Stop Throwing Up – Episode 067

Stopping the stomach flu or food poisoning is a great skill to have as a mom — so that nausea and vomiting doesn’t continue well past a day. Here is the routine you follow to stop it quick!

This episode was inspired by my very popular post on the stomach flu — THOUSANDS of moms have been helped by that post!

Big thanks to our sponsor Family Routines. This is just one more routine I get into to make things easier and our family knows what to expect if they get sick.

In this episode we talk about reasons kids might throw up and the plan of care you should follow if you or a family member (especially a kid) once someone throws up.

Other things that might interest you

Sore Throat vs Strep

Pin Worms

Essential Oils for Warts

Bladder Infections

Ear Infections

Producer: Drew Erickson

Check out my other parenting podcasts:

Check out all my podcasts:

Transcript

[00:00:00.630] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on Episode 67, we’re talking about the stomach flu.

[00:00:06.900] – Hilary Erickson

I feel like it’s perfect for Thanksgiving, right? Anyway, these types of things often happen this type of year. So I thought it would be interesting to explore, even though it’s maybe not your favorite. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:28.060] – Hilary Erickson

Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast, I’m Hilary, your curly headed host on the podcast, where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting and home routines. I want you to know that there are no right answers for every family. And I find that simplifying my priorities is almost always the answer. It’s tangled just like my hair.

[00:00:52.930] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys, before we get into the puke… Wow, that sounds bad, could you leave me a review? Thanks!

[00:00:58.530] – Hilary Erickson

OK, so puke, right? So I’m going to give you the routine that you follow to make it go away. Right? And I have to say, I have a few friends that are deathly afraid of vomit, and I’m finding that it’s more and more normal. It’s not something I have. It’s not the bodily fluid that I am super grossed out by. So… If you are super afraid of vomit, you’re not alone. And obviously plenty of you are going to want to skip this episode.

[00:01:22.060] – Hilary Erickson

But it’s really helpful mom advice. And if you follow these, it really works.

[00:01:28.160] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of the Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by Family Routines, How to Automate Your Housewife Life. Ever wish life was more like you pictured it would be before you had kids? Being able to spend less time with the mundane tasks and more time teaching kids the fun and valuable life skills you know they need. Family Routines teaches families to simplify daily tasks into routines that help them feel more peace and joy.

[00:01:50.360] – Hilary Erickson

Save 15 percent with the coupon code untangled. You can find it at Pulling Curls dot com in the menu under courses or in this episode show notes.

[00:02:01.590] – Hilary Erickson

OK, so I don’t know if you guys knew I worked for a pediatrician right when I got my LPN in Utah, I was still in nursing school. But you could work as a nurse that last year. And it was an awesome job. And I learned tons about phone triage and just helping specific things. So my blog has stuff on like ear infections. And man, that job has helped me out more as a mom than probably anything else. It was a great job.

[00:02:24.570] – Hilary Erickson

I mean, the job wasn’t that great, but it was a good job for a future mom. So with throw-up. Your kid throws up, Okay? I know, the worst. First off, you need to kind of decide why. Now, there’s usually like kind of three basic reasons that a kid throws up. Well, I guess four. One, stomach flu. So they got a virus. Two, food poisoning. So they ate something that they shouldn’t have. Three, mucus.

[00:02:45.750] – Hilary Erickson

A lot of times when kids and even adults, you know, if you have a really bad cold where you just have a lot of phlegm and stuff that you’re swallowing, your stomach just starts to get irritated. It’s not used to that or it’s not like meant to be a big trap of that. So sometimes that can make you throw up. Also, if kids get crazy, like they get too excited, they get too jumpy or something like that, they might throw up.

[00:03:05.490] – Hilary Erickson

So with those reasons, it might be a little bit different, like the last two mucus and just kind of craziness. With the second one. I would definitely watch them and I would probably stick to this for the first couple of hours. And then if they seem fine, then I would probably just return to regular life. OK, so your kid throws up, you’ve decided it is either stomach flu or something they ate. The first thing you do is absolutely nothing by mouth for the first hour.

[00:03:28.890] – Hilary Erickson

I know kids are like mom, it tastes so bad. Just, you know, put on a movie, get them on the couch, put on an hour long movie and tell them they can have something when that movie is done, done, done. Not like stopped it on Netflix, like the movie is done. And take a note of what time it is and when they can have something. After that hour you start them on clear liquids. Now, clear liquids are something that you can see through.

[00:03:50.550] – Hilary Erickson

So the ones that I mostly use are Gatorade. You can half and half Gatorade if you don’t like your kids having that much sugar and grossness. A lot of times I do that. Sometimes Gatorade is pretty strong. I think, especially if you don’t let your kids have it frequently, you do Pedialyte with little kids I used to carry or I used to have in my freezer just some Pedialyte popsicles because I don’t really like the taste of Pedialyte. I don’t know if any of you guys have tasted it, especially the clear one.

[00:04:13.590] – Hilary Erickson

Pretty gross. Now, if your baby is less than one, then I would call your doctor and just kind of see. You can still breastfeed and that kind of stuff. So this mostly applies to kids that are over one. But if your kid’s under one, I usually they say that clear Pedialyte, which is so gross, usually babies won’t take it. So you can still try and breastfeed. If they keep throwing that up, though, then I would probably call your doctor because, you know, those tiny babies can get dehydrated pretty quickly.

[00:04:35.490] – Hilary Erickson

OK, so back to over one thrown up Pedialyte, Gatorade. I like ginger ale. I keep a case of ginger ale in my fridge that my kids know nobody gets into. It’s just there for the pukers. But I like to get a lot of the fizz out of it because I think the fizz can cause hoarseness. I’m not a big carbonation fan and I guess if your kids have a lot of carbonation, it wouldn’t bother them. But I hate it, the carbonation when I’m not feeling well.

[00:04:57.990] – Hilary Erickson

So the way to get carbonation out of the soda is just pour a cup to cup for a little bit. So we do that. You can also use apple juice and that’s about it. I wouldn’t use orange juice. Grape juice. You don’t want anything that’s really going to hurt if it comes back up. So those are the things that I normally use. You could use sprite too. But again, I would take the carbonation out of it. OK, you can also do a popsicle. Side note.

[00:05:17.190] – Hilary Erickson

If your kids just aren’t feeling that well, and I wouldn’t push them to eat clear liquids right away. If their stomach is sour and they’re not wanting anything, then I… I just let them hang out usually about six hours after they’ve thrown up. If it’s during the day, I will try and get them to drink a little something because we would like to, you know, avoid dehydration. But the idea behind this is letting the stomach rest after it’s been upset so that it can heal and then you can move on with your life, because if you keep giving your kids water right after they throw it up, they’re just going to throw it up again because the stomach doesn’t have any time to, like, chill it’s jets.

[00:05:49.170] – Hilary Erickson

You know? So… OK, so you’ve done an hour with nothing and then for twelve hours you do just clear liquids. And often, you know, this includes hours of sleep, hopefully. And then after that you turn to the brat diet, which is bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast. Basically it’s white food. So you could do noodles with no sauce, no butter, no parmesan cheese. You can do saltines.

[00:06:09.570] – Hilary Erickson

That’s what I kind of use for toast, although you could do white toast. But again, no butter you’re looking for no fats, you’re looking for straight carbohydrates. Applesauce is a great one. Bananas are a great one. The good thing about bananas is if they’re having diarrhea, as well, the bananas will kind of help to stop that. So that’s awesome, too. And I stay on the brat diet, then for another twelve hours. So you’ve got to be… Basically twenty four hours from the vomit.

[00:06:28.530] – Hilary Erickson

You’re sticking to an odd diet. After those twenty four hours they can kind of return to regular diet if they’re feeling OK. Usually twenty four hours after you’ve had the stomach flu you are feeling ok. You of course want to watch for signs of dehydration. Now honestly most people wouldn’t get dehydrated if they didn’t drink all day. They would get dehydrated, but not dangerously dehydrated. So things you want to watch for is tears, mucous membranes, meaning like the things your mouth, you know, still wet.

[00:06:51.720] – Hilary Erickson

You’re seeing moist when… On their tongue and in the crevices of their mouth. That sounds kind of weird, but yeah. So you’re just looking for water in parts of their body. And honestly, 24 hours is OK. Now, if we had past 24 hours, then you might want to talk with your doctor, but honestly, if you follow this, it really helps your GI tract get time to heal. Now, you might get our friend diarrhea after that, and then that is a whole other bag of chips.

[00:07:12.440] – Hilary Erickson

But if they’re still having diarrhea, I would try and stick pretty close to that Brat diet because it also will help CARGILE those stools so that they’re not as bad. Hopefully everybody made it through that. We’ll see if people like this one. We’ll see what the stats look like. But honestly, it’s stuff like this that really can make parenting easier if you kind of have policies and procedures that you follow. Hope you like this episode, I guess, we’ll find out!

[00:07:32.870] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope we help smooth out a few of the snarls in your life. We drop an episode every Monday and we always appreciate it when you guys share and review until next time. We hope you have a tangle free day!