the advice is given? I am in awe!
I remember being given the B.R.A.T diet when I was a kid and had the stomach flu. As an adult, even though I know that it probably isn’t the best idea, if I catch a stomach bug sometimes I will gulp down soda just to make the barfing happen so I can stop feeling so nauseous! (I’d never do that to a kid of course)
Erin,
I have found that as an adult, leaning over the, how do I put this nicely? vomit recepticle, and coughing speeds up the barfing process so I can get to feeling better.
Thanks! at 18 months my child really barfed for the first time last night. Ugh.
This wonderful advice comes 6 weeks late for me. My 2 yo, husband, and I all had gastroenteritis right after the new year.
Ah well, I’ll know better next time.
Please oh please, don’t let there be a next time!
Swistle, You’re my hero!!
Oh, vomiting fun. I remember getting 7 up in the wee tiny cans. It made being sick more fun. I know when I am sick I like the gatorade, but I don’t barf on the carpet like SOME people. So it does violate the artificial color test for kids.
I have a whole list of things NOT to feed a barfing child, like Red Powerade. Bad idea.
Your list is a modified BRAT diet- bananas, rice, applesauce, toast. It only took about 5 years for me to finally ask a doctor what they meant by that…
Excellent advice. I remember calling my wonderful pediatrician, frantically, after repeatedly forcing my puking son to breastfeed, only to have him puke more. I wanted to know – should I make him weak ginger tea? Pedialyte? More breastmilk? Water? The pediatrician said “NOTHING! His stomach is angry!”
I think it’s hilariously awesome that, during the barfy night had last night at my house, I immediately said, “OMG, Swistle’s blog post on barf!” instead of, “OMG that awesome three page article my mom sent me the other day on this very topic!”
Which is why you rock. Continually.
HHRose- HEE!
I was confronted with my first digestive ailment as a mom today, and I remembered your post and managed to find it. So that was me, Googling various combinations of Swistle and puke and barf. It was like the apocolypse in our house. And I was in charge. How is that possible? Thanks for this post, it was nice to have some advice from someone who has previously managed puke, because I am in waaaay over my head.
robinbpME- Oh, man, I feel for you. It really is apocalyptic—like the first stages of the apocalypse, where everyone is coming down with a mysterious and horrifying illness.