Lauren had her first stomach flu over the Memorial Day Weekend.
It was started on Friday right before Memorial Day.
I took her to the doctors on Friday afternoon to see if she has pin worms. On the way to her doctors, which is only 5 minutes away from her daycare, she threw up all over. It was gushing out of her, and completely soiled the car seat. It look me 10 minutes to clean everything up in the parking lot, just enough so that the car won’t smell like vomit after the doctors’ visit.
At the doctors, she seemed her happy self. The doctor told me that she did not have pin worms, which was the good news. I also asked about her vomiting, and the doc said it may be because her nose was congested, and that her throat is a little red.
So I thought ok. Last time she had a stomach upset, I gave her some yogurt and water, which helped a great deal. So the first thing I did after I got home was to giver her some water and yogurt. Well, she was eager enough to eat the yogurt, but not 5 minutes after, she threw up again, and all the yogurt and water came with it.
It took me another 10 minutes to clean everything up. She then started throwing up every 10 minutes or so. Couple of hours into it, she was only vomit clear stomach fluid. I called her doctor, and was told not to give her anything until 2 hours after her last vomiting session. Which never came through the night. She was throwing up all over her bed, and we changed the bed cloth 10 times throughout the night. We started giving her Gatorade per the doctor’s instruction every hour, not more than 1.5 oz. She was begging for it, and it was very difficult to say no to her. Well, she actually vomited most of the Gatorade we gave her. I was getting worried, so I brought her to the doctors on Saturday morning. The doctor was worried about dehydration, and told us to give her two teaspoons of Emetol® in half an hour interval. The first time I gave her the Emetol®, she vomited it all out again, but the third and fourth time seemed to stick. She stopped vomiting at about 2pm. She then began to take in more Gatorade, and was gaining back some of the water she lost during the previous night.
We all thought the worst is over, and didn’t realize it’s only the beginning. She had a regular bowl movement the night before, and didn’t have any diarrhea Friday night or Saturday morning. I was remarking to my wife that we are so fortunate that she didn’t have diarrhea at the same time. Our luck ran out on Saturday afternoon though. Lauren started having watery stool starting at 4pm, and it was quite explosive. Every time she had a watering bowl movement after that, we had to change all her cloth because excrement would soil all the way through. We finally decided to use the large absorbent pad her mom uses for her period in combination with size 5 diapers, which helped a little. I spent quite a few hours on Saturday cleaning up excrement in her bathroom.
Lauren was very lethargic throughout the process, her usual playfulness was gone, replaced by her constant need to sleep and rest. The diarrhea stopped after about 12 hours, which is a long time as far as I’m concerned.
Thankfully, both my wife and I had Monday off because of Memorial Day, and we were able to introduce some solid food to Lauren on Monday. Her appetite gradually picked up, and by Thursday, she’s her usual self again. However, she had not made up for all the weight she lost during the stomach flu episode, and we are still trying to get her back to her normal weight.
Lauren’s maternal grandfather, who’s helping us taking care of her, also caught the stomach flu from her. He had the exact symptoms. We were able to shorten his diarrhea by giving him active charcoal to help with it, and encouraged him to eat a large amount of yogurt. It seemed to work for him, and his ordeal only lasted 3 days.
I’ve learned couple of things during the ordeals.
- Always have Gatorade in the house just in case someone gets diarrhea.
- Don’t rush to give liquid or food to someone with stomach flu until couple of hours after their last vomiting session, you’ll only make it worse if you rush it.
- Let the child sleep as much as needed during the episode, that’s how the body can fight off the stomach flu.
- This shall pass 🙂
I want to thank all my friends who prayed for us during this, and for supporting us through this. As they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I sincerely hope it’s the case for Lauren.
Until next time, be safe.