we survived a 10 day stomach virus

Let's see I left off on Tuesday when I took Owen to the doctor for diarrhea.  Lets just say that the rest of the days leading to his birthday got worse each day and then Friday night he started throwing up and had a fever.  This resulted in canceling the birthday party and his dedication at our church.  This was really hard on Chris and me as we each had family in from out of town that we didn't get to see because we got the virus too.  The pediatrician didn't say it was the noro.virus or not, but he did say a bad virus was going around in our area.

Chris started feeling bad Saturday at noon and his lasted until 6pm that evening.  I got it at 10:30pm Saturday night.  We were so thankful that we got it at a little different times and plus Owen slept through most of us being sick.  At this point when he was awake he was so snuggly, but I would rather have my happy healthy baby any day.

Here is what I would recommend any parent keep on hand during the flu season:

• Lots of Pedialyte: 
• I would have several different flavors until you know which one your child likes.  Owen hated the Walmart off brand fruit flavor, I agreed it was nasty; the blue one was pretty good.  
• Also, get some of the popsicles if you have older children.  These don't come frozen and by the time ours were frozen Owen was drinking enough of his milk again that we weren't forcing the pedialyte as much.  
• The juice boxes if your child drinks from a straw are the best, Owen feels like a big kid drinking from these.
• An extra bottle of childrens T.ylenol or your fever reducing medication. 
• Stuff for mom and dad just in case we get sick, as a parent it is harder to leave the house with a sick child when one of the parents gets sick:  Ginger Ale, chicken noodle soup, bread or crackers are what we usually keep on hand.   

Thankfully, Owen stayed very hydrated.  Keep an eye on the color of his skin, the saliva in his mouth and how often he has a pee diaper.  Updated to add a tip from a friend: dehydration and skin: if you press a meaty party like forearm or thigh and when you take your finger away it stays depressed and white they are dehydrated.  The doctors said if he had a fever longer than 3 days that he would need to come in, which Owen did.  If the fever went longer than 5 days we would really begin to worry.  

Sunday evening seemed to be the catalyst for Owen when he threw up multiple times in one hour.  He must take after me and do his main throwing up in the middle of the night.  After a bath and as much liquid we could get down his throat we put him to bed.  Chris was really smart and thought up the idea of putting the pedialyte in a medical syringe (no needle of course) that we could squirt into Owen's mouth.  We could only get him to swallow a 1/4th of a teaspoon at a time, but at least it was something!

Other random tips that I wish I would have known:

• keep a small bowl/bed pan nearby
• the bathroom is the best place to be when a kid is throwing up or the high chair; we had Owen vomiting in the bathtub that way he could just sit  in there and then we did an immediate bath.  
• towels towels towels...don't try and mess with vomit with paper towels; this is also good to place under the child as they are throwing up.
• there is no such thing as too much TV when you have a sick child

Ok, all this thinking about vomiting is making my stomach sour again.  We are getting close to 100%, but are not there yet.