The stomach "flu" Update NP

This is one freaking nasty stomach "flu"! I have never seen one this bad before, and I hope I never do again! Ceilidh got sick with it first bright and early Tuesday morning (1:00AM early). I went into germ killer mood so no one else gets sick right from the get go (while taking care of my poor sick child). She pretty much vomited every couple of hours for 24 hours. Then 3 days after Ceilidh got sick (who was still sick) Zach gets sick. He was even worse the Ceilidh. He vomited at least every hour, sometimes not even making it 30 minutes. He is now on day 3 of being sick and is still miserable. He has a fever of over 100 (with meds), plus the worse diapers I have ever seen before.

I was praying that me or DH wouldn't catch this "flu" because today is Ceilidh's 5th birthday and party! I so didn't want to miss it. It looks like DH and I are both in the clear (knock on wood), so my germ killing spree was a success. I'm assuming Zach got sick because he kept sneaking Ceilidh's cups and drinking from them. As it looks right now, Zach is going to be missing the party. My little sister will be watching him so I can still go to the party. I feel bad for him because not only is he feeling miserable, but he misses the party which is at a really fun local play place (bouncy tents, slides, jungle gyms, plus a bunch of other things).

Aw poor guy, I hope he makes a quick recovery.
Happy Birthday to Ceilidh!!!

Poor things~~ I hope she can enjoy her party and hate that he cant go!! that really SUCKS!

Poor guy! I hated being too sick for a party. I can remember how sad I felt lying in bed knowing my friends were all playing. Maybe once he's well you'll be able to do something special to help make up for it.

We had that a couple of weeks ago, was bad bad. High fever, puking, icky stuff. Not really a flu, a virus though

She had a blast at her party. She had a lot of friends there to keep her mind off her brother and one aunt not being there. When we got home, we let him have some treats from his treat bag. I know I'll pay for that later (it was chocolate), but the poor guy needs something from the party. We'll do something special with him when he is better.

Erin - I'm sorry you guys had to go through this. I would not wish this on my worse enemy! Zach still has the fever and it is now day 3 of him being sick. It took almost 5 days before Ceilidh was herself, and she was miserable until day 3 1/2 - 4. I usually call it a stomach virus/bug, but people would look at me like I had 10 heads and ask "You mean the flu?", so I just started using the quotation marks around flu instead. LOL.

I was just doing some research online, and I don't think the kids actually had a normal stomach virus. I think they have/had rotavirus. They fit every single symptom except dehydration including the length of time the illness lasts (even the nasty symptoms which I will spare mentioning, LOL). Since I never took them to the ER/doctor, I'll never know for sure, but I would bet anything on it being Rotavirus. The only reason I think they never got dehydrated was because I was giving them 30mls of ginger ale or Gatorade every 15-20 mins. I had gotten a book from the ER a couple weeks ago (Zach had an ear infection) called "Do I Need to See a Doctor?", and that is what they suggested. It seemed to work for us. I kept a very close eye on both of them for dehydration (and still am with Zach since he is still so sick), and so far so good. Zach is starting to concern me, but he still doesn't have any of the signs of dehydration. He is not drinking as much as he normally does, but what he is drinking is re-hydration drinks. If he doesn't seem any better tomorrow, I think I will be bringing him in to the ER tho just to make sure he isn't getting dehydrated.

But again, I could be completely wrong since I never took them to the doctor. I think I want it to be this because apparently if adults get it, it's not nearly as bad and I do not want to get what they have. Plus with every time they get rotavirus, it is less and less severe.

We had Rotavirus, and it is EXTREMELY contagious.

Yeah, I read that about rotavirus. Do you know how long it is contagious for? I couldn't find that info online. I'm assuming Zach is still contagious since he still has the fever, but I was hoping Ceilidh wouldn't be contagious. I would hate to think that she infected a lot of her preschool friends at her party!

I'm still hopeful that I'm in the clear with this. It's been almost a week, and everything I read is that you get sick with it 2 days after exposure/infection etc... Plus I'm hoping that I would have had it as a child several times so if I do come down with it, it won't be as bad (hopefully). I know I could very easily come down with it just as bad as the kids, but I prefer to live in my own world of denial. LOL.

Don't give him gatorade, powerade etc. Too hard on the kidneys, especially if he is nearing dehydration. Pedialyte, or sprite, coke, whatever. Flat coke works wonders.

I never got it, but Bay had it really bad. It was almost as bad as her out of Salmonella last year

I'm sorry your kids were suffering with that awful bug... but at least one enjoyed her birthday

I had chicken pox on my 5th birthday. I was scheduled to attend the Romper Room at the TV station.... and of course missed it, BUT, Miss Jean did look into her magic mirror and wished me a happy birthday as I laid on the couch scratching and scratching

Erin - We usually do the pedialyte, but neither of my kids will drink it. Last summer, our doctor told me to just use watered down Gatorade since it's the exact same thing (only stronger then pedialyte) and tastes better. I even have the Pedialyte freezies and not tell them what kind they are, but one taste of them, and they won't eat anymore of it. I did the flat pop thing for the first 2 days. I'm sorry Bay was so sick with it. It is a horrible virus!

Dee - That sucks that you missed out on attending the Romper Room, but so cool that she wished you a happy birthday when she looked into the magic mirror! My brother had chicken pox for one of his birthday's. When my mother called all the kids parents and told them (she was going to cancel), they all said not to cancel, because their kids will get exposed anyway.

Zach is still miserable today. At least he has no fever, but he is just lying on the couch and saying his belly hurts. He also won't eat anything and after eating a little bit yesterday, vomited again last night plus woke up in the the middle of the night gagging. I'm thinking if he is not better by this afternoon, then it's time to take him to the doctor.

Do they have Emetrol there? Tastes horrible but works...for puking.

Not that I know of. We use Gravol (not sure what anti-nausea med is in it tho). It doesn't work the greatest on stomach viruses tho. It's mainly for motion sickness, but it will help a bit on stomach viruses. I'll have to look to see if you can get that here.

How is he today Dawn? Now that you believe it's rotovirus I'm anxious to hear he's getting better. Not that I just didn't care before, LOL. I just hope he's improving.

He is doing much better today! His diapers are still nasty, but he is at least eating and has energy to play. He slept most of the day yesterday. Me on the other hand am now sick. LOL. I don't have the vomiting part tho, so I'm still certain it is rotavirus since if adults get it, it's usually only mild. If it wasn't rotavirus, then it was one nasty stomach bug and I would not want to ever deal with rotavirus!

Oh gosh, glad he is better, and hope you feel better soon.

Poor Dawn, get better quickly.

I always seem to get it last, too. I hope when you're done with it it's gone for good and doesn't rear its ugly head again. It sounds just awful. We've dealt with pneumonia here this winter, but nothing that nasty.

I'm happy he's better, but I wish you'd managed to avoid it. Hopefully it won't be as bad as what the kids had.

We took Zach into out doctor today because it has been almost 6 full days of diarrhea and him barely eating (drinking normal tho) anything. The first thing the doctor said to us was "So he has the same thing that everyone else in the community has.". Personally I don't care if it's the same thing everyone else has. I'm concerned about my 2 1/2 year old who is barely eating and has had really bad diarrhea for almost 6 days! He only weighed between 27-29 lbs before he got sick, so the poor boy can't afford to lose much more weight! Basically he told us to do the BRAT diet and not give him any meds to stop the diarrhea because since it's a virus that cause it he believes that it is better out then in. I have been doing the BRAT diet as much as I can, but when he won't eat, there is not much I can do. I can't force it in his mouth and down his throat (plus make him chew it). I knew there was nothing that he could do about the diarrhea except give us permission to use the meds (it has the cover their ass warning not to give to kids under 3 without doctor permission), but I wanted to make sure he was still "healthy" from not eating much for 6 days. Like yesterday he had one piece of bread in the morning, 3 chicken nuggets and bedtime and during the day, I managed to get him to eat a little bit of cheese, a few bites of a cracker, a few bites of a muffin and a few bites of banana. When I say a few bites of something, those bites are TINY, like barely anything in his mouth tiny. Anyway, it was a complete waste of time taking him and he just made us feel like idiots for taking him in when "it's the same thing everyone else in the community has". I did ask if it was Rotavirus that was going around, and he said he didn't know and that it didn't matter one way or the other since treatment is the same (nothing unless dehydrated).

Aww poor honey. Six days is a long time to be that ill, I hope he turns around soon.

He sounds like an ass.

I am so hoping that he wakes up tomorrow 100% better!

I do have issue with my doctor. He can be great, he usually cares a lot and he loves the kids but I'm finding that since he is getting older now he doesn't seem to have the patience for problems he doesn't think is worth while to see a doctor for. He is now only practicing 3 days a week, and he just doesn't spend the time with us anymore like he used to. When I was pregnant with Ceilidh, he mentioned that he was going on a trip to celebrate his Med school reunion. I can't remember for sure what year it was, but since he delivered DH 36 years ago, he must have just celebrated his 40th year after med school this year (or close to it). I hate to vent about him like this because he is a great man, but I don't think much of him as a doctor anymore (sad to say). Where I live, doctors are in short supply, so if you have a doctor you keep them. Even if you happen to know of another doctor that is taking new patients, they will not take you if you already have a doctor, they want to save those spots for those that don't have a doctor (understandably). I'm used to being treated like an idiot when I take the kids to the ER on the weekends when they need it, but I don't need it from my family doctor. I didn't think I was being unreasonable to take Zach in to see him after 6 days of severe diarrhea! When I had to take him to the doctor during the summer for the same problem (and not even that long of a problem), the doctor he had filling in for him was great! She looked him over completely to make sure there was nothing wrong (besides the diarrhea) and gave me ideas on how to help him and to bring him back in if things don't improve. This time, I get treated like an idiot by my own doctor and no advice except to do the BRAT diet which he knew I knew about anyway.

Wow, I'll end this now. LOL. I didn't want this to turn into a rant session about him (and believe me there is a lot more I could rant about).

Man, I hate to be treated like that. Drs. can be so pissy. You brought him in when you didn't need to-- you're overprotective. You didn't bring him in fast enough-- you're a lazy mom or a bad mom. And in that rare instance when you brought him in just at the exact moment in time when you should have, then you know what you're doing anyway so why are you bothering me with this?

I went through about a dozen Drs. like that then I found a wonderful nuirse practitioner who takes care of my kids now. The best thing about her is that she never treats you like shit for being human. I hope your Dr. goes ahead and retires and his fill-in takes over.