Well, this week the lurgy visited our house and struck down myself, the baby and even the dog (although I think the dog may have been faking it and only joined in with the puke fest as she felt a bit lacking in attention!)
My experience with the “sickness bug” started at 3am on Monday morning and I have to say it wiped me out completely. Thank-God the husband was home as he had to take over all household and baby duties and I was pretty much comatosed for 24 hours. I did have sole responsibility for the baby for a couple of hours on Monday morning, well when I say responsibility, all I was able to do was remove any obvious dangers, put “In the night garden” on a continuous loop and pray that she did not kill or maim herself in the brief time I had to watch her. I did break my “no dummy during the day” rule for this occasion and let her happily suck away whilst I concentrated on making it to the bathroom in time! Luckily she was fine and the Husband was home in time to give her lunch and put her down for a nap whilst I dragged my sorry arse back to bed for the rest of Monday. It took me until Wednesday to feel human again but I did managed to lose 3 kilo’s in 2 days (Whoop Whoop!)
In complete contrast the baby’s experience with the bug was nothing like mine and she sailed through the whole thing with barley a whimper. She started vomiting at around 3pm on Wednesday afternoon, we were fortuitously playing outside when the first projectile struck and she decorated the patio in style (easily washed a way with the hose though, result!) I was very concerned with trying to contain her sick and ran around trying to find a suitable container, thrusting it under her chin whenever she starting heaving, only for her to either push it away or splash her hands in it after she was done. I do not know why I wasted so much energy with the sick catching exercise, as by the end of the evening she was happily puking directly into my lap and I was past caring at that point (You can imagine the pile of washing that is still waiting for my attention!) Far from languishing on the sofa, in between being sick, my daughter would happily dance away, stop for a little puke and then get back to her dancing like nothing had happened. I am pretty sure that have behaved the same way after a few too many vodka’s 
I have to say I was very worried about dealing with a sick toddler, apart from the odd cold she has never been properly sick before and as I knew what to expect from the lurgy that had gripped our house, I was a little bit panicked when she started showing symptoms. I googled everything I could about sickness bugs in toddlers and posted on every baby site I was a member of on Facebook and got some very good advice, which I think it is only right to share. The most important thing is to stop them from getting dehydrated as it can occur very suddenly in infants and toddlers and become very serious, very quickly. In between vomiting I made sure that she had a drink of water and kept offering water to her when ever I could (she decided that she would only drink iced water out of the glass that I was currently using, but anyway to get it in her was fine by me!) I was advised by the health visitor that if she was hungry to let her eat (she did have a piece of bread at about 7.30pm) and it was probably just a viral thing that had to run itself out of her system . If she had a temperature, to give paracetamol or ibuprofen for kids and if it continued for more than 48 hours, get her checked out by a doctor. The other very useful advice she gave me was a homemade recipe for water with “electrolytes” to help with the dehydration and replace all the minerals she would lose from vomiting: Take 8oz of cooled, boiled water, add one teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt and shake well. I put her to bed with this mixture an hour after she had finished vomiting for the night and she slept for 12 hours solid, only waking to drink the water. This morning she was like a different child, eating well (I kept her on plain, easy to digest foods just in case) and showing no ill effects from her first encounter with a stomach bug!
I have to say I am very happy that she handled her first sickness bug so well, not least because tomorrow is her first fancy dress Halloween party and I am slightly over-excited by the whole thing … I have her costume ready and the party food is made, so expect my next post to be full of pictures of the “Halloween Queen” and there will also be an amazing Chocolate brownie recipe … I can tell you now they are AWESOME (the diet is going to take a bit of a battering tomorrow I can tell).
Mallorca Mum on the run!
x
