My Baby Has a Stomach Bug How Should He Sleep

There you are, minding your own business, when suddenly information technology happens: Your kid pukes on your shoes. (Or the couch, her brother, or all over their machine seat. Accept your option.) And now you see the next few days of your life will exist dominated by barf, saltine crackers, and the worry that everyone in the house will also autumn ill. So what should y'all practice? What can you practise? Here's everything you demand to know well-nigh two of the most common tum bug: gastroenteritis, or the stomach flu, and rotavirus.

Stomach Problems Analogy

What is the Stomach Flu?

Officially called gastroenteritis, stomach flu is an infection of the digestive system—and it's totally unrelated to the regular flu (influenza), which affects the respiratory system. Stomach flu is the 2nd most common illness kids get, later respiratory infections like colds. Although unpleasant, stomach influenza is ordinarily non serious. It's usually caused by viruses, but tin can also come from bacteria similar salmonella and E. coli, as well as some parasites.

• RELATED: 'My Stomach Hurts': Common Causes and Cures for Tummy Trouble

"Babies and young children are specially prone to infection considering their immune systems are still forming, and then they haven't yet built up the antibodies to fight off germs," says Rita Steffen, M.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.

How Long Does the Tum Flu Last?

Nearly individuals volition become a balmy case of gastroenteritis. This means symptoms will usually resolve in 24 hours, or less. However, this digestive disease can linger for weeks. Occasionally, children will experience vomiting and/or diarrhea which last for and/or upwards to 14 days.

When Is Tummy Influenza Season?

While children tin can contract the stomach influenza at any fourth dimension, information technology is near prevalent in the winter months. Stomach influenza "season" runs from November to April.

What Is Rotavirus?

Rotavirus is one type of bug that causes stomach flu and may brand children sicker than other types (like adenovirus, enterovirus, astrovirus, and Norwalk virus). Until recently, most children had been infected with rotavirus in one case by age 2 and nearly all had had at least one bout past age 5, according to the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention (CDC). This item bug is responsible for about 400,000 physician visits and 200,000 emergency room trips in the U.South. every year. Yet, the rotavirus vaccine drastically decreased the number of cases.

• RELATED: How to Stop Vomiting

How Long Does Rotavirus Terminal?

Rotavirus can last anywhere from a few days to a full week. Most individuals will experience vomiting and/or diarrhea for at to the lowest degree 3 days but up to eight. If symptoms persist, however, you can and should consult your child's physician.

When Is Rotavirus Season?

Your child's most likely to go infected with rotavirus betwixt November and May, especially if they're regularly exposed to lots of other kids in situations such as daycare or playgroups. Rotavirus is very contagious and tin can hands spread amongst kids and teachers. Every bit with other viruses, there'due south no quick handling—y'all accept to let the bug run its form. Keeping your child hydrated is the best fashion to help them feel amend.

What Are the Symptoms of Breadbasket Viruses?

A classic stomach virus involves vomiting with diarrhea, low or no fever, and stomach pain that's worse when vomiting, says Josh Borus, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "The closer a child sticks to that script, the more than comfortable I feel diagnosing gastroenteritis."

Exist on the lookout man for these blood-red flags:

• Fever
• Vomiting (more than volume than usual everyday spit-upward)
• Watery diarrhea
• Fussiness or irritability
• Acting more tired and sluggish than usual
• Decreased appetite

Older children may besides mutter of tummy cramps, muscle aches, and headaches. Symptoms generally gear up in ane to three days after your child'south been exposed to the bug, and tin last anywhere from a twenty-four hour period or two upwardly to 10. The main risks from stomach influenza are not from the symptoms themselves (although unpleasant), merely the fact that upset stomach can make your child very dehydrated.

• RELATED: 7 Means to Stay Good for you When Your Kid Is Sick

How Long Are You Contagious With the Stomach Influenza and/or Rotavirus?

Breadbasket bugs are highly contagious. Playing with an infected child is the main way the virus spreads, since germs can live on toys and clothes for hours or even days. If the infection results from bacteria or parasites, your child may have consumed contaminated food or water (most likely while overseas or camping, for example).

What makes tum influenza particularly virulent is that children are contagious before they really show whatsoever symptoms. Also, adults with their heartier immune systems may harbor the germs and pass them forth without ever getting sick themselves.

Analogy of a Sick Child Drinking H2o to Stay Hydrated

Can You Prevent the Stomach Flu and/or Rotavirus?

Obviously, yous want to keep your family from getting sick. "It only takes a few virus particles to infect someone, and there are billions in just a drop of vomit or diarrhea," says Aron Hall, a researcher for at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'southward Division of Viral Diseases, in Atlanta. However, y'all tin take steps to prevent a full-calibration invasion.

Get vaccinated. Your baby will get two or three doses of the rotavirus vaccine (depending on which brand your doctor uses), which protects against 85 to 98 percent of astringent rotavirus illness. Withal, at that place is no vaccine against norovirus.

The vaccine only prevents the iv most common strains, so kids who have been vaccinated can still catch different types of rotavirus or other bugs that cause stomach influenza. Even so, symptoms will likely exist less astringent in children who've been vaccinated, says Stanley Cohen, Chiliad.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Children'south Middle for Digestive Wellness Care in Atlanta, Georgia.

• RELATED: The Rotavirus Vaccine: Health 101

Wash your hands. "We can't stress enough how important hand-washing is," says Dr. Cohen. For a thorough scrub, use soap and warm water and rub your hands together for at least xv to 20 seconds (sing "Happy Altogether" for a gauge of length); this helps prevent passing germs effectually your family.

Information technology's a good idea to wash not just after using the bathroom, simply subsequently coming home from public places like malls or movie theaters or after existence around other kids on playdates, for example. Also wash your hands later treatment a ill kid and before preparing food. Show your toddlers and preschoolers how to wash properly, and inquire their childcare providers whether kids are required to clean their easily throughout the day (not just after using the bathroom and before meals).

Isolate sick kids. Keep your sick child in their room or the family room, away from siblings and the kitchen. If you have more than one bathroom, have them stick with one (straight the rest of the family to the other), and dry their hands on paper towels instead of a hand towel. Follow these arrangements for at least 2 days after they feels meliorate, says Hall.

Disinfect the firm. To kill of microscopic viruses, become through the business firm frequently with disinfectant wipes (use ones containing bleach) and assail places your kid may have touched (faucets, doorknobs, countertops, light switches), and places where they pooped or vomited. For areas that yous know are germy, like the bathroom, take hold of a bleach-based disinfectant and go to town on the entire surface area. Wearing disposable gloves and a face mask tin can dramatically lower your odds of catching the bug while cleaning, says Hall, equally can using newspaper towels rather than reusable rags. Put any germy laundry in the washing car (crank the heat and opt for the longest cycle!) and toss your gloves in the trash. Launder your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds to ensure that any particles that transferred from the gloves to your skin become downward the drain.

• RELATED: Diarrhea Symptoms and Treatment

What Is the Best Manner to Treat Stomach Viruses?

Unfortunately, there is no specific handling for rotavirus and/or the viral stomach flu; they simply have to run their class. Just replacing lost fluids and nutrients will help your child feel amend more quickly and prevent the bug from getting worse. Here'southward what to practise:

Avoid medications. Information technology may be tempting to offering over-the-counter remedies, but experts strongly recommend circumspection against giving kids adult breadbasket meds without consulting your pediatrician. That'south considering some, such as Pepto-Bismol and Kaopectate, contain aspirin or aspirin-like ingredients that increase the hazard of Reye's syndrome in children younger than 12. This rare only serious status causes swelling in the liver and brain.  Likewise, antidiarrheals like Imodium tin can lead to side effects in young children and should be avoided.

Go along upwards the fluids. Dehydration is a concern because fluids are leaving your kid's body faster than they are being replaced. Prevent aridity with the post-obit methods.

• For breastfed or formula-fed babies: Let your infant'south belly rest for 15 to 20 minutes after a bout of vomiting or diarrhea so try nursing or bottle feeding again. "Breast milk is actually well tolerated by sick babies; plus the antibodies in it can assistance strengthen their allowed systems," says Dr. Cohen.

• For toddlers and older kids: Ask your medico about rehydrating drinks, like Pedialyte, which are absorbed meliorate than water. These solutions replenish the crucial salts and sugars lost when your child is throwing up or has diarrhea. Kids also tend to drink more than flavored beverages than plain water, because they taste good.

Your kid may have a hard time keeping down fluids at first, merely sticking to modest, frequent doses (try a teaspoon every couple of minutes) may help rebalance fluid and salt levels in the body, which can actually help finish vomiting over time. If your child goes longer than eight hours without peeing or your babe has fewer than three wet diapers per day, yous should phone call your pediatrician, advises Dr. Kovacic.

• RELATED: nine Things a Pediatrician Wishes Yous'd Terminate Doing

Go back to a normal diet. Don't worry about food while your kid is still throwing upwards. But once their tummy calms downwards, yous tin can get dorsum to a (mostly) regular diet. While the Deviling diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) used to be the standard advice after a stomach issues, doctors now say there'south no reason to go along your kid's food bland for more than than a day, since the diet lacks balanced diet, points out Dr. Kovacic. Still, take it like shooting fish in a barrel on high-fat and high-saccharide foods, which tin can irritate their still-sensitive digestive tract, and continue to push plenty of fluids until their diarrhea is gone.

Treat the fever. If a higher-than-normal temperature is making your child uncomfortable, y'all can use acetaminophen or ibuprofen to bring their temperature downwards. This may help relieve other aches and pains too.

Let him remainder. Your kid will probably be sleeping and napping more than usual, which is normal. But if your baby or toddler has been comatose more than 4 hours (and has been having diarrhea or vomiting), you may want to wake them upward to offering fluids. "Call back that infants can go dehydrated more rapidly than older kids," says Dr. Steffen. "Use mutual sense, like watching for signs of dehydration."

When to Call the Doctor

If it's your baby'south first tour with stomach flu, call the doctor right abroad. This way they tin can rule out bacterial infections, which may require treatment with antibiotics.

If the diarrhea is severe, persists for more than four or 5 days, or contains whatever blood, your child may accept a more serious foodborne illness, such every bit Campylobacter or E. coli, and you should see your pediatrician. Other alarm signs that warrant a telephone call include a persistent fever, significant abdominal pain, vomiting without diarrhea (a stomach virus most always has both), or tenderness when you touch your kid's tummy (which could bespeak appendicitis or pancreatitis), says Katja Kovacic, Yard.D., a pediatric gastroenterologist at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee.

• RELATED: Dehydration Symptoms and Handling

Most doctors want to come across babies under 3 months with rectal temperatures of 100.4 F. or higher. If your kid is between iii and 6 months, you should alert the md if your kid has a rectal temperature of 101 F. or higher. If your kid is older than 6 months, let the dr. know if your kid has a rectal temperature of 103 F. or higher.

The doc volition likely also ask whether your child has any of these signs of aridity:

• Fewer than 6 moisture diapers a day for babies or 8 hours without peeing for older kids
• A sunken soft spot on top of baby's caput
• Few or no tears while crying
• Acting unusually sleepy, sluggish, or unresponsive
• Wrinkled skin
• Dry mouth or croaky lips
• Dizziness, headaches, or muscle pain in older kids
• Urine that's nighttime yellow (instead of light or articulate)
• Weight loss

If a kid of any age seems severely dehydrated, call the doctor right abroad. The child may need to go to the hospital to get rehydrated through IV fluids.

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Source: https://www.parents.com/health/cold-flu/flu/rotavirus-stomach-flu/

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