1 Year Old Keeps Getting Stomach Flu

Hi A.
Are you sure it is the stomach flu? Have other kids been as sick as him. It may be something else. If it truly is the stomach flu I would talk to the provider about her poilices and make sure she is disinfecting toys and not letting sick kids come. As for your son vomiting I would keep offering fluids and keep him on the BRAT diet for a few days to let his stomach settle back down. good luck I hope he feels better soon.

A., I'm not sure what to say about your son getting sick so often, except I think the other responder had some good points about the cleanliness of the daycare. My kids don't get sick very often, but I have heard of the BRAT diet. Had to look up what the acronym stood for, and thought I'd share with you. It stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. These are the foods that should help settle his stomache when he is sick. Wikipedia has a nice entry about it, and probably lots of other places as well. Good luck!

Hi A.,

You may already have more advice than you can manage! But I'll add my two cents. First, I agree with the suggestions for improving your child's intestinal flora (good bacteria). Especially if he has had to take antibiotics for ear infections or other health issues, his health will benefit from introducing probiotics. Lactobacillus, acidophillus, yogurt... all those are great suggestions. I would stay away from those over-the-counter medicines like Pedialyte. They have some yucky ingredients, and they do nothing to address the underlying issues.

If there's a repetitive situation, the healthy bacteria in the digestive tract have probably been compromised. He can't fight things off, so it keeps coming back.

At your local natural foods store, you can get a chewable acidophillus pill for kids that helps. My kids call them "tummy" pills and they really like them.

I am a nutrition consultant, and I have some things you could consider as well. One is a drinkable probiotic and the other is a drinkable aloe juice, which comes in several yummy flavors. Aloe is healing to the digestive tract (the same way topical aloe is healing to the skin), and it also improves the immune system.

Here's how to find information and/or order these:
Children's Probiotics
1. Go to www.newvitalitywellness.com.
2. Click the Children's Health link.
3. Click the Might-a-Mins Spectrum Probiotics link.

Drinkable Aloe
1. Go to www.newvitalitywellness.com.
2. Click the Digestive Health link.
3. Scroll down and click the Ultimate Aloe link. There you can see the available flavors, etc.

Aloe juice is great for anyone with digestive issues of any kind, including reflux, IBS, Crohns, constipation, etc. FYI, you can find aloe juice over the counter too, but in my experience those taste really awful. Ultimate Aloe juice is quite tasty. My kids like it.

Hope this helps!

--J.

A.,
I remember those days! The tension between the boys getting sick and working and feeling as if I wasn't doing everything right. I was praying for something to help my family with their health and I found Reliv.

It has given us such great health, we no longer are known at our doctors office. Also, my sons fight off nearly everything that comes their way. I am forever grateful to the lady who introduced me to these life changing products.

I can introduce you to her if you like. Just e:mail me at ____@____.com.

Blessings, H.

Oh my gosh, this happened to our son a couple of years ago right around his first birthday. He had the stomach flu four times in two months for about a week each time. My mom works in a pharmacy and they recommended Florajen. It puts the good bacteria back into your stomach. Its like eating a ton of yogurt. His pediatrician said he could have about three a day. Its a capsule and I would open it up and put it in his applesauce, bottle or whatever was the easiest. Its flavorless, so it never bothered him.
Our family continues to take it pretty regularly, especially when sicknesses are going around. Its over-the-counter but you have to ask for it because it needs to be refrigerated.

that's so frustrating - i'm sorry to hear that! I know my daughter got the stomach flu and on day 6 she was still throwing up food and the ER gave her anti-vomiting medicine. If your little guy is repeatedly getting this, their body is being depleted. I would ask for anti-vomiting meds - even temporaily to keep some nutrients in your little guy. God bless you all - i hope this works... I do want to mention it made my daughter very sleepy & she just watched the world go by while she was on it - but i think some of that was due to being sick & the meds just magnified it. But didn't notice any other effects...

A couple of websites on "stomach flu".
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/gastro/faq.htm fromthe CDC
and
http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/sick/stomach_flu.html from KidsHealth (kid friendly - or tired mom - version with hints to what to do)

Hi A. - sorry to hear about your son. I have an in-home daycare and was wondering what kind of policies your daycare has. Personally I do not allow children to come back to my home if they have vomited, had a fever or had diarrhea (any of the 3) within the last 24 hours, or is not able to participate in everyday daycare activities. And when I say 24 hours, I mean 24 hours. It usually irritates me when someone said their child got sick from daycare, but in your situation, it sounds like it could be the culprit. I would perhaps talk to your provider about the situation - I know it can be hard to do that sometimes, but if it were me I would want to know your concerns. I have even once closed my daycare one day so that I could open my windows, air it out and make sure the toys and everything were disinfected even more than usual. On a side note, the BRAT diet has always worked for my boys. Good luck.

My little guy was getting the stomach flu a bunch too, and it sure is frustrating! Especially when the doctor just says it takes awhile for these things to run their course--if buy awhile you mean nearly 3 weeks-ha! Anyway, one good thing she told me was that if you are trying to keep them hydrated with Pedialyte, a bunch of kids won't drink it because it is so salty! She said to try Propel Fitness Water and G2-Gatorade instead. I liked this suggestion because there are more flavors and they are less expensive and finicky about how quickly you have to use them! The one thing I don't like so much is that they have artificial sweetener in them, but so does Pedialyte, so I guess it is the lesser of 2 evils. Propel and G2 both have the kinds of salts and electrolytes you need for hydration. You may have been looking for longer term solutions, but I hadn't seen anyone speak to this yet. :)

Hi A. - Like a few others, I'd look into whether it truly is a stomach flu. Talk to your pediatrician about the pattern of sickness you've had, and maybe get more information about the other kids' symptoms too. I suspect either a food allergy or food poisoning is more likely if it's "going around" daycare so many times. The fact that you say he's in a good mood even when throwing up makes me think it's not a "flu" virus.

Either way, when my baby was vomiting and dehydrated, I was told by my doctor that the BRAT diet is not actually necessary to follow, but to let your kid's appetite be your guide, and that getting back to eating "normally" is the best thing to do. So offer whatever made him happy before, and see what he's willing to eat/drink. Good luck!

The first time my son ate peanuts, he vomited for hours and I thought it was the stomach flu. After a couple of times I caught onto the pattern and found out that he is very allergic to peanuts. Since the flu is going around in his daycare it's probably just the flu, but I thought I'd write this just in case.

Go to the pharmacy and request some lacto-baccilius. I think it has to be kept refridgerated, so it might not just be out on the shelf. Add a dash to yogurt and dose your toddler with this daily. It will help restore the balance of good vs bad germs in their digestive system.