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Comment by fy20 | Hacker News Reader

My family recently had norovirus ("winter" vomitting bug), which for healthy adults is pretty much nothing other than being stuck on the toilet for a day (as I was). My 2 yo however was in hospital for nearly a week on an IV because of this.

As soon as my wife realised it wasn't just simple vomitting she called a doctor and they told us to go to hospital, so we were there within 3 hours of the first episode. My wife stayed with them in hospital, but because of corona I wasn't allowed to see them - which wasn't particularly nice for me and I'm sure was very traumatic for our kid.

We have all recovered now, but yes it's somewhat surprising how quickly young kids can go downhill.

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Must have been bad- the normal recommendation for norovirus is to avoid hospital because it's so infectious.

e.g. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/norovirus/

That's what isolation wards are for, I suppose.

my 2yo was dehydrated and on IV because of that, too. not uncommon for the smallest kids.

A noro or rotavirus ripped through my 2 years olds daycare recently, and in a couple classrooms (including my kid), tons of kids got sick as well as teachers, but did not hear of any hospitalizations.

The first evening was brutal though. 6 hours of drink, vomit, eat, vomit, drink, vomit, etc. My kid easily threw up 20+ times.

If my kids vomit more than once they go on a cycle we've developed over the course of having five young children.

First time, maybe a fluke. Check for other signs of illness, heat sickness, what did they eat recently, fever etc.

Second time they get no food or water for two hours. Then small sips of water/Pedialyte

If they don't vomit after the liquid they can eat a few bites of BRAT (banana rice applesauce or toast) if they do, wait another hour or two and repeat.

If they're still vomitting after 6+ hours, depending on the child's age, we'll call the pediatrician and ask for advice.

If they're still not keeping even liquids down after 8+ hours (again depending on age) we take them to the ER after consulting with the pediatrician again. We've only had to do that once.

If at any time the child shows signs of dehydration we skip to the last step.

Source - have 5 kids.

Good process to keep in mind, thanks!

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