My daughter recently had the stomach bug and it wasn’t pretty. As soon as she started showing symptoms I instantly flash-backed to the last time she had the stomach bug. She wasn’t even a year old yet and spent weeks with nasty stuff coming out of both ends. It wrecked her appetite and her sleeping habits. No one in our house was happy or well-rested. And the laundry, oh the laundry.
This time, thankfully, she was hit with only a 24 hour bug. The 24 hour bug has been going around in our town so I prayed and prepared myself for one full day of hell.
This is how we survived:
- Strip the bed. Don’t even bother putting new sheets on it. Just lay down some towels because you’re going to have to change them out quite a bit.
- Have a laundry basket out so you can throw soiled clothes, sheets, and towels in. You’re going to be doing laundry all day. Hope you stocked up on detergent!
- Keep a bucket near the poor victim of the bug in case they can’t make it to the toilet in time. Otherwise you will be mopping up that floor.
- If the victim of the bug has long hair keep their hair up in a bun or ponytail. If you don’t there WILL be vomit in the hair.
- Have plenty of fluids on hand, but only take small sips at a time until the vomiting subsides. Otherwise the poor babe will be vomiting straight water. It’s sad!
- Buy some powdered probiotics to mix in with water, yogurt, or whatever your little one can stomach once the worst of the illness has passed. This will help get everything in their gut back in order.
- Even if your little one is potty trained you might want to have them in disposable underwear in case they have trouble controlling their bowels. Get the ones with designs or characters and make a big deal about how cool they are so they don’t feel embarrassed about wearing them.
- Make peace with the fact that you may not be sleeping much until the sickness passes. Just deal with it and get over it. No sleep for the weary.
- Keep any healthy family members away! The stomach virus is contagious. See if your other children can spend time with grandparents or friends so they don’t catch the bug. The only thing worse than one kid with a stomach bug is multiple kids with the stomach bug.
- Watch movies all day. All screen time rules go right out the window.
- Get a can of Lysol and spray every single surface of your home. Kill the germs!
I don’t wish the stomach bug on anyone. It’s exhausting and pretty gross too. But if you follow these tips you’ll survive with most of your sanity in tact.