Pedialyte

How old does a child have to be before they are given pedialyte?  My daughter is thinking about giving her month old little boy some pedialyte, she would add water and not give it to him full strength.
He is having trouble having a stool.  She also thought it might help him over all because of the nutr. value (he also has a little cold).

[tiredbuthappy]

babies aren't supposed to have any liquids other than formula or breast milk that young. it can really mess with their systems and make them sick. also, consider how little a child that age consumes. anything other than breast milk or formula can fill him and may prevent him from taking the nutrition he needs. also, breast milk and formula have specific amounts of specific nutrients- the pedialyte would mess with that. unless a doctor advises her to do so, i would not do it.

[Avas Mom]

My dr told me to give my baby pedialyte when she was only months old...its safe....i just had to warm it up and mix it with water so it wouldnt upset her belly.

[Crritter]

Depends on the reason the baby and the Dr.  You have to be really careful when they are really little, as the blood volume is so tiny, they don't want you throwing the fluids off, plus it will fill them up and they need to nutrition from the milk.  If he is breast fed, the milk will soften the stool, if it's formula, maybe they need to think about switching it.  As for the cold, babies get the sniffles pretty often as they are adjusting, both mine did it.  They sounded awful, sneezed, were stuffy...I was told it was normal baby stuff.  They had me use saline drops and a nasal aspirator.  I would call the Dr. and see what they say, 1 month is pretty little and they may need to see baby if he's that sick.  Also, they recommend not doing more than 24 hours of just pedialyte, it can put baby in starvation mode.  We had to be careful when Cars got roto after his trip to the hospital with pneumonia.  He was on it for 24 hours, then we had to stop.  I hope he feels better soon.