Winter Vomiting Sickness

When I took Lilli to daycare on Monday, one of her teachers told me that they had the Winter Vomiting Sickness. One of the instructors and about half of the kids were out with it. My first instinct was to scoop Lilli up and turn around and walk out. Oh, if only I had listened to my instinct...

I had heard tales of Sweden's Winter Vomiting Sickness. It is awful. Nonstop vomiting for days and days, and it's very contagious. We managed to avoid it last year.

Thursday night Tipton started coughing. He coughed all night in his sleep. Friday he was still coughing, but went to school anyway. By Friday evening his cough was much, much worse. Saturday morning we kept him home from Judo and had a nice restful day of playing video games. By Saturday afternoon he was hardly coughing at all, so we went ahead with our dinner plans.

We went over to a friends house for dinner. Tipton got to play with his friend and Dave and I got to have some grown up company and conversation. Lilli split her time between Tipton and me. Lilli didn't eat any dinner, but then she had been snacking on chips all evening. I figured she had just filled up on chips, and was too distracted by being somewhere different. The kids all stayed up way past their bedtime. Lilli finally passed out on the couch. Litteraly. At one point she sat up and asked for some milk. I told her it was on the table. She sat there, swaying visibly, contemplating whether it was worth the effort to get up. Then she threw her arms up and flopped backwards and passed out.

She slept on their lovely leather couch. We grownups were either in the kitchen clearing away the last of the dishes or helping the kids put away some of the toys when Lilli cried out. I figured she had just woken up and was alone in a strange room. Oh no. She had woken up, alone, in a strange room. But I think the reason she'd cried out was because she had just thrown up. All over our friends lovely leather couch. I felt awful. Awful that Lilli was sick. Awful that she'd thrown up on their couch. Awful that we had brought a sickness into their house.

Fortunately I had brought a change of clothes for Lilli. I got her cleaned up and my friends got their couch cleaned up. I sat and held Lilli and she drifted back to sleep. We stayed longer, continuing our visit. Then Lilli got sick again. I managed to get up off the couch and off the rug before she threw up (but not quite all the way to the bathroom.) We took this as our cue to leave and started getting Tipton prepared to leave "Just five more minutes" we told him. Then Lilli threw up again. This time I managed to get her into the bathroom.

My friend had told us of an over the counter medicine that we could get at the Apoteket (drug store) that would help replace all the minerals, etc that she was losing. We should give it to her a spoonfull at a time to keep her hydrated.

We'd barely made it out of their neighborhood when both kids fell sound asleep. So we decided to drive straight to the Apoteket (before they closed.) We then stopped by a gas station and got some gatorade-type drink. We made it home just in time for Lilli to throw up again.

Dave and I decided that Lilli would sleep with me in our bed and he would sleep on the couch in the living room. We gave Lilli a few droppers of the gatorade and she went right to sleep. About an hour and a half later she threw it up. About three and a half hours later she was up asking for milk. I gave her another dropper of the gatorade. And a little bit of water. She wanted more water, and even though I knew she shouldn't have too much too soon, I gave her some more. Not a whole lot, just another couple of tablespoons. She had to go potty. I sat her on the potty and she got sick again (from both ends, shall we say.) Poor little thing. Dave got her some new jammies and I got her rinsed off in the tub.

She wanted more water. We gave her another dropper of gatorade and a tiny bit of water. And I watched her for about an hour before falling asleep. She was up about two hours later asking for more water. I gave her another dropper of gatorade and another tiny bit of water. Then she was up for the day about an hour and a half later.

She has been asking for water and "blue stuff" (gatorade) all morning. We are letting her have a tiny bit every few minutes. So far (knock wood) she has managed to keep it down.

I hope the rest of us manage to avoid this. And that Lilli gets better quickly.