Can Flu Last Just a Few Hours?

Not flu.
We tend to call it stomach flu, but that's a misnomer.
Flu never involves throwing up / diarrhea.
Flu is all aches/pains, fever and feeling extremely tired and run down with cough and head congestion.

This sounds more like rotavirus.
Everyone gets it sooner or later and a mild case can act like a 24 or 48 hr bug.
Once you've had it, you tend to have a roughly 10 yr immunity to it.

When we were kids and had it, my Mom had us sleep in the bath tub (dry with a few towels as blankets) - it's just easier to clean up there.

That's not the flu... it's a stomach virus. Some people mistakenly say "I have a stomach flu" but it's just a virus. And yes, a lot of those viruses are very quick moving, so 5 - 24 hours is pretty typical.

Hope you're all feeling better!

(Sorry Jo W - I hadn't seen your response. I wasn't saying that you were the mistaken one!)

Well its most likely viral gastroenteritis not the flu. The flu has a fever, body aches etc.. and yes vg can only last a few hours. My DD just had the same thing. I kept her home from school the next day because she had thrown up a bunch the day before. Well she was bouncing off the walls and bored to death LOL.

I have never had a stomach flu last more than eight hours. It can be mild or eight hours of hell but that is it. Then I want to eat everything in the fridge. My kids are the same way.

Okay stomach virus but we always called it the stomach flu. A rose by any other name....

Everley, I didn't see your response when I added that, it is just virus is correct but I always call it the flu, I get less strange looks that way.

Probably not the influenza virus, but some kind of stomach virus. Don't you hate it when the sickness gets staggered and everyone takes turns throwing up for a whole week?

Sounds like just a virus. My little ones were sick last week also. I was in bed all day on Saturday. My stomach just plain hurt. (imagine what my house looked like with mommy in bed all day) Saturday night my husband suddenly got sick but was fine Sunday morning like he was never sick. One of my older girls was fine all day Sunday and then got sick all of a sudden Sunday night, stayed home from school yesterday but was better last night. It's one of those things that you wonder where it came from, when it will end but then it is gone.

It's not "flu" but sounds like a stomach virus your kids shared and your husband may have too. Foodborne illnesses usually would not pass among the kids like this unless they all ate the same contaminated food item, or were exposed to each others' vomit or feces (secondary exposure). If it was foodborne, it could be over with pretty quickly but that depends completely on what pathogen it was -- and you won't know unless your kids were/are sick enough to warrant getting them tested, which thankfully does not seem to be the case.

(If your baby continues to be lethargic, though, get him to a doctor tomorrow; younger kids can be much more affected by either viruses or foodborne illnesses than older kids.)

I would bet it's a fast-acting virus. Stomach viruses are virulent and spread rapidly and easily, especially where there are young kids and lots of vomit to clean up. If your husband even seems sick with this, even if he's not vomiting yet, isolate him to one bathroom the kids do not use and ensure that he keeps his hands extremely clean; wipe down all the doorknobs often (a really classic place for viruses to get spread is on doorknobs and other areas people touch and then kids touch after them), etc. Next time see if you can isolate the vomiting kid for a whole day so no one uses the same bathroom as the one who is ill. Isolation, if you can do it, is a huge help.

If any of the kids start vomiting again after seeming to recover -- get them to a doctor ASAP. If you have ANY suspicions that food in the house caused it, keep some to have it tested and keep packaging, but it sounds like a virus. Don't hesitate to ask your pediatrician's office (they do have a phone number for questions 24/7, I hope!) what they think.

My family passed around the stomach bug a few weeks ago. My son ate breakfast and complained that his belly hurt. Off and on all day he had cramps to the point where he was doubled over and crying. By late afternoon, I was worried enough (the kids were going to grandma and grandpa's the next day for a week) to take him to urgent care. While he was at urgent care with my husband, my daughter woke up from a nap with puke all over and proceeded to throw up 4 more times in the next two hours. After 2 hours, she was fine and ate supper. When my son got home, he was feeling much better too. Fast forward to that Monday, three days later, and I woke up with diarrhea. My stomach didn't hurt, but anything I put in my mouth (which wasn't much) was through me, painfully and immediately, that day. Wondering if I had "it" I called my inlaws to see how my one remaining child was--he'd woken up at 2 am, thrown up, thrown up every two hours until 10 am, had diarrhea, and was very tired. Stomach viruses affect everyone Soooo differently, but I'm pretty confident we all had the same thing and passed it around.

As the others have said it is not flu, but a stomach virus, or food poisoning. I had it last weekend. I spent Saturday morning with diahrea and vomitting, and spent the rest of the day just tired and weak. I was fine on Sunday. Luckily my husband and kids didn't get it. Anyway, just make sure you do lots of handwashing, stay hydrated, eat a brat diet and rest.