View Full Version : Stomach Virus


Zilla
Mon, April 10th, 2006, 11:57 AM
It all started last Tuesday...

My son had a severe reaction to sunflower seeds, as we didn't know he was allergic. We brought him to the E.R, had him treated, then brought him to see his allergist Wednesday.

Thursday he developed diarrhea, Friday he was vomiting. We called his allergist and they told us that it could be the Prednisone causing the stomach upset, so just give him a bland diet and it will pass.

By Friday evening, both my son and husband were vomiting.

Saturday morning- Hubby and my son were vomiting for two hours. One would throw, then the other, ect... Once they were "empty" we brought my son to his regular doctor where they gave him a shot of anti-nausea medication and removed the end of a Q-Tip of his ear. It wasn't there Wednesday, so he apparently was cleaning his ears sometime between Wednesday night and Saturday. :rolleyes:

Saturday afternoon Hubby went back to the hospital as all of his muscles felt like they were in a vice. He was given a bag and half of lactated ringers and pain meds. Diagnoses was that his electrolytes were all messed up.

Saturday night- I caught it. We all spent 6 hours in the E.R.

I got 2 bags of lactated ringers with two doses of anti-nausea medication. Hubby got another bag of fluids plus anti-nausea meds and my son was just being observed. Since he was able to hold down two popcicles, they decided to leave him alone.

Now to the point of this post... is there a better way to deal with these kinds of situations than what the hospital suggested.

By that I mean the home supportive care. What they told me to do is the following:

Day One- Stay on a clear liquid diet. Water, weak tea, broth, ginger ale, jello, Kool-Aod, Gatorade, apple juice, popcicles or ice chips. No milk or dairy products

Day Two- dry toast, crackers, applesauce, white rice, bananas, brother and increase diet slowly. No milk products, spicy, fatty, fried or high fiber foods.

I don't have any problem with no dairy, and staying away from fatty, spicy or fried foods. What I do have a problem with is all the sugary things they suggest on day one.

Instead of drinking Gatorade, I bought Propel. It still has sugar in it, but isn't nearly as bad as Gatorade. The popcicles are more for my son to sneak fluids into him. Instead of buying sugar-loaded Jello, I bought the sugar free version.

Why do they do that? Does high doses of sugar somehow make a person more hydrated? :bang:



All of us are feeling much better today, and we've all completely skipped the Day 2 suggestions. By 8:00 last night we were all starving for regular food in small doses. This morning I had my normal breakfast and held it down just fine.

They drew blood on hubby and myself, and did a urine test on all three of us on Saturday. The only one that showed a small amount of keytones in his urine was hubby. Blood tests came back normal.

It is believed we caught this nasty virus from the hospital as anybody that has been there around the time that we brought our son in has had to go back in for the same problem.

Skoorb
Mon, April 10th, 2006, 12:24 PM
Propel has almost no calories (30 per bottle, I think) and is therefore similar to water. It will hydrate you but in this context is inferior to Gatorade (if you can keep the gatorade down). Gatorade has calories (dieting should not be a concern when vomitting--you want to take in whatever calories you can) and, unlike propel, has sodium and potassium--electrolytes.

Crap food like jello simply has calories and they are in a simple format so that they can get into the blood stream quickly. Jello lacks the electrolytes that gatorade has, so take gator if you can. If you can stomach the extra salt in gatorade's endurance formula, it would be preferable.

Last monday I took the day off from nausea and inability to keep much in my stomach. Yesterday my wife had it worse and had to get hydrated at the ER with a couple of bags of saline and one of potassium chloride (saline has sodium in it and the potassium is the other major electrolyte).

I have not seen this advertisement recently, but gatorade used to claim it was absorbed 30% faster than water. Not sure if it is but when sick, if you can keep the stuff down, it's definitely preferable, offering bother energy and the salt.