Stomach virus-how to treat at home?

Hayley woke up sick this morning. She is throwing up and has diarrhea, and complains of intermittent stomach cramps. Her vomit is yellowish but clear and very thin. She's thrown up small amounts probably 8-10 times in the past 4 hours and soiled 2 pair of panties.

Poor Hailey.. We've gone through this more times than I care to mention. Lots of rest, tiny sips of whatever she will keep down. Cias loves the pedialyte type popscicles and they always help him. Rachel swears by karo syrup. It does work by getting the blood sugar up enough to keep stuff down.

Hope she feels better soon! Cias woke up w/a mild version of it this morning too..

Karo syrup, huh? We've got some of that here. I just gave her some children's Tylenol to hopefully counteract the stomach cramps, hopefully she can keep it down long enough to break down and begin to work.

Hope Cias feels better!

Poor Hayley, hope she is on the mend soon. If she can't keep the tylenol down then you might have to go the suppository tylenol route (use lots of KY if you do this). They told me not too much water as you don't want to upset the electrolyte balance, so a clear juice or the pedialyte solution.

Here is a recipe for homemade Pedialyte, some of the moms on my baby board and on the Doose board have used a version of this. I couldn't find the recipe that my friends have used but this is what I got when I googled "homemade pedialyte".

2 quarts water
1-teaspoon baking soda
1-teaspoon salt
7 Tablespoons sugar
1 packet Sugar-Free Kool-Aid
1/2-teaspoon salt substitute

The salt substitute and Kool-Aid are optional. Store in the refrigerator. Be creative; use your special Kool-Aid to make ice cubes so it will stay cool in their bottle or sippy-cup. Or, insert toothpicks into your ice cubes before freezing and make homemade popsicles.

Stomach virus, no fun. A couple of years ago, DH, DD1 and had this all at the same time and it was pretty miserable. We talked to the DD's ped on the phone and were told to push fluids to try to avoid becoming overly dehydrated, and rest, rest, rest. Popsicles and pedialyte helped immensely for DD1, and we subsisted on water, gatorade, flat lemon-lime soda pop (open the pop and let it sit until the carbonated bubbles flatten out, or pour into a cup and stir with a spoon until the bubbles are gone), clear soups/broths, saltine crackers, and plain toast over two to three days.

Hope Hayley feels better soon and take care.

The stomach viruses have been going around here for a few months now. I'm sorry to hear that Hayley is sick with one.

I think flat soda is a good thing. Pour a soda (not diet) and let it sit for at least an hour. Then give her small sips of soda at a time. The key is not drinking too much at a time. I would guess that this is the same idea as the Karo Syrup-- sugar helps the tummy.

A squeeze bottle of warm water is good for cleaning up after having diarrhea. Bottoms can get very sore and wiping hurts.

I hope she feels better soon!

From what I have learned this year and in the past, water is the worst for the stomach, very harsh and can make them throw up more. The flat pop. gatorade and such are good. Juices are bad for diarrea, make it worse. The Diarrea may last longer than the throwing up, follow the brat diet, if she wants to eat. Banana, rice, applesause and toast, slows things down. It really helped my DS this week. Good Luck.

Thanks, everyone. So far today she ate pancakes right after she woke up and threw those up, so no more food. She has drank flat Coke and flat lemon-lime soda and thrown that up. She threw up her grape Tylenol, too. And since then her vomit has been light greenish with little flecks of darker-colored stuff that's freaking me out. It could be the grape chewable Tylenol, or it could be blood or something scary like that. I'm not going to freak out like I WANT to, though. I'll just wait and see.

You already have some really great advice, so I have nothing to add but some (((((HUGS)))))) Hope Hayley feels better soon.... I know it's no fun for the baby AND the mommy

Probably lemon-lime soda and grape Tylenol to get you that nice colour combination of puke. Hope things settle down soon and the rest of the family stays healthy. Rylan is all better from his stomach virus Tues - Thurs but I seem to be frequenting the bathroom last night and today.

Yeah, nothing red or purple(that gets very scary!) when throwing up.

We'll try the flat soda too and see if Cias will drink it. He hates soda, so I don't know..... I have some root beer, think that will work?

The eggs he ate earlier are now all over my car and his car seat.

Hugs (from a distance ) to all the families with sick little ones (and selves, too!).

I'd never heard that water is "harsh"-- just that it's devoid of most nutrients and minerals when any spare nutrition can be vital.

I've actually never used those expensive, IMO unnecessary electrolyte solutions. Watered down apple juice, flat 7-up/Sprite, and chicken broth (preferably homemade, with lots of garlic & onion, which are excellent for stimulating the immune system & fighting bacteria) do the trick nicely. They may not actually cure the cold/flu, but they DO help enormously to keep dehydration at bay, while offering the benefit of sugars, salts, other minerals, and in the case of broth, protein. Ginger is calming to the stomach, hence the old recommendations to drink ginger ale. It has to be flavored with *real* ginger, though. Same goes with ginger snaps. They can be tasty and helpful if they actually contain ginger, not artificial flavors and such.

Tylenol and other OTC medicines are *very* hard on the stomach. I wonder if Tylenol would help, or rather worsen stomach cramps, honestly. An upset stomach can be soothed with chamomile or peppermint tea (more of those vital fluid, as well), sweetened with honey; a sure kid-pleaser. Chamomile can help with discomfort, restlessness, sleeplessness, crankiness (generally calming and soothing) as well. Pain relievers/fever reducers are best left for those times when the child is in obvious distress from body aches, headache, general malaise, and when the fever consistently remains above 102F for several hours.

Fever is not the evil affliction many of us have been brought up to believe it is; it serves a very valid and vital function of raising the body's temperature so that whatever virus/bacteria is present, cannot easily continue to reproduce itself and further infect the body in an environment too hot for its needs (if not killing it off altogether). If the child is not in pain, I avoid using fever-reducers until around 103F. It depends from child to child and situation to situation, but I have a much higher "comfort level" than other folks I know IRL, letting the children sleep it off under the fever's influence, rather than medicating them, having them instantly zap back into their normal selves, boisterous and chipper, only to end up even sicker (and usually a visit to the ER) after the meds wear off.

Obviously if the child is having pain or discomfort, all bets are off and they get the medicine they need to be out of pain if possible. If your child has a history of febrile seizures, by all means please follow the instructions of medical professionals rather than what I or anyone else intends as helpful for common, everyday situations.

If your child isn't hungry while they're suffering from stomach upset, it isn't important to push solid foods, and may only worsen the situation. Traditionally the BRAT diet was recommended (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast), but it's fairly safe to offer whatever bland foods the child is used to eating. If they hate applesauce but love diced pears, go for it. Toast=crackers=plain pasta=dry cereal=plain oatmeal/cream of wheat/whatever other bland grain-based starch you can think of. Dairy products aren't usually recommended, because cow's milk proteins can be difficult to digest when the stomach is upset, causing further discomfort. This does NOT apply to breastmilk. Breastfed babies with a virus are a whole 'nother post! Just think bland. That's *if* your child is hungry in the first place; chances are, they won't be.

I hope everyone is feeling well again soon! Poor little guys & gals....

We offer whatever solids he asks for, just less of them.. As long as they aren't mega-bad. Cias just had some kids yogurt, a couple goldfish crackers and a couple of sips of water.. Actually, that was over an hour ago. He keeps asking for more, but we keep telling him to wait.

Hopefully it's just a 24-hour thing...

beebear23 said:

We offer whatever solids he asks for, just less of them.. As long as they aren't mega-bad. Cias just had some kids yogurt, a couple goldfish crackers and a couple of sips of water.. Actually, that was over an hour ago. He keeps asking for more, but we keep telling him to wait.

Hopefully it's just a 24-hour thing...

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Good to hear he made it past the hour...here's hoping.

i have nothing to add to all the advice above, except that chaoctipus's advice about ginger worked well for me and my family (we ALL had it over christmas!!) flat ginger ale was the only thing any of us could hold down, and it was all we could do to keep from dehydrating. for me it lasted 48 hours and i didn't eat any thing for those two days. luckily for my DDs and DW theirs only seemed to last 24 hours...

Sounds like what Leila has -- going on a few days now.... She's generally fine, but not eating or drinking & when she does her panties get ruined and/or she wakes up in the middle of the night to puke We were supposed to go to a Kids Rock Show (by local dads kinda like The Wiggles, LOL) + swimming at my college as a birthday party, but that definitely wasn't happening yet Her temp is hovering at 99.5* & she's starting to dehydrate -- I get paranoid about that because I was in the hospital for severe dehydration twice when I was little.... My SO said to do cold baths instead of the children's medicine now that her temp isn't too high anymore & there isn't a bad cough + no juice because of the acid, but water is fine so long as she doesn't gulp it too fast: slow & steady. GOOD LUCK (((((Hayley)))))

This is the worst year for the virus it seems. Two weeks ago my entire daycare came down with it (including me and my two kids). We were all in the ER for dehydration that night. Just seemed to last 24 hours. Though nobody had a good appitate until this last week. Everything they told me at the hospital has already been mentioned: Brat diet, ginger ale, lots of fluids, etc. That is not something I would wish on anyone. My poor husband took care of us all and ,then bless his heart, came down with it the next day and had worse time than the rest of us. I know this is going to sound weird, but I was desparate, when DS wouldn't drink I was bathing his head with a clean cold cloth and he put it in his mouth and sucked the water out of it. So he got water like that almost the whole time. I guess if it works.

arly1983 said:

I was desparate, when DS wouldn't drink I was bathing his head with a clean cold cloth and he put it in his mouth and sucked the water out of it. So he got water like that almost the whole time. I guess if it works.

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I used to do that when Leila was tiny I actually forget about that till you reminded me....

We did the washcloth trick when Hayley was a baby, too.

I'm not too worried because she doesn't have a fever, at least nothing over 100 degrees. We had a scary fever experience (over 104 and wouldn't respond to medication for a long time) when she was 11 months old, and now I'm really paranoid of fevers.

But even though she keeps throwing up and has a VERY sore bum from the diarrhea, she isn't "out of it" or feverish, her vomit isn't the "wrong" colors (red-tinged, like coffee grounds, or dark green) and she's sleeping! Mark gets really freaked out by vomiting, she used to have tantrums until she puked so he gets worked up now when she's sick and pukes. I have to remind him that she's just sick and throwing up right now is a GOOD thing, it makes the cramps subside for a bit and she feels better.

I'm tired of rinsing undies so I am throwing them away. I went to the store and bought her 13 new pairs of undies. They had a sale, what can I say? I can't pass up buy 2/get 1 free.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and advice! I really appreciate it.

((((HUGS)))) Hope Hayley, Cias, and Leila are all feling better soon.