Dominic had the bug this weekend. We traveled to my in-laws not knowing this and got the surprise all day Saturday. The bug is not being nice this time around. It’s a twenty four hour thing that will leave you worn out with uncontrollable diarrhea and random vomiting. If you get it, plan on staying in for a day and a half.

The key thing to do when you get the bug is to rehydrate yourself. [Disclaimer]I’m not a doctor so this information is just the result of experience with my kids and being sick myself. Consult your physician.[/Disclaimer] More often than not when people are sick they tend to shut down and think if they don’t eat or drink anything they’ll get better because they do not have anything in their stomach. But when you have fluid flying out of both ends you need to drink. Water, ginger ale, Gatorade, Pedialyte and sometimes Jello are good sources to rehydrate yourself.

Fortunately for us Dominic was very cooperative and drank water after each bout of sickness. When Ryan was little and got sick he would refuse to drink anything. This resulted in a trip to the ER where his diagnosis would be dehydration and they would need to stick him with an IV so he can rehydrate. Not a pleasant thing.

Something we learned is to be prepared. In cold and flu season you really never know when sickness is going to strike. If you have a sick toddler chances are you will go through diapers much faster than you anticipated. Always bring a bundle of diapers on any trip. Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have the phrase “Be Prepared“. This is when you need to be prepared. Dominic went through diapers about 3 times faster than normal and we weren’t prepared. Thankfully, Sue’s mom was available to run to the store and pick up a package of diapers.

You certainly “ain’t gonna” keep the kids from getting sick but you can make it easier on yourself during sick season if and when they do. We are on day three of this bug and hopefully it’ll be moving out of his system today. Now I hope the rest of us don’t come down with it.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Daily Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.