A LOT OF BABIES ARE STOOLING,VOMITTING AND RUNNING TEMPERATURE AND I DON’T THINK ITS MALARIA , TEETHING OR CHOLERA

  Written by ifeanyi emenne on Mar 24, 2011 5:41 pm

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My one tear old boy was very active on Sunday but in the evening, he threw up while sleeping. I thought it was because he over ate. The next morning when he woke up, he started throwing up again and this time more frequently. I had treated him for malaria two weeks ago. I started giving him ORT and an ACT antimalaria again. By evening he had also started stooling and still throwing up. The amazing thing about the throwing up is that it comes after he eats anything while the stooling does not follow his eating.

It then occurred to me that I have been unconsciously noticing a trend among children between the ages of 0 – 2 years as i go about my daily job as a pharmacist medical sales representative. I recalled that what was happening to my son was also happening to a lot of babies within that age bracket .In fact more than ten of the babies’ parents who had this same symptoms where medical personnel.

The trap I then noticed was that majority of the parents where concluding that their babies where just teething. So, I am writing this article to tell them that it is not teething and I don’t think it is malaria either.

As a pharmacist I started giving my boy some medication for malaria, deworming and an antibiotics  but by Thursday morning I knew I had to see a doctor , so I took him to LUTH. When we got to the children emergency clinic, more than 70% of the patients there had similar symptoms to my boy.

We were sent to run some test which result showed negative for malaria but his white blood cell count was a bit high so the doctor prescribed some antibiotics for him. Luckily for me by then the boy had stopped throwing up and had not stooled again

Another pharmacist friend that works in Luth, that same day brought her child to the Hospital with the same complaint. Although her child was treated for malaria and given an antibiotic, she told me that the doctor said he is suspecting that there is a viral infection afflicting children with stooling, vomiting and fever.

My aim of writing this article is to say please someone in the federal ministry of health should investigate this issue before it becomes an epidemic. I also want to tell parents what worked for my boy and what did not

  WHAT WORKED

1. Do not panic
2. I noticed that he threw up more when his meal exceeded a spoon full of cereal/ meal from his normal 5 spoonful per meal
3. He refused to drink ORT , so I mixed a little of the ORT salt with each of his meal and then gave him ordinary water after the meal
4. I made his meal more watery because I noticed that the more he drank only water the more he threw up
5. I made play some because the more active he was the less he threw up
6. I gave him ACT + COTRIMOXAZOLE + ZOLAT  (pl consult your pharmacist or doctor on this)
7. I Went to a hospital to seek a second professional opinion where the doctor changed the cotrimoxazole to cefuroxime
8. Boiling his drinking water
9. I prayed

WHAT DID NOT WORK

1. Metronidazole and promethazine had no effect on it

2. Believing the boy was just growing new teeth.

3. Thinking it was just malaria

4. Trying to give him more food and water after he ate the little I initially prepared for him (he just threw up everything)

5. Thinking the mother alone could handle it (I was always calling every other minute from work on Monday and Tuesday and hearing he just threw up again. I stopped going to the office by Wednesday)

6. Trying to handle it by myself

7. trying to sleep at night with my boy sick

I do not know if this will help anybody but these are what I did. My boy’s lab result showed elevated WBC but did not pinpoint the causative organism. Although he is now much better but still weak I would really plead that someone in the federal ministry of health should investigate these incidence especially in Lagos.

Secondly, parents with children between zero to  two years should immediately treat them for malaria and deworm them  so as to clear likely things that may cause delay in taking the child to a hospital when the above symptoms show up

I want to plead with the Doctors in Lagos state ministry of health to please find compassion somewhere in their heart to call off their strike. LUTH is currently being over worked. More than three children are sharing a bed in LUTH emergency clinic because of the strike. Federal medical centre ebute metta is also over stretched and are sending some of their patients to Luth which has no space to take them. While we were at luth one of the baby patients died from this ailment and another was asked to go any private clinic because of lack of space. In fact drip lines are being set up for patients along the corridors. Pls Lagos state Doctors go to luth to see what is happening so that you can understanding the magnitude of this likely epidemic.

FROM A CONCERNED FATHER

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