Tuesday 17 July 2012

Stomach Flu - How To Deal With It

Everytime the kids come down with a bout of this, I panic and forget what I need to do to help them get through it.

So I'm writing it down for my future reference!

- They get stomach cramps, especially after eating, because the food can't digest.

- They can't eat or drink anything, at least at the beginning. So small amounts of easily digestible food, like noodles with soup (all cut up), cereal, porridge, maggi chicken, OR dry food like crackers, Japanese rice crackers, toast (white bread) with butter & jam. Meat like chicken should be ok, but gotta mash it up so digesting is easy.

- If having diahorrea, avoid dairy products like milk, yogurt and formula, though cheese and vitagen seems to be ok. Go figure.

- Remember to use BRAT (Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, Toast) for Day 1 at least, then try the regular food for remaining days so they don't get malnourished.  

- Within Day 1 - 3, even if they are hungry, you should feed moderately. Maybe half to 3-quarters their usual food intake. Don't let them wolf down the food or that bottle of Vitagen. It is likely to come up again.

- Hydrate them! But give little sips of water at a time, but often. Wolfing it down will make them puke again.

- Let them drink porridge water if they're willing to take it. Or barley water.

If there's any more that I remember, I will continue to update.

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