Getting a sick is terrible; but your child getting sick is 1,000,000 times worse!
For me, there’s no worse feeling than knowing that my baby doesn’t feel good and that the world has to keep spinning in spite of our personal dilemma!
It is perfectly OKAY if your child gets sick regularly! It’s not a reflection of your parenting skills or your ability to maintain your household ( most times..haha), but its just insanely easy for children especially to pass germs from one to another. Part of this is also parents’ inability, for several reasons, to quarantine their children for the appropriate amount to allow the sickness to run its course and no longer be contagious.
Those of you who are personal friends of mine know that little Squally had a stomach bug this week. More specifically it was probably Rotavirus, but I’m not a doctor (yet ?) so I’m not trying to diagnose her myself using google. haha I didn’t take her to the doctor for 3 reasons: I was pretty sure of who/where she got it from, she’s had it before, and I talked to her pediatrician the last time it happened, so I already knew what to do and expect.
A lot of people around me have had their children/babies come down with similar symptoms over the past couple of months: projectile vomiting, fever, sometimes a decreased appetite, and then the child’s temperament varies from person to person. Lariah, for example, had all of the mentioned symptoms I just listed, but was completely normal otherwise; just as happy, playful, and goofy. People call it a million different things: stomach bug, stomach virus, 24 hour flu, etc, etc, and while it could potentially be any of those things, that’s are super nondescript and don’t really tell you how to handle it. Sooooooo for that reason I’ll talk about the rotavirus because I know a little bit about it! 🙂
To start: rotavirus is most common in babies and young children.
It usually take 2 days for the symptoms to start appearing, but it can take longer. General cleanliness is the prevention mechanism, but you get it by putting something contaminated with the virus in your mouth. That can be anything that a sick person has touched: food, water, toys, LIFE! (which explains why babies get it so easily- they put EVERYTHING in their mouths!) People can be contagious before they ever start showing that they are sick and continue to be contagious up to 3 days afterward. So keep your babies at home is best, but at the least, away from other children! There’s a vaccine that they can take via mouth for it, but it doesn’t prevent the diarrhea or vomiting, which are the most important symptoms..and those who get vaccinated can still get it..MULTIPLE times..so I’ll just leave that for you decide what you want to do with that information.
Symptoms: watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, and dehydration!
These babies can also be super fussy or sleepy, pee less, and cry without tears- side effects of dehydration, which is the most dangerous part of the virus! This is why you should pump that baby full of liquid: preferably something high in electrolytes like Pedialyte! I posted a picture of and about pedialyte the other day and I’ll just insert the caption from that post here:
We finally got smart about using Pedialyte. For those who don’t know, you have to use any opened container of pedialyte within 48 hours and keep it refrigerated in the meantime. But my little one never even makes a dent in it and I end up throwing it out. NOT THIS TIME!! We’re freezing the majority of this bottle and will thaw it out as needed thanks to some much needed advice given to me by a friend!! #electrolytes #pedialyte #sickness #viruses #babies #toddlers
***UPDATE: I was contacted by some representatives from pedialyte and they said that they don’t recommend freezing liquid pedialyte because of the possible exposure to airborne contaminant once it has been opened and the lack of an ingredient called carboxymethylcellulose that would prevent the liquid from completely freezing! They ALSO said that freezing the liquid pedialyte should NOT effect the nutrients in it, but they do recommend trying their Pedialyte Freezer Pops (which I had never heard of, but apparently exist!)
Once the symptoms subside, you should still keep that baby away from other babies at the minimum for at least 3 days, which I know is like impossible for working parents of babies in Daycare, so just do the best you can and at least warn the staff at the daycare so that other parents are not taken by surprise!
This concludes my informational session about the baby stomach bug, rotavirus. You can fact check me against: https://www.cdc.gov/rotavirus/about/index.html
But I’m a scientist.. and working on my doctorate.. so I know what I’m talking about.. haha
Hope this helps someone!
Say hi to Squally Muffin