It was suppose to be a normal day

By: Christina C

It started off as a normal day. The baby and I had a wonderful day of playing and enjoying the end of winter sunshine. I dropped Ann off at her day care center and continued on to work. The day continued with normal laughing, playing, enjoying our patients that came in for their appointments and then the phone rang. A coworker told me that there was a family emergency on line one. On the other line was my mother in law, Ann had a seizure. She had one before due to a high fever and it happened again. I met the ambulance and rode with them to transport Ann to Children’s Hospital. Many tests were run and it had been determined Ann had another febrile seizure. Her being infected with the flu was the cause of the fever. Her father and I were told to take her home, monitor her diapers, give her plenty of fluids and feed her the BRAT diet.

I have not had to pay so much attention to my daughter’s diapers since her first week of life. We were told that dehydration is one of the biggest concerns of the flu. If she did not have a wet diaper every 6 hours or was refusing to drink she had to come back to the hospital to have intravenous fluids given again. Any one who has ever had to help hold down their child so that someone can place an ivcath into their screaming, crying child knows that this was a threat not a promise. Ann had cups all through out the house full of fluid. My husband and I offered her many different things to drink; chicken broth, Pedialyte and diluted apple juice in all different cup sizes and shapes. We went to the grocery store a few times in one day to either purchase Popsicles or more Pedialyte. There also seemed to be a chicken noodle soup contest between her grandmothers to see which soup Ann would choose. The winner was actually the great grandmother, where at one point Ann was asking for more of her soup. We found out that Ann loves Popsicles until she can see the stick then she asks for a new one.

The BRAT diet was a different story. BRAT stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. These bland, low-fiber foods are easy to digest and may help with diarrhea, but they lack nutrition that help children to grow. The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that kids resume eating a normal, well-balanced diet appropriate for their age within 24 hours of getting sick. That diet should include a mix of fruits, vegetables, meat, yogurt, and complex carbohydrates. Trying to get a child to eat when they do not feel well is not an easy task. Every meal seemed like a buffet of bland food. Four days have gone by with many wet dipaers and without a fever.

Ann’s diet has been slowly getting back to her regular diet, we no longer have to stress about her fluid intake and she has been begging for pizza. So tonight her father and I will be treating Ann to her favorite food of pizza and enjoying the fact that we once a again have a healhy child. Whom we have to watch like a hawk because of her febrile seizure history but is once again a toddler who is playing and pushing the toddler limits of life.





www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/brat-diet