07/09/2017
Norovirus, Winter Vomiting Bug, D & V, Armageddon...
As the schools and nurseries start back again and winter seems to be fast approaching, I thought it might be helpful to write a little about how to deal with the common bugs that children commonly pass around. I thought I would start with the bug that I feel most strongly about, and the one that I use very few “natural” products to treat. In fact, the only way to prevent the spread and avoid infection with these types of viruses is to practise good infection control within your own home, and then spread that love and care into the wider community by following the guidelines to avoid contaminating everyone else.
So, here are my top tips for dealing with these winter vomiting bugs that will hopefully prevent your entire family coming down with d & v. One at a time…
1) Preparation is key! These bugs usually strike at night when you are half asleep and can’t think straight. Get a kit ready now, keep it all together in the airing cupboard or the top of a wardrobe, or wherever is easy to access and likely to be close to the crisis that needs cleaning up.
2) My recommendations for your kit are as follows:
A box of disposable gloves (latex or latex free) available from Amazon or the cleaning section of your local supermarket. These are essential for all cleaning up and handling of sick bowls and sicky children. Change the gloves frequently (i.e. after every use once a cleaning or handling job is finished) and throw them away into a bin immediately. Then wash your hands with soap All. The. Time.
A bag full of plastic bags. You know all those plastic bags you have collected which you keep forgetting to reuse? Well now is their chance for glory! Get a load of them together. You will use them to bag dirty bedding, dirty pyjamas, dirty bedtime toys and anything else that can be washed in the washing machine. This way it can sit in a queue without spreading germs and sickyness on the floor and everywhere else it touches. Also use them as rubbish bags for anything you have used such as absorbent mats (they will be mentioned later), sick bowl liners, Dettol wipes, dirty tissues, used gloves, basically everything used in relation to the process of caring for a little one who is puking and pooing!
Disposable absorbent mats. These will change your life. We use them in the hospital all the time and they are amazing. They are similar to puppy training mats but a little bigger. Basically they are flat sheets that have an extraordinary capacity for absorbing large amounts of fluid on one side and waterproof backing on the other. Put them over cot sheets or bed sheets and pillows or carpet around the bed, so that when your baby or child is sick, the mat catches and absorbs the sick or poo, and rather than having to continually change the sheets or clean carpets, you just change and bin the mats. If your little one is sick on the floor or carpet, just put an absorbent mat face down over the “incident” (it will soak this up) and you can grab any solid lumps through the mat and just put in a bag for the bin. They are available from Amazon or your local pharmacist. They can be called incontinence sheets, absorbent mats and other names.
Vanish (or alternative brand) carpet cleaner and sponge. Speaks for itself really.
A decent sick bowl. Bearing in mind the size of your child, a good high sided, light (metal or plastic), dishwasher-friendly bowl is ideal. You can line it with an absorbent mat or buy sick bowl liners (or use commode liners) from your local pharmacist or Amazon. Liners prevent virus particles becoming airborne via splash back from a bowl, or tipping sick down a loo, and this is one way the virus spreads, so it will limit further infection. Once the mat or liner has been used, just bag and bin it immediately.
Dettol wipes (a large pack). After cleaning up or disposing of sicky stuff, wipe everything with these: bed frames; door handles; loo flushes; loo seats; light switches; washing machine k***s. I’m sure there is a natural alternative, but these are quick, easy and available. They also kill the virus.
Dettol All-in-One Disinfectant Spray. A fellow mum called Vicky introduced me to this can of miraculous stuff. It can be used on hard surfaces (door handles, sinks rubbish bins etc.) and upholstery (so mattresses, car seats, sofas etc.), everywhere in fact. You don’t need to wipe anything, just spray it on after you have cleaned whatever it is that needs disinfecting.
3) Give small sips of water immediately after your child has been sick. With these bugs, children (and adults) will usually vomit roughly every hour, sometimes like clockwork (seriously, time it, you can take bets on when the next episode of sickness will occur; it can help to pass the time!). So having small sips of water straight after vomiting gives the stomach the maximum time to absorb fluid before it is regurgitated. Your child will also feel at their most well immediately after vomiting, so they will be able to take some sips of fluid.
4) These viruses will usually follow a pattern and have a limit on how long the vomiting will last for. With small babies this may be longer than average, but most children from 2 years old and upwards, will get a vomiting bug where the vomiting part will usually only last for 6 hours before it stops. Look at the clock when your child first vomits so you know that six hours from then the sickness should begin to subside. It’s good to know this when you feel like it’s never ending, but also, if your child is sick every hour for 6 hours it is likely to have been a virus. If they vomit more frequently, or for a longer duration then it is more likely to have been caused by something they ate or food poisoning and you may like to consider seeing a doctor.
5) There is not much point in giving fever-reducing medication to a child who is vomiting, unless you and they are happy using suppositories. But once they stop being sick, quite often these bugs can leave the child (or adult) feeling fluey and achy as the virus leaves the body. Warm baths and hot water bottles are great at relieving the aches, but if they don’t work then a paracetamol-based medication might be a good idea. Avoid ibuprofen-based products as they can cause gastric irritation, which is not ideal after 6 hours of being sick!
6) Wash your hands!!! These viruses are primarily spread via the faecal/oral route. So after every nappy change or bottom wipe, throughout the entire illness and then 48 hours after the final episode of diarrhoea, wash your hands fastidiously and with soap. A lot. Infected individuals will continue to shed the virus through their poo, and you only need a teeny tiny bit of microscopic poo to get from your hand into your mouth. And if you pass the bug to someone else or catch it yourself it will be either because you breathed in some airborne particles of vomit (only likely if you are right next to the person) or you have put someone else’s poo in your mouth. So frequent hand washing after using the toilet and before eating will certainly help prevention at home, in schools, nurseries, playgroups and public places. The usual alcohol-based hand sanitisers aren’t effective against these types of virus and, unless the hand sanitiser specifically says that it kills the Norovirus and Rotavirus, you are better off using soap and water. And better only to use habd sanitiser after you have thoroughly washed your hands with soap and water first.
I am aware that many of the products I have suggested are not ‘natural’ and in fact much of it is downright chemical and probably not terribly eco-friendly. I do apologise for that. This is the only illness that I treat like this, and I do it mainly to avoid spreading it to other members of our family and also into the wider community.
I feel so strongly about this family of viruses, the main reason being that the spread of them is entirely preventable. And while I fully understand the pressures of having to go to work, with Mums and Dads thinking that little Johnny will be ok (he’s acting and eating normally with just a little bit of a runny bum so is fine to go into nursery) can I just stop that thought process right now? Unless it is 48 hours after little Johnny has had his LAST episode of diarrhoea and vomiting, then it is not ok for him (or any other child!) to go back into school or nursery. Or even go to the playgroup and spread the joy of his diarrhoea and vomiting episode to his little friends by playing with the plastic toys and having a good chew and slobber all over them. Yes Mum and Dad, even if you are at your wits’ end and have been surrounded by puke and poo for what feels like days. I totally get where you are at; I’ve been there, we have all been there. But please stay at home, even if you are going stir crazy, and I will tell you why.
Firstly, you and your family may have coped with it when the sickness started and then the poo came. It wasn’t pleasant, but it passed. You survived, what’s the big deal? It’s great that you coped and managed it, and wonderful that you all bounced back so quickly, but you see the child little Johnny is playing with? Well she is fine, but at home she has a sister who has type 1 diabetes. If her sister gets little Johnny’s bug, for her it means going into hospital because her blood sugar levels get unstable. Mum and Dad have to struggle to find childcare for their other children. They miss a lot of work. And the child spreads it to a nurse who then spreads it to other patients, who are all unwell anyway. And that’s when entire wards on the hospital get closed down due to infection. These bugs cost the NHS millions some years when there is a large epidemic.
Also after several hours of vomiting and diarrhoea, babies will often be admitted to hospital briefly with dehydration and need to have intravenous fluids for a short time, again allowing these bugs to spread to the most vulnerable in the community. And what about the mother with 3 children and postnatal depression who can barely get herself dressed in the morning? She will be on her knees by the time diarrhoea and vomiting have worked their way through three children and finally her. The impact these bugs have can sometimes have an apocalyptic feeling when it visits a home and hits every member of that family in succession. You can see them emerging looking pale and shell-shocked after a week they never want to relive again!
So please please please, let’s stop this blinkered and short-sighted view of what works best for you, and look to our wider community, especially the vulnerable members of it, and our cash-strapped hospitals. Follow the guidelines and stay away from public places and interactions for 48 hours after the last episode of diarrhoea and vomiting has hit an individual in your home. If everyone did this then these bugs wouldn’t be such a frequent visitor in the winter months and our chokka-bloc hospital wards could remain open for business. And ultimately we ALL benefit from that.
