Yes I'm using bleach!

[Nature]

And I'm putting in on nearly every surface in my home! I'm so tired of this sickness going around and around and around. It makes me want to cry! I need to pack for moving, not wash towel/sheet load after load 24/7 and clean up puke. And no matter what I do it just keeps coming back!

So as I'm bleaching everything, guess what my 4 yo does? Steals a lollipop from my sick 9 yo's mouth and runs away sucking on it. :

Would it be okay if I just put my kids IN a vat of bleach instead? Cause I can't think of any other way to kill these germs. *sigh*

[justmama]

nak

it is okay honey, i bleached the house before grace came home AND i continue to use lysol. i'm a crunchy disaster when it comes to germs and preemies. hope they get better

[lilyblossom]

Nature - don't beat yourself up too much about it. Your mental health and wellbeing are equally important right now. And as long as the kids aren't dipping their lollypops in bleach and then eating them, I think you'll be okay .

Use gloves and be safe about it and take it easy (as much as you can).

[flapjack]

Swaddling boards on the wall. It's the only way to control children at such times. Or horizontal on the ceiling, pointing over the toilet

Anyone else think that justmama wanted to get the first NAK into the DDC? Congratulations again

Seriously, i hear that vinegar followed by hydrogen peroxide also kills almost everything. I wouldn't bother with your old house, though (but you could think about it for the new one...)

[Dea]

Originally Posted by flapjack

Swaddling boards on the wall. It's the only way to control children at such times. Or horizontal on the ceiling, pointing over the toilet

Anyone else think that justmama wanted to get the first NAK into the DDC? Congratulations again

Seriously, i hear that vinegar followed by hydrogen peroxide also kills almost everything. I wouldn't bother with your old house, though (but you could think about it for the new one...)

vinegar is a nice acid then the peroxide reacts with it making it a nicer acid. At home chemistry is so much fun!

[mama_nym]

I'd totally have done the same thing if bleach and lysol didn't give me migraines - but I did do vinegar and peroxide and we "only" went through four days of illness (each child getting sick, from youngest to oldest, on four consecutive days so that Mama had only one sick child at a time, but didn't sleep for four days due to being up with sick children each night!!!)

[Vancouver Mommy]

Don't feel bad! You know, if industry stopped pumping chlorine bleach out by the millions of gallons every damn day for no reason then we could use tiny amounts of it in our homes and not feel so tremendously guilty. A concentration of 1 tsp of bleach to one litre of water is a great disinfectant. I used some this week to kill this nasty tummy bug that's been doing the rounds in our house too. I almost never use it, but there are times.....

[Writerbird]

I use bleach after I catch the same cold twice in a row and I'm not at all ashamed of it.

[Nature]

Originally Posted by mama_nym

I'd totally have done the same thing if bleach and lysol didn't give me migraines - but I did do vinegar and peroxide and we "only" went through four days of illness (each child getting sick, from youngest to oldest, on four consecutive days so that Mama had only one sick child at a time, but didn't sleep for four days due to being up with sick children each night!!!)

Thats what happened to me! Everyone says its better because then I don't have 3 kids puking 24/7, but man.... 3 nights of sleeplessness in a row with a different child is a bit much!

[lincap]

What about using Clorox Anywhere Cleaner? I have heard it doesn't stink and isn't as caustic as bleach but just as effective?? OR using Rubbing alcohol? In labs they clean with 70% ethanol and 10% bleach..

I would be spraying EVERYTHING. When I was puking near christmas, everythime I entered the bathroom I sprayed lysol on every surface I touched (toilet, faucet, door handles). I don't care how crazy it was, but DH got a little sick (he has an AMAZING immune system) and DS did not get it.

I would also do what my mom did (three kids)... Quaratine. Pick a room for the sick person to stay in all day. You are the only one that enters that room. THe others are not to have contact with the sick person. After the sick one uses the bathroom, lysol it down. Keep 1 plate, fork, spoon, cup for the sick one that you wash with HOT HOT soapy water.

The quarantine is HARD with a 2 year old.. but the others are old enough to get it. My mom did pretty good at not spreading stomach bugs through the household!

I hope things get better for you and your family, you really need the rest.

HUGS

[Nature]

Ugh quarenteen wouldn't work with my little ones. Heck I can't even get them to stop sharing sippy cups.

But see... this is my question tonight.. Both little ones were done being sick two days ago. Then last night, my 2 yo woke up at 11pm and threw up everywhere. She went right back to sleep and slept through the night. Today she was fine! No fever. Eating and drinking normally. Tonight, she woke at 11pm and did the same thing. Again back to sleep and hasn't done it since.

My other two girls are done being sick and not vomiting at night.
Dh and I haven't been that sick yet. More just run down.

WHY is my 2 yo getting sick only at night?? No fevers either. Just barfs a LOT and then goes back to sleep??

[ellymay]

I hope you get rid of the sickness!!!

[Nature]

And again, she slept all night long. No more puking. Today she is bright and happy. No sign of being sick.

But will she again wake up tonight throwing up???

[lincap]

ooh interesting... only puking at night then sleeping all night and fine the next day.. ok

Here are my thoughts/ideas:

- Having just gotten over a stomach bug, her belly may be just not quite back to normal. Might need probiotics to get her gut back to normal, so *maybe* she has more acid in her belly and when she lays down for sleep it refluxes up?

- She is allergic/sensitive to something she only eats before bedtime.

-Some people can become temporarily (or permnanent in my sisters case) lactose intolerant after a particular stomach bug... if she had a large amount of dairy before bed, it could come back up.

- Maybe it was food poisoning and not a virus. Something they ate that you and DH didn't eat.

I agree that is a strange situation.. hmm... keep us posted on how she is tonight.

HUGS!

[Nature]

This was my only thought... though its odd it would come up now on the heels of a sickness..

I'm not sure if any of these are connected BUT..

She has what I believe to be excema. I haven't brought her to the doctors yet. Its red, patchy, scaley behind her knees, behind her elbows, and a few small tiny patches on her torso. This has been getting worse lately. Its pretty red and raw.

She is still nursing at night. (she's two years old) But only for about 5 minutes. She was taking a sippy cup with water in it at night to help her transition to rolling over without my breast because in the middle of pregnancy I started to get a bit aggitated and sore with the constant nursing sessions. This water thing worked well until she suddenly rejected the water and only wanted juice. Screaming baby? Or watered down juice? Fine. I'm going to hell. I pick the watered down juice. Its usually orange juice because WIC doesn't give you many choices. This has been working well actually. She doesn't drink much of it, but its enough that she falls asleep OFF me.

Until about a week 1/2 ago however, she wasn't actually getting anything when she nursed. This time around I dried up. And now... there is colostrum. So now she's nursing for 5 minutes of colostrum, and then rolling over and sucking on a sippy with watered down orange juice.

Could this perhaps have anything to do with it?

I'm not eating anything differently than I normally do. No meds or extra caffeine or chocolate. I've been nursing for 4.5 years so I'm pretty stable in what I eat and don't. Nothing has really affected my kids much in regards to that.

and yet.. there is the excema on top of everything.

And just as I suspected, today she's perfectly fine! Argh. But yet I still have to do two loads of laundry with towels and blankets from last nights projectile of french toast. LOL

[lincap]

Apparently I have a lot of time this morning! My $0.02!

Yeah.. I hear you about the juice. Not a bad mom at all! But maybe it is jsut a bit too acidic while the gut heals...

As for the eczema... food is a decent idea for the underlying cause. With DS he had something very very similar to the pattern you describe from about 4 months old until 14 months-ish. (plus he had it on the back of his neck). We suspected dairy allergy from other things, so at 1 year took him to allergist and they did the back prick test and sure enough, allergic to dairy, eggs and nuts. He had never eaten any of those, but I did regularly and was nursing him. I stopped eating all dairy, eggs and nuts and he cleared up by 15-16 months. NOW at 26 months he still gets the eczema in the crease of elbow and knees and wrists if he is near people who have eaten dairy, eggs nuts or have pets. (it is a terrible cycle!) his poor skin never looks PERFECT! I can always tell when DH ate cheese at work, because DS gets the redness on him. (not hives but itchy, raw red creases).

So I would look at what foods you may have introduced to her, recently. Or decrease eating the "top 8" dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, seafood, soy and wheat. If she just started eating eggs, then stop the eggs. But if nothing is new to her diet, it could be other things. Eczema is tricky.. can be environmental too. New pets, new laundry detergent, cold weather, hot weather... blah blah.. Maybe when the new one is a few months old, schedule an appt for the 2 yr old with an allergist.

YOu can give her benadryl to help the itching.. we do that to prevent that raw bleeding when DS cannot stop scratching especially if he wakes up scratching and scrathing. There is always hydrocortisone.. but I would use it sparingly and only on the BAD BAD spots. Cool wash cloths help too.
Aquaphor works well to keep skin hydrated after a bath but is a gooey mess.

Ok.. I have to get out of my PJs and see what DS is up to!!!!

[Nature]

Okay lets see... nothing new with the foods. We eat a lot of eggs, cheese, and peanut butter. (WIC... )

Environmental.. this might seem like a duh moment but.. the building management has been spraying 4 different pesticides in our apartment for about 7 months now...every two weeks. We didn't have any say in this at all. Could she be reacting from that?

[lincap]

Absolutely. The spray could do it. some kids skins are more sensitive than others. Some pesticides can be really harsh. I wonder if you can ask them for the names of the pesticides they are using. And maybe post in the Mindful Home Management section here, and see what safer alternatives there are.

You could casually mention that your 2 year old has suffered fom a rash since they started spraying and ask that they hold off for a few months. Maybe if they hear that a child is hurting they will be more willing to stop spraying especially with the newborn coming too.

Blah it is tough when building management just "does" things because they can/want to etc.. blah..

[Nature]

Originally Posted by lincap

Absolutely. The spray could do it. some kids skins are more sensitive than others. Some pesticides can be really harsh. I wonder if you can ask them for the names of the pesticides they are using. And maybe post in the Mindful Home Management section here, and see what safer alternatives there are.

You could casually mention that your 2 year old has suffered fom a rash since they started spraying and ask that they hold off for a few months. Maybe if they hear that a child is hurting they will be more willing to stop spraying especially with the newborn coming too.

Blah it is tough when building management just "does" things because they can/want to etc.. blah..

Well, we're moving in 10 days so whats done is done. It was a tough situation because they legally HAD to spray. In fact, we're taking them to court and suing them because it took them over a year to do anything to rectify the problem. We had a really bad case of bedbugs stemming from the apartment below us. Thankfully, it seems they're gone now. But really, the pesticides were needed. We had tried everything else "natural" and it wasn't helping.

What WASN'T needed, was the fact that they sprayed every two weeks. They were supposed to only spray our apartment every THREE months after the inital spray, and then second dose two weeks later. They should have been alternating apartments. The bug people knew this, but their hands were tied because the management company told them to do ours this often. Honestly the only reason they wanted them to do that was because they don't like us and they knew it was difficult for us..

Anyway, enough bitching from me. LOL We're getting out of here! If it WAS the pesticides.. would it clear up once we move?

[lincap]

Originally Posted by Nature

Anyway, enough bitching from me. LOL We're getting out of here! If it WAS the pesticides.. would it clear up once we move?

Oh glad you are moving! But tough timing!

Most likely once the exposure stops and the skins heals she will be fine if it is the pesticides. I took DS to a Pediatric Environmental Toxicologist once to try to figure his rashes out... there aren't many out there, but if there is one in your neck of the woods, it might be wroth making an appt.

What a pain. Hope once you move that will really help her. If not, then join the Eczema tribe.. you won't be alone in the eczema battle!