When my kids were little, I assumed if one of us started throwing up, it was inevitable that the rest of us would end up camping out in the bathroom ourselves within a couple of days.
Until I decided to get smarter about stomach bugs and actively work to prevent their circulating through this family. Believe me, I’ve had more practice than I’d like.
Here’s what I do, based on the CDC’s Norovirus guidelines and many messy years of experience:
Confine the Patient to One Bathroom
Washing hands all the time to keep those GI germs off is key, but containing the contagious fluids in one bathroom is just as crucial and perhaps even more effective.
At the first sign of vomiting or diarrhea or even if I know one of my kids has been exposed and will probably get sick, I confine that person to one bathroom, and no one else in this family uses it. (Not that anyone’s really chomping at the bit to get in there, anyway.)
Seems drastic, I know. Some people reading this might say, “Wow, overreact much?”
And to those people I’d say, “Hey, don’t knock it ’til you try it. Your family may thank you.”
Seriously. It works.
Wash Your Hands
You already know this, but it’s worth repeating.
The germs of a GI virus live in the infected fluids, and they make you sick if you ingest them. Everyone should wash their hands constantly before eating or drinking or doing anything else that involves the face, just in case they’ve come in contact with those germs.
Caregivers should always wash their hands after dealing with those infected fluids, and the patients should do it after throwing up or – my kids have a hard time remembering this one when they’re sick – after brushing their teeth.
Another obvious step that bears repeating: people should always – ALWAYS – wash their hands after using the bathroom, sick or not.
Keep Re-hydrating Drinks in Your Sick Box
What’s a sick box? This is a sick box.
Carbonated drinks are supposed to make vomiting worse, but my family and I all crave ginger ale when we’re nauseous, so we go with it. Other people use flat cola. The main rule is, drink clear liquids a little bit at a time and avoid dairy and juice.
Popsicles work great, too, and sometimes they stay down when liquids won’t.
I keep Gatorade powder in my Sick Box, too, for re-hydrating after the vomiting stops and the stomach settles a little.
Wipe Down Shared Surfaces Constantly
You could wait to disinfect doorknobs and light switches and kitchen counters until your sick kid recovers, but why?
If I get a free minute, I wipe down every shared surface I can with bleach water, all throughout the illness. (One capful of bleach per gallon of water) Since my asthmatic daughter can’t tolerate the smell of bleach very well and it makes her flare, this is the only time I use it. Any hard surface is fair game, but don’t forget these:
Telephones, remote controls, faucets, doorknobs, light switches, kitchen counters, staircase banisters.
Change Toothbrushes
First of all, who wants to clean their teeth with the same toothbrush they used when they were throwing up?
Gross.
Secondly, throwing out the patient’s old toothbrush will help stop the spread of germs.
Give Bland Food for Awhile
Most parents already know the BRAT diet:
Bananas
Rice
Applesauce
Toast
Also good? Saltines, plain pasta, and noodle soup.
After recovery, I still stick with mild, soft, non-spicy foods like scrambled eggs, roast chicken, mashed or baked potatoes, and non-citrus fruits for a few days.
Clean Everything
Wash all bedding and clothing of the sick person in hot water after recovery. Don’t forget towels, washcloths, and – if your kids like to lie on the couch when sick like mine do – throw pillows. Vacuum if you want to get really crazy.
Open Windows
Okay, gastroenteritis is not airborne like the flu virus so this step probably has no effect on the germs at all, but opening my house up to let some fresh air circulate just seems healthier.
And who knows?
I live in the Denver area, a mile high. At this altitude, the air is very dry, so opening my windows might actually do some good. It sure makes me feel better, and that’s important, too.
—–
Got some rules of your own?
Throw ‘em below.
I like the one bathroom rule, but I have a question. How long do you wait to lift the ban – until the person stops getting sick? Do you clean the bathroom while the person’s sick (I mean other than major messes) or wait and do a massive clean when they’ve recovered? I will do ANYTHING to avoid GI bugs.
Well, like you, I’ll do anything to avoid stomach viruses (except, apparently, keep my kid home from her friend’s party, lol), especially since Kyra has an iffy digestive system already, so I probably go overboard.
From what I’ve read, people can be contagious around 3 days after the vomiting/diarrhea stops and shed the virus up to 2 weeks after that. It’s unclear if they can spread the bug during those 2 weeks, but my guess is no. I’ve noticed that it takes about 2 days for someone else in my family to come down with it, and we’re generally in the clear after that.
So my general guideline is – the bathroom quarantine stays on for 3 days after the “wet” symptoms stop (the sick person may still be nauseous and/or weak), just to be safe. Of course, life gets in the way and sometimes those 3 days don’t last, but I try.
As for cleaning, I’ll usually clean the whole bathroom a day after symptoms stop and then again when I lift the ban.
Again, this is probably overboard, but it seems to help.
I also LOVE the bathroom rule. I am going to be such a germophobe parent in the future
. I’m fortunate in the fact that I nearly NEVER get GI stuff (YAY for that hardcore).
Oooh, and PROPER hand washing. That is one of my biggest gripes EVER. (As many of you know, I tweet when I see people leave the bathroom at school without washing their hands. I also have strong desire to follow them out of the bathroom and then draw attention to the fact that they did not wash their hands. Instead, I am stuck trying to figure out how I am going to get out of the bathroom without touching the icky door handle they have touched).
Have any of you read the book The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu? It’s GENIUS (I actually own it haha). They need to add your tips, Amy!
We do popsicles and then broth works too.. bullion cubes in water makes a great stays-down-when-other-things-wont snack and seems to just help feel better.
The other rule in my house is, usually most dishes are dishwasher but a few get done by hand if its not a whole load. When we get a bug though, every single item gets washed in the dishwasher, no matter what.
Hmmm. In my experience, this would not be effective because by the time one is symptomatic we’ve all been exposed.
Although you say it’s working for you so maybe we can give it a shot. I would maybe also confine the person to their room and not let them roam the house either.
The last time we all had the bug–I was throwing up in the bathroom and poor hubby had to go throw up outside. We ran out of bathrooms!
M
If you reread the post, you’ll see I mention confining someone if I know they’ve been exposed, even before any symptoms—that’s what I did this time, actually, The moment I decided to let my kid go to a party of someone who’d been sick, I removed all her sister’s stuff from their bathroom and enforced this guideline, just in case.
Plus, it depends on the virus. Norovirus is not contagious until the exposed person feels sick. It’s only rotavirus that makes an exposed person contagious before symptoms:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stomach-flu/an01758
Of course, even if I can’t catch it in time w/the bathroom trick, at the very least it limits a lot of the mess to one bathroom.
I can tell you’re still beating yourself up or at least unsure of your decision. It really sucks that Kyra was sick this week. But Amy? You will have a healthier kid in the long run for having her make the decision. Really.
such a timely post, as my kid puked all over the bathroom tonight. As always, it begs the question…”is it sick sick, or just normal sick?”
The problem is that I don’t have 2 full baths, so no good way to quarantine.
I have no idea where she might have picked a bug up…no one is sick in her school…I was just there.
I second what Danielle says. Mom had me make that decision a few times, and after coming down sick a couple of times, that was that.
Luckily, I haven’t come down with a GI bug in years (I think the last time was because of a certain fast food chain that I don’t buy from anymore since they’ve managed to make me sick three times in a row, despite me eating three different dishes in three different provinces – to my chagrin, even the smell of their burgers makes me a little nauseous now).
Sorry Asthma Mom, I must’ve missed where you said that re:isolation.
M
My family kind of doubts the effectiveness of constant hand washing when stomach bugs are going around. A year and half ago my mom got sick with a stomach bug, and then my dad got sick 2 days later… I got sick later the same day as my dad. And my sister… the one who is notorious for barely washing the tips of her fingers, who was helping to take care of me the several days after I got sick… well, she didn’t get sick. She was around several friends who had it, and around nearly everyone in my family when they got it, and she didn’t get it. Usually she’s one of the first to get a stomach bug.
So we wash our hands, but we don’t get super worried about making a huge deal about it. We keep distance from the sick person as much as possible, and keep them from breathing on food and other stuff.
But we also make sure that if a friend we know is sick, to NOT go see them…. or eat any food made by them.
I should probably add here that I’m NOT this obsessive about all illnesses, contrary to what this post probably leads you to believe, but I’m very, very careful with GI bugs because my kid’s gastritis makes her have vomiting episodes even when she’s not sick sometimes.
Well, that and H1N1 back in the fall–I was pretty obsessive about that, too, what with the chronic breathing problem and all.
But!
I’m actually pretty nonchalant when it comes to your average cold or flu-like virus, in order to give the girls’ immune systems a healthy workout.
The moral of this story is, I’m only crazy some of the time.
These are great rules. I’d never thought of the bathroom quarantine. Makes a lot of sense.
Amy, have you tried the Clorox “anywhere hard surface” sanitizing spray? It doesn’t REEK of bleach, so it might be ok around Kyra. (it SAYS it has no odor…but I detect a SLIGHT bleach scent) You just spray it on, and let it dry…voila…sanitized surface.
I just spent the day following my sicky around, spraying everything she touched.
No, I haven’t–thank you! I usually use the DIY vinegar/baking soda natural cleaning solutions, but I make a very BIG exception when it comes to stomach bugs. I’ll have to look for it.
Insisted my family follow these rules during my latest stomach bug and it worked, nobody got sick! Yay
That’s good to hear! So happy they worked for you.