Oh font of all knowledge, I humbly come before you and beg for your advice

My little one has just been diagnosed with Tonsillitis, she's only 7 months, so too young for jelly and ice cream. SHe's been to the doctors and has some penicillin, but any advice on what will be best to feed her, as she's off her food, and any ideas of how to comfort her. She will fall asleep while being held but starts screaming as soon as you put her in her bed or her little reclining seat thingy.

feed her anything you can get her to eat/drink.

Soup, mushed up veggies (not vegatarians y'understand), yoghurt etc.

As far as sleep thing is concerned you'll just have to roll with it and let the storm pass over. She'll sleep when she's really tired 🙂

Agree with yoss. While ill, any food they will take is good. Below 1 yr or so it's easy to have kids go downhill quickly if not eating for a couple of days. You could try chilled home made banana milkshake, watered down fruit juice (apple & pineapple rather than orange seemed to go down better with ours). For sleep, find a way to catch naps while holding her propped in a comfy chair. Our younguns were subjected to a lot of Microsoft Solitaire to send them and us to sleep.

first I'd Call your GP surgery or NHS 24 rather than ask a cycling forum. but having said that, by now you (or your partner) probably know what comforts her best, especially when it comes to sleep. she doesn't have to be put in a bed/cradle BTW.
as for feeding, at 7mths isn't she still (at least partly) on liquidised/puree'd food anyway? as long as she's getting enough fluids (milk) I'd have thought she'd be fine .
penicillin won't help with the pain/discomfort will it? have you been using anything else? baby paracetamol/ibuprofen?
You prob feel crap just now, but like most babies she should be over it in next to no time.

A couple of days of eating less than normal isn't going to be a problem, lots of juice, milk, water etc., and give it time.

Edit: any more than a couple of days and I'd be worried!

Don't even worry about food – just concentrate on fluids, fluids, fluids. At her age she doesn't need any solid food and it is only likely to upset her as it may be painful to eat.

Penicillin is the standard anti-biotic to give for tonsillitis I believe – our little Izzi had it at around the same age.

She can also have* Calpol and Baby nurofen in alternative doses (effectively doubling the dose of pain relief) as the active ingredients can be given together.

*Of course make sure you get proper medical advice on this – but it is what we were told to do when Izzi was really poorly.

EDIT: GW seems to have covered most of the things I have said as I wrote them 🙂

As above make sure she gets plenty of milk. A homemade milkshake is a great idea if you can blend it thin enough to get through the cup/teat. Paracetamol and Ibuprofen can be given at the same time I would give them in alternating 2 hour blocks but only if she needed it.

Maybe try and give her a small ice cube to suck on the cold could help. EDIT. Didnt think of the choking thing.sorry

I know its not the same thing but when I had my tonsils out all I could eat was meringue nests it goes to show that sometimes the strangest things work.

Don't give her an ice cube to suck on, she'll either get upset or more likely choke on it, a 7 month old couldn't cope with something like that.

Don't worry too much about food anyway – she has more than enough energy reserves to last an illness like tonsilitis. Fluids are much more important, little & often. Kids will get dehydrated & poorly long before lack of food causes any issues. If she won't take a bottle then a medicine syringe or spoon can be used to get some fluids in her, hard work & time consuming, but if she won't drink from a teat, then you need to get fluids in her someway.

Make sure that you are giving pain releif regularly (calpol 4 hourly & nurofen 8 hourly) as it'll probably take at least 48 hours for her to pick up properly with the the Penicillin – good choice of antibiotic by the doctor too, rather than the more usual amoxycillin. Don't wait for her to get cranky, if she is due calpol or nurofen then give it, it is better to give it and stay on top of pain/discomfort/fever than to wait till the last dose has worn off completely and then have to wait for another dose to take effect – probably an hour or so. There is no harm giving these meds regularly so long as dose isn't exceeded.

Nurse her cool, she might feel as though hands & feet get cold, but core temp can be quite high still in that situation, and if her temp is under control she'll be a much happier bunny. Buy a thermometer and check if you're not sure – on an armpit temp anything over 37 c is raised.

I am a parent, but I'm also a childrens nurse (20+ years experience) and it is really frightening when a little one is ill in this manner. She will improve, just finish the antibiotics properly, otherwise she'll be back to square one in a fortnight or so. It's also quite likely she'll get an off tummy with some loose poo etc from the antibiotics, again fluids really important in that situation.

If she stays ill for more than another 48 hours, gets a rash, a temp of over 38 that doesn't improve with calpol/brufen then the important thing is to get her seen again & seen urgently. make sure she wets her nappy regulalry, minimum 4 times a day, she won't have nappies as wet as usual, especially if her fluid intake is less than usual, but what you want her to be doing is peeing regularly enough to show her body is still producing urine. Modern nappies are a pain as well, they work too well, you often can't feel dampness and have to rely upon the nappy filling becoming lumpy or concentrated urins staining the nappy.

She'll sleep when she can, often when you don't want her to, but once through this she'll get back to usual routines eventually.

For foods try Ella's kitchen pouches. Sweet and delicious, but totally easy to suck down and swallow. Can also be watered down into smoothie type stuff too.

Btw don't feed her cow's milk…

Kids will get dehydrated & poorly long before lack of food causes any issues.

Agreed – and watch out for signs of dehydration – the easiest one to spot is pursed, wrinkly-looking lips. I am sure there are lots more ways of spotting it.

At the end of the day, she is a baby, these things happen and she should bounce back without problems. (Father of twins who have, between them, been ill almost constantly since Christmas)… ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Btw don't feed her cow's milk…

Agreed – although I am sure they will have been advised about this by their HV anyway (surely?????)

She's recently started stage 2 food (in other words stuff with small lumps in it) so I'm going to move her back to stage one for now and see if she'll take that.

Unfortunately she's never taken to fruits, baby cereals or yoghurts. The doctor says just get what we can down her, but I thought I would see if any one had any bright ideas

Regarding food – don't get hung up on it, but do try different things if you feel you need her to eat (although she doesn't need it). There are a huge amount of options and she may just decide that one thing satisfies her just right at the moment.

The Ella's Pouches is a good call – Izzi loves the butternut squash & pear ones (sucks them off the spoon before we can get it in her mouth usually) and she also loves the C&G banana & pear crumble too – but we tried allsorts to get to those two.

When she is well she gets home-made stuff for the majority of the time.

Lisa, see if she'll chew on a moist flannel (would say sponge but a little dangerous) every little bit of fluid helps..as for food, might pay to ease off on feeding till it stops being painful, she may associate feeding with the pain which might put her off..

For sleeping, see if she'll settle down on a bed with you next to her, if she settles, gently move and bolster her in safely, use pillows which smell of you.

Healing vibes from Sharki x

try placing cold blocks and ice around your boobs, this will chill your breast milk, then breast feed as per normal 😀

Other symptoms of dehydration:
decreased urine output*
lethargy/quietness*
Dark, sunken eyes
Sunken fontanelles/soft spot if still present
Skin turgor – a pinch of skin somewhere like the abdomen doesn't spring back into place like it should do normally

*these are the ones that a parent should look for, and if they occur then child gets seen asap.

Thanks guys – although may give qwerty's suggestion a miss, it's bad enough when she has cold hands…. 🙂

Off to Sainsburys shortly to stock up on a few easy to digest options. Feel a bit guilty as we thought it was just teething at first.

missingfrontallobe – thanks for that list, but thankfully no signs to that yet – fingers crossed it stays that way

Feel a bit guilty as we thought it was just teething at first.

HA! CAn beat that! I was at work one day when the work based creche rang me to say son had fallen over & wouldn't weight bear on his leg. Me "It's OK, I'll come & get him walking". Turned out he's broken his femur lol! Only found that out though when I'd got him to A&E. 5 weeks in traction to solve that li8ttle problem…

LOL@ missing – ok that is bad….

Feel a bit guilty as we thought it was just teething at first.

It happens – she has just got something kids get – better to try to manage it yourself than run to the doctors every time you think there might be something slightly amiss.

Of course she will get countless more illnesses in the coming years – especially when she gets to nursery…

ours had it a few weeks ago. i'd give up on sleep and stock up on calpol/ibuprofen. ours even refused ice cream.

keep an eye out for an allergic reaction to the penicillin. ours had one which wasnt nice for her or us. took a day or so to show.

lil-lisa – Member
LOL@ missing – ok that is bad….

Hope it made you a bit better at missing a tonsilitis! Not my proudest parenting moment, I'm sure you'll agree!