SAHM Sick with Rotavirus

Hi J. -- I had the same situation a few years ago with my now-3-year-old. Basically I did what you are doing. I set up a "center" in the living room with drinks, snacks (when we could take them), lots of pillows and very calm videos on like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." My daughter was still sick, so she basically sat in front of it (the only time we had the TV on for her at such a young age!) Anyway, I just laid on the couch and had the room safe so she could not get in any trouble if she did get up, which thankfully she didn't until I was almost better. Good luck!

Sorry I have no advice either, but emphathy. I have been there...and it is miserable. All you can do is look forward to tommorrow being better. Hope you are feeling better soon.

Hi J.,
My husband and son went through this in April. The BIGGEST thing I can recommend for you is to drink a lot--get yourself a bunch of gatorade/powerade if you can, otherwise you can get dehydrated really quick. The same goes for your daughter. Our son ended up needing to get an IV at Children's because he wouldn't take ANYTHING in, and then started running a high fever. Stay in touch with your pediatrician, who will be your very best resource!

Best luck to you--I know first hand how hard this thing is.
Jen

I went through this last year... it ended up bad enough that I called my husband at 1:30pm to come home. When he got home and saw me he called him mom to come get our daughter. I could not keep even water down. I was severly dehydrated and ended up in the emergancy clinic for 5 hours, went thought two IV bags of fluids. They sent me home with these wonderful little pills that helped stop/reduce the nasua. It took 2 days to recover, and thankfully my mother-in-law took care of my daughter those 2 days.

So do take it easy, I know the mom feeling of guilt for not being active with the kids BUT it can get much worse if you don't take care of yourself. It will run its course in 2-3 days.

Turn on the TV, you lay on the couch, call someone if you can (relatives, friends), also call your doc and see if you can get a few pills to help reduce the nasua (sorry I don't remember the pills name) that could really help you.

Again, no great advice but just get through the day!! It sucks, and I'm sorry. While I totally agree with the folks recommending fluids, I also want to chime in with the fact that 90% of kids under 3 get rotovirus, so it's NOT uncommon. Yes, kids can get very sick with it, but little kids can get very sick from a lot of things, and this is no different. Just take care of yourselves, and you'll probably be fine. If you're not, seek the ER! Hope you're all feeling better soon.

My girls have each experienced one bout of Rotavirus, but I do not at all recall them throwing up. It was just absolutely disgusting toilet/diaper action. Perhaps that is all I recall because it was so very frightening. Anyhow, I would go back to the doctor either way, so she/he can see how ill you all have become with it. I think you are embarked on the noblest of duties: caring for sick children while just as sick yourself. Do you have any relatives or close friends or a babysitter you could call who would help you? This is an unbelievable amount of work you are doing and it will end a lot faster when you are not the only adult on the scene trying to deal with it all. Good luck, I wish you the best!!

My daughter had Rotavirus 2 years ago. Just before they vaccinated for it. It was horrible and scary at the same time. But last week my husband and I woke up with the same thing you have. We couldn't get off the couch to watch our kids so we had our sister-in-law take them for 2 days.
It was the intestinal flu and it is going around bad right now. There is no vaccination for it and since I don't get sick, I thought I was gonna die.
Do you have a friend to call, a family member.
Call your doctor and explain the situation with your children. They have this pill that they prescribe to stop the nausea and vommiting.
I know drinking is the last thing you want to do so chew ice cubes.
Hope you feel better soon..
L.

Please be careful with this and the little ones! my son had it when he was almost 2 and we took him to the dr 3 times and they said it was a virus. then finally i took him to the er and told them i wasn't leaving until they found what was wrong with him. i made them call in his ped dr and she took one look at him and put him in the hospitial. his ped found it was rotavirus. they told me that if i would have waited another 8 hours he would have died from dehydration. i felt horrible! it came on from whinny to that bad in two days. just keep giving motrin and clear liquids. be sure to keep something like pedialite or something like that in them. hopefully with the motrin in them and you it will help. otherwise make sure you sleep when they do ( i know easier said then done!) if you see they are getting worse please get them back to the dr. i know first hand how quick it can take a turn for the worse. good luck.

Call somebody! Friend, neighbor, relative, you'll be amazed by how happy people will be to help you. I know it's sometimes hard to ask for help like that, especially from a neighbor, but do it. Even if someone could take your youngest for a few hours, you could get some sleep while your daughter watches TV. (Thank goodness for Noggin at moments like these!) Or if you have a relative or good friend, see if they can come over for a few hours to take care of both kids. It's hard w/the Rotavirus factor, because you don't want to infect anyone (especially someone with kids) but someone without kids who can practice excellent handwashing and will not have to be around it for more than a few hours will be fine. I've been amazed by how much more sick I've been since I had kids - they bring the viruses home, spread them all over your house, and all over you while you comfort them and care for them - no amount of handwashing is going to beat that much exposure. But a few hours should be just fine. Call somebody!!! Good luck!!!!

First off- I am soooo sorry you're goin thru this! It is the hardest thing in the world to know you have to take care of your kids when you really really need to be taking care of yourself too...

okay, so if you already went to the dr and they told you it was rotavirus, i'd hope that you are now well versed in dehydration. IE- If your little girl's mouth is dry at all and not wet, if she's acting listless, stuff like that- Very BAD- like emergency room immediately bad! If you are in doubt at all- GO. It sounds like a lot of parents wait at the advice of their peds when they shouldnt. I'm not sayin peds. dont know what they're talkin about, but at least during over the phone conversations parents minght not know exactly how to diagnose or not. So best bet is when in doubt- take them in.

As for yourself, i know another post says as much gatoraide as you can, but i actually kept myself from throwing up by folowing my peds. advice about limiting the ammount and increasing the frequency. Which is tourture but your sick tummy can only tollerate so much.. put too much in and it's bound to come right back out. IE- I drank only a swallow or two every hour for a couple hours, then gradually increased it each hour as i didnt throw up. It worked pretty well for me, but i had stomach flu not rotavirus... I also drank the G2 stuff that had less sugar. It was what the hospital gave me when my daughter was in there with the stomach flu and i told them i had the tail end of it too.

Good Luck- I'm prayin for you guys!

I am sorry you and your family aren't feeling well. My son had the same thing last year. I think all you can do is what you're doing--tv for the time being, and maybe your husband could pick up a view videos to rent or from the library for you and your kids. You can also try reading a little from time to time. Also, very importantly--my sister is an ER physician, and she gave me this advice when my son was ill (with the same thing)--you do have to keep yourself and your daughter hydrated, but with LITTLE SIPS of water, Pedialyte, or Gatorade--for my son, it was just a Tablespoon of water at a time every 30 minutes or so, and as he was able to keep that down over time, you can increase the amount little by little (and try the Pedialyte or Gatorade). She said most parents make the mistake of giving their kids TOO MUCH fluid to try to keep their kids hydrated, and their tummies can't handle it, so then they throw it all up, which ends up contributing more to overall dehydration. So just do SMALL AMOUNTS of fluids for yourself and your daughter, and Gradually increase the amount as you and she can keep it down. Hope you feel better soon and this passes quickly!

The biggest thing is hydration. My middle boy got it when he was 1 and ended up in the hospital for a week due to dehydration. If you get too bad go to the hospital. We almost didn't take our son in time and he nearly died. He was so dehydrated that they had to use lifeflight nurses to find a vein to put in an IV. They had all colapsed. Please be very careful. Rotavirus is a nasty bug.

chicken noodles soup in a cup...and cuddle...shove everyone in the same bad...

I have no advice for help...it always seems when I am sick I too and still the one taking care of everyone else...

If the doctor hasn't already said it, `liquids, liquids, liquids!' You are all at great risk for dehydration with symptoms like those...and you don't want that to happen! Especially with the littlest ones, because they could develop complications worse than the virus itself, such as messed up electrolytes.

Stay away from sugary drinks which can exacerbate any related gastrointestinal-symptoms (such as diarrea) which rather than vomitting, is usually the main symptom with the Rotavirus.

Your best bet is for all of you to drink Pedialyte and eat bland foods if you can keep them down. Water is okay, but electrolyte drinks are better for water retention. Since water doesn't have salt in it, it will pass through the system too quickly and sometimes not help much with dehydration.

As for food, dry toast, saltines (again, the salt is good for retaining those lost fluids), plain oatmeal etc. Otherwise, if eating is still out of the question, put all your energy into getting everyone to drink liquids. Clear broths (like chicken or vegetable) with no food in it, if you're really bad off.

I know you're on your own and sick too, but cleanliness is very important too. Rotavirus is chiefly spread by coming in contact with someone who didn't wash their hands well after going #2.

Try to get everyone cleaned up regularly, and the best you can, as everything you all touch or get sick on will be highly contagious.

Be sure everyone is washing their hands thoroughly and change and wash bedding as much as possible. And if you can't, have hubby disinfect counters, handles, knobs, and any other high traffic surfaces with a Clorox wipes or Lysol spray to keep from spreading it to anyone whose not sick.

Keep all diapers, changing pads, diaper genies, toilet seats and bowls or any other items that are related to "potty-time" sanitized well.

Lastly, don't cook for anyone who is not sick. Stay in bed and maybe you could take Tylenol to help with the aches a bit.

Here's a little extra info on how it's transmitted, and treatment.

http://www.drgreene.com/21_1174.html
Hope that helps.

No advice to give but I hope you feel better VERY soon!

Have you tried an over the counter anti nausea medicine? There's one called Emetrol that you can find at Walgreens/Walmart etc. There's also one called nauzene (they're the same thing just different brands. Its just a heavy syrup that coats your stomach. I think its mainly sugar, I know kids can use it too. It has "saved my life" more than once :). Good luck. I'm so sorry you're sick.