Having a sick child is no fun! What is even worse is having a sick child and not knowing what to do for that child! This past week the stomach bug visited our house! For some it was a 12 hour bug, others 48 hours! My one son didn’t tell me he threw up in the middle of the night until later the next morning. You think cleaning up fresh vomit is bad, try dried up vomit that splashed up 2 feet up the wall.
This post I hope will help you and give you tips to get through the stomach bug a little faster. I had a doctor tell me that if you follow this method, your child shouldn’t throw up again. For the most part I have found this to be true! When I focus on this my boys get better faster. When I don’t think about it and wait for mother nature to run its course, it lasts a lot longer.
Once your child throws up DO NOT allow them to eat or drink anything at all for 1 hour. This can be really hard, especially right after your kid throws up. If you do allow them to drink or eat, chances are they will throw it right back up.
Once that hour passes, you slowly start introducing SMALL AMOUNTS of gatorade. When I say small amounts I mean only 1 ounce! for the next 2-3 hours on the hour give only 1 ounce of fluid at a time. To make things a little easier, I made this time table below to go off of.
12:00 – Joe threw up
1:00 – Offer Joe 1 ounce of gatorade
2:00- Offer Joe another ounce of gatorade
2:30 – Offer Joe another ounce of gatorade
3:00 – Offer Joe 1 TBSP of the diet called the BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast) Diet and 1 ounce of gatorade. 1 small piece of banana, OR 1 TBSP of rice, OR 1 TBSP of Applesauce, OR a 4th of a piece of toast (without butter).
3:30 – Offer Joe 1 TBSP of the above BRAT diet. Remember only one of the above mentioned foods.
Keep doing this every 30 minutes and slowly add more as time goes on. The more fluids you can get in them the better. When I focus on getting fluids in my boys it helps them get better SOOOOO much faster! I let them drink as much as they want, AFTER they haven’t thrown up for 4-5 hours. The fluid will help flush the sickness through and help replenish the fluids that were lost.
ONLY GIVE THEM FOOD IF THEY ASK FOR IT! If they are not asking for food then don’t force it on them. However, try and be diligent in getting fluids in them. Those electrolytes help so much to replenish what has been lost!
A few tips
*Put 2 grocery bags in a bowl and use as a liner. I found this tip recently and cannot remember where! It is ingenious. You don’t have to take the bowl away from your potential throwing up child to clean it up. It’s also mess free! Just tie it up and toss it out!
*Always keep powdered gatorade on hand! I keep this stuff in my food storage all of the time. It takes up less space and is just as good. You can add less gatorade powder for your babies too, so it is not as strong!
*I know this sounds weird but I encourage my boys to throw up. Tell your kids to not fight the urge to throw up. I know it is not any fun to throw up, but the sooner the better. When they can empty their stomach and clean out their system they tend to fill better faster!
*If your kid is struggling getting fluids down, then freeze gatorade in ice cube trays and stick a popsicle stick in them. This will make getting fluid down them a little easier. The cold gatorade cube is soothing after one throws up!
What tips do you have that makes the stomach bug easier for your family? If your child has an ear infection, check out this post on how we treat earaches at home without antibiotics!
GOOD LUCK!