Comment from: Lorraine Street, 25-34 Female (Patient)Published: April 14
Rotavirus just ran through my family. My 4-year-old daughter picked it up first while we were on our last day of vacation. She had to ride the three-hour flight back home with it, and it was the worst thing in the world. The entire night before we left, she either vomited or dry heaved at least every 15 minutes. It was uncontrollable. Then at the airport, she picked up the diarrhea along with the vomiting. It lasted two days with her. By the second day, she was taking liquids. Then I picked it up the next day. I ended up in the hospital because I felt the dehydration was going to make me pass out. All I can say is: Don't hesitate to check yourself in at the hospital. After four hours with IV fluids and anti-nausea meds, I was 90% better than when I walked into the place. My son is now fighting it. This stuff is no joke!
Comment from: RotaHater, 25-34 Male (Patient)Published: March 31
Rotavirus is extremely horrible! It has gone through our family four or five times over the last seven years. I have it now. I'm on my third day with it. For us, it hits like a ton of bricks and puts you on the bathroom floor with watery vomit and diarrhea that doesn't seem as if it will ever end accompanied by the worst sick, flu-like feeling you could imagine. It's very traumatic. If this is your first time with it, the first eight to 12 hours are the worst, gradually getting better as the hours go by. The next day or two are just cramping, soreness, and fatigue, but not so much the flu-like feeling. This time I spent about 12 miserable hours on the bathroom floor. The kids usually get hospitalized for a day or two for dehydration. This stuff is extremely contagious. The white can of Lysol says on the back that it kills rotavirus. Good luck, it will pass. Stay hydrated, and go get an IV at a hospital if needed. I'm not a doctor, so this is not professional advice, just my experience; yours may be different.
Comment from: bayly'smom, 0-2 Female (Caregiver)Published: March 25
My 18-month-old son is still recovering from rotavirus. It started with vomiting during the night. He vomited more than 15 times in the course of only five hours. Then the diarrhea began. I took him to the emergency room as per our pediatrician, and they hooked him up to an IV for dehydration. After three hours, they sent us home. Once home, he was unable to keep anything down and the diarrhea only got worse. The next morning, he woke with a high fever, and we were back to the ER. He was extremely lethargic and wanted to sleep all the time. I held him in the ER for more than seven hours before they finally admitted him to the hospital. He was hooked up to an IV again. They tested his stool, and he was diagnosed with rotavirus by the next day. He was finally able to keep liquids down, and then we slowly started him on the BRAT diet. By the fourth day in the hospital, he finally had a firm stool and was permitted to go home. This was a very traumatic experience for me as a mother to watch my small child experience. We never had quite an experience like this with our older son who is 5. It has been two weeks since this all started, and he is still on a restricted diet. He has not tolerated milk. As I have researched more about this virus, I find it important to share with others to keep milk and apple juice out of their diet. I had no idea about the “no apple juice rule,” and I have been giving it to him since we have been home. This has been very frustrating trying to figure out what to feed him and let him drink without giving him a relapse of the diarrhea. I made homemade chicken soup and that has been good.
Comment from: Ohvultura, 0-2 Female (Caregiver)Published: April 15
Rotavirus is highly contagious. Both of my children started vomiting in the night and then getting watery diarrhea whenever they drank anything (even just a sip of water). My 20-month-old's ended after three days (but we took her to the doctor who gave her anti-diarrheal meds), and she was weak for a few days after that. My 4-year-old is on day four now and still has that obnoxious smelly, watery diarrhea with the round white "wheels" in it. This is truly the virus from hell! I have never cleaned up such a mess nor seen kids suffer with a "stomach bug" as long as this. I'm just wondering why the vaccine was never given!
Comment from: dmom07, 19-24 Female (Caregiver)Published: April 06
My son is 22 months old and has had diarrhea since Monday. By Tuesday he was having 5+ watery stools a day! He hasn't wanted to eat, but wanted to drink everything in sight! We are now at Friday and last night he vomited the small amount of water he drank and then did the same this morning. When I went to get him out of his chair he held his hand up to grab mine and his hand was shaking. His legs were wobbly and he just hasn't looked well for a couple days. I did take him to urgent care Tuesday evening and they said that it was probably just a viral thing and he should get past it. But with his episode this morning I took him back and they had to do IV fluids because he was so dehydrated, which for us moms is probably one of the scariest things to watch! If I had known anything about this I would have asked them to test him on Tuesday but I had no clue. I never even heard of it! So tell all your friends that have kids if they have these symptoms to go to the doctor and ask about rotavirus! It is not the virus that's life threatening. It is the dehydration that comes with it! And my son's doctor said no Gatorade it has too much sugar. Pedialyte is best in small amounts!
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Abdominal pain is pain in the belly and can be acute or chronic. Causes include inflammation, distention of an organ, and loss of the blood supply to an organ. Abdominal pain can reflect a major problem with one of the organs in the abdomen such as the appendix, gallbladder, large and small intestine, pancreas, liver, colon, duodenum, and spleen.
Gastroenteritis (viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu) is an infection caused by a variety of viruses that results in vomiting and/or diarrhea. Even though it is often called the "stomach flu," it is not caused by the influenza viruses. Viruses that can cause gastroenteritis (stomach flu) include: rotaviruses, adenoviruses, caliciviruses, astroviruses, Norwalk virus, and a group of Noroviruses. Gastroenteritis is not caused by bacteria. The main symptoms of gastroenteritis include vomiting and watery diarrhea, however, headache, fever, and abdominal cramps (stomach ache) may also be present.
Diarrhea is a change is the frequency and looseness of bowel movements. Cramping, abdominal pain, and the sensation of rectal urgency are all symptoms of diarrhea. Absorbents and anti-motility medications are used to treat diarrhea.
Dehydration is the excessive loss of body water. There are a number of causes of dehydration including heat exposure, prolonged vigorous exercise, and some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. The best way to treat dehydration is to prevent it from occurring.
Intussusception is the telescoping (prolapse) of a portion of the intestine within another immediately adjacent portion of intestine. Intussusception affects children between the ages of 3 months and 6 years of age. The causes of intussusception is not clearly understood. Symptoms of intussusception include bilious vomiting, "currant jelly stool," and colicky abdominal pain. Intussusception is an emergency requires immediate attention.
Reye's syndrome (RS, or Reye syndrome) is a sudden, sometimes fatal, disease of the brain with degeneration of the liver. Reye syndrome occurs in children and comes after the chickenpox or an influenza-type illness, is also associated with taking medications containing aspirin. Symptoms include vomiting, listlessness, irritability or combativeness, confusion, delirium, delusions, convulsions, and loss of consciousness. Treatment depends on early diagnosis and focuses on protecting the brain against irreversible damage by reducing brain swelling, reversing the metabolic injury, preventing complications in the lungs, and anticipating cardiac arrest.
Diarrhea
is an increase in the frequency of bowel movements or a decrease in the form
of stool (greater looseness of stool). Although changes in frequency of
bowel movements and looseness of stools can vary independently of each other,
changes often occur in both.
Diarrhea needs to be distinguished from four other conditions. Although these conditions may accompany
diarrhea, they often have different causes and different treatments than
diarrhea. These other conditions are:
incontinence of stool, which is the inability to
control (delay) bowel movements until an appropriate time, for example, until one can
get to the toilet
rectal urgency, which is a sudden urge to have a
bowel movement that is so strong that if a toilet is not immediately available
there will be incontinence
If you think you have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.
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Rotavirus just ran through my family. My 4-year-old daughter picked it up first while we were on our last day of vacation. She had to ride the three-hour flight back home with it, and it was the worst thing in the world. The entire night before we left, she either vomited or dry heaved at least every 15 minutes. It was uncontrollable. Then at the airport, she picked up the diarrhea along with the vomiting. It lasted two days with her. By the second day, she was taking liquids. Then I picked it up the next day. I ended up in the hospital because I felt the dehydration was going to make me pass out. All I can say is: Don't hesitate to check yourself in at the hospital. After four hours with IV fluids and anti-nausea meds, I was 90% better than when I walked into the place. My son is now fighting it. This stuff is no joke!
Related Reading: Rotavirus | diarrhea | dehydration