What does this sound like?

[ecr319]

On Wednesday morning DH woke up covered in vomit, courtesy of 18 month old DS. He threw up 3 more times over the course of maybe 2-3 hours. Had one poop shortly after vomiting the last time and it was fairly normal. Through the vomiting--even right after--he acted happy, playful and generally well. No fever and no diarrhea that day or Thursday. Today he has increasingly loose stools, but he's also been getting most of his nutrition via breast milk. The last one he passed looked like what I'd probably classify as diarrhea. Still no symptoms other than the loose stools and he's currently playing with no problem.

He had a cold last week that is mostly gone (cough lingers a little), but his nose was runnier on Wednesday. He grabbed at his ear a few times yesterday, but he's also getting lower and upper canines, so for all I know that's why he was pulling.

I feel really silly for obsessing over this when he appears to feel fine, but I am quite emetophobic and selfishly am concerned about coming down with something myself. A bout of the stomach flu in April has made me incredibly worried about getting it again. FTR, he is not in daycare and the only person who could have brought something home, DD, has not been sick.

So, any guesses? TIA.

[Llyra]

In a little one that age, vomiting and diarrhea is almost always rotavirus. As a severe emetophobe myself, I empathize with how you're feeling. Here's what I've learned-- by the age of 16, almost all adults have developed sufficient immunity to rotavirus, such that we no longer get symptomatic infections. If you catch rotavirus, most likely you'll feel a little "off" for a day or two, but it won't affect you much more than that.

It usually comes on as a few bouts of vomiting. Sometimes in some cases the vomiting will go on for a few days. Then the diarrhea comes afterwards, sometimes a few days later, and it can hang on for about two weeks. The main issue with rotavirus is dehydration; kids who aren't dehydrated will often feel perfectly fine once the vomiting resolves, even though they're still having loose stools. It's passed by the fecal-oral route, so you'll want to be careful to wash after changing diapers, or cleaning up any stool, to avoid passing it on to other people.

The stomach bugs that adults catch usually are noroviruses (there are other viruses, but these are the most common.). These are the ones we call 24-hour bugs. Those usually pass much more quickly than the rotaviruses that little kids get. So when the illness hangs on for more than a day or two, I start to breathe easier, realizing I'm unlikely to catch it.

It is also highly possible that it was one of the adults in the house who brought it home-- you can pick it up from hand to hand contact with somebody who hasn't washed well, for instance. You would have had an asymptomatic infection and then passed it on to your DS, who then shows symptoms because he's still little. That would be what usually what happens in my house-- since I work with small kids, I pick the stuff up and bring it home, and it doesn't bother me much, but one of more of my kids gets sick.