When The Stomach Flu Hits Your House: My Top 3 Survival Tips

I remember when I was about six months pregnant, one of my husbands co-workers said to him:

“There will come a time when your child will throw up and you will willingly catch it. It’s just a reflex! And it’s easier to wash your hands than the carpet. That’s when you know you’re a parent!”

I remember thinking that I would NEVER do that, but it turns out, he was right! In my seven years of parenting now, I’ve lost track of how many times, without even thinking, I’ve reached out to catch my kids vomit. This last week was no different.

Yep. The stomach flu has already hit our house. I knew our day was coming when we received the dreaded email from the school nurse only a few short weeks ago. You know the one. The “we’ve had our first reported case of the Norovirus” email. Not even a week after, it hit our house hard and fast and at 2 a.m., like it always does.

Now I’m no pro, but I do have 3 survival tips that I use every single time we get hit.

1. Pedialyte Pops

I always make sure to have these on hand so we are prepared when it hits. These seriously have saved us so many times. They are just like the Pedialyte that you can drink but are in freeze pop form! They taste good to my kiddos and help restore those electrolytes. You can find them in the same aisle as the regular Pedialyte drink. We tend to do 3 sips of water and 2 licks of Pedialyte pop and set a 10 minute timer to make sure it doesn’t come back up. If we successfully cycle through several timers then eventually we move on to BRAT.

2. BRAT Foods

It stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast. We typically have all of that on hand but if we don’t, we make an emergency run or call on our tribe to snag some for us and drop on our front stoop. The idea is to keep the diet bland and easy on the stomach to keep the pukes at bay. If BRAT foods don’t sit well, back to tip #1 we go!

3. All. The. Towels.

Like everywhere. I cover the couch/bed/chair/wherever they are set up for the day with towels and I typically make a path of towels from said couch/bed/chair to the nearest bathroom. It’s obviously way easier to toss towels in the wash than scrub the carpet!

Bonus: Brew all the coffee. Rest when your kiddo rests. And I know it’s hard to believe when you’re in the thick of it, but this too shall pass!


 

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