The ultimate guide to not getting gastro from your kids

This guide is specifically aimed at the most severe emetophobes, of which I am one. You may think, reading it, that I am a little crazy, a little extreme in my way of proceeding, and that at this level I have to consult a professional. Rest assured (if you were worried), it is included in the program.

Know that emetophobia, or the fear of vomiting, is a well-received condition that can quickly cause anyone facing their greatest fear to lose control. Imagine, if you are terrified of spiders, having to reach for a bucket full of tarantulas. For the emetophobe it is more or less the same, except that the spider is gastric content.

Having made this clarification, let’s move on to the next step: overcoming the fear of throwing up, despite having the good idea of ​​having children, alias the largest producers of microbes in the world.

Yes, because avoiding getting this rotten virus when you are outdoors isn’t too complicated. But avoiding having it when you host it for free at home and it’s absolutely everywhere is harder!

By the way, even if you’re not emetophobic, but don’t want to spend 3 days on the toilet bending over while emptying all over the place, this guide can help you too!

Avoid gastro: be careful, first

The first step in preventing your kids from getting gastro is to try and make sure they don’t get it on their own. Well, most of the time it is a waste of time, especially with children in kindergarten or with children who are still too young to understand how microbes work, but if you can wash your hands with soap and watersystematically upon returning home, he can already avoid some inconvenience.

For older kids, try to remind them that microbes love to cling to little miminos, which is why they need to be washed before eating in the cafeteria, for example. All without traumatizing them even with “wash your hands often, if you don’t want to throw up for a week, you can’t say I didn’t tell you!” “This will only help develop their hypochondria, and it’s not the best thing in the world, believe me.

For your part, even if a viral gastroenteritis is not contagious as long as there are no symptoms, avoid tempting the devil by finishing your children’s dishes, or forgetting to wash your hands after changing a diaper.

For those who have no children, who do not live in a cave deep in the Larzac and who are forced to endure others during transport, also wash your hands when you get off the bus or subwayand wash them before putting anything in your mouth except genitals.

Avoid gastro: face the beast, during

Despite your best efforts and those of your children, bam, it’s a tragedy, the youngest wakes up screaming at 3am because he threw up all his dinner in his bed. Beyond the amazement and the overwhelming urge to lock yourself in a room in a fetal position with your hands over your ears in total denial, you will need to clean the screaming baby and take care of it.

If you are lucky enough to have a co-parent who is not afraid of the sight and smell of what has just come out of your heir’s stomach, let me take care of the heavy part of cleaning, and mind the rest, that is to wear an FFP2 mask (yes) to avoid inhaling droplets of vomit that could enter your body and escape the smell a little, and to find clean clothes to change the baby. You can also wear gloves if that reassures you.

Is the baby clean, even his sheets, there is no more visible vomit and you still have the mask on your nose? It’s time to disinfect the crime scene, with the products provided for this purpose. Be careful the same with the composition of the products in question and with respect the conditions of use, shouldn’t even poison the baby. So, wash your hands, change your clothes and get ready for the next few days: contagion alert launchedtatatataaaa (to be read in a dramatic voice).

Avoid gastro: take control, later

Step 1: acceptance

As a matter of fact, we have to accept it now that it’s there: gastro has arrived at your house, in your home. You will probably want, as a good emetophobe, to pack your bags and get a hotel room for the next 3 days. How do I understand you! Frankly, if you make it, bench, roll young, go hide as the storm passes. If not possible for X Where is it there reasons, wait there, you’ll get there. You will be able to pass!

I don’t know if it’s thanks to silly techniques I’m about to tell you, but personally, So far I have managed to escape all the gastroesistences of my children (I feel like I’m going down the drain writing this). Yet there were! In my daughter’s first year of nursery school alone, Nab Five succeeded in just 6 months. For my part, I had nothing, while my boyfriend, who did not follow protocol to the letter, had everything.

Phase 2: disinfection

To avoid contracting this disease from hell, all judgments must be expressed. Those who will tell you that you are crazy to do all this, do not listen to them and do as you wish, if it seems to you the safest way to get over the drops. For me, this is what I do:

• I wash myself systematically hands with hydroalcoholic gel or with soap and water as long as you touch the baby, or a common surface (switch, doorknob), or change the diaper.
• I disinfected all surfaces touched by the baby whenever he goes away for a while, when he sleeps for a nap or at night for example.
• I wash the floor every nightif my baby is sick on all fours.
• I try to separate the children a little, that do not touch. Because you know what’s worse than a sick child? Both of which are, at the same time.
• I no longer touch my face with my hands for the whole period of the infection, even to scratch me. I’ve developed some pretty skilled scratching techniques over the years!
• I change clothes oftengenerally whenever the baby is in bed for the night or for a nap, and me clean the glass of my phone.
• All the towels, towelsthey are changed daily and washed at 60 degrees.
• designo a “safe” area. of the house where the sick child no longer has the right to put a paw, such as my room. The fact ofto have a place that hasn’t been hit by this damn virus it reassures me, and I can rest there (in clean clothes) during the baby’s quiet times.
• I air the rooms at home, several times a day, even in winter, it kills germs!
• I do not don’t share my table stufflike my napkin or my cutlery.
• If the older child is ill, I. systematically disinfects the toilet seat and bowlas well as the sink where he washes his hands after each visit.
• I always wear a mask when I play with the sick child and our faces are close together, or if I carry my sick child in my arms, to prevent him from putting his germ-filled mothers in my mouth, or drooling on me / spitting on my head.

That’s it, and it’s not bad enough. Apart from that, parallel I begin, or continue, a course of probiotics to help my gut flora not be knocked out by this damn virus, and I’m stocking up on it vitamins to strengthen my body.

This “protocol” lasts until the end of the infectiousness of the child, that is about 3 days after the last symptom. If in the meantime another member of my family catches this famous gastro, the protocol continues until the end of its contagiousness towards it.

Yes, it’s long, boring, and my hands look like they’re made of sandpaper to be washed 80,000 times a day, but it’s a system that works and allows me to keep my sanity a little bit.

For some, gastro is just a bad time to go by, some lousy days ruining plans. For others, like me, it is a truly terrifying timedistressing, which undermines my mental health.

This is also why I decided to start cognitive and behavioral therapy, to try to put an end to this permanent anxiety. With two children both in the community, episodes of viral gastroenteritis are frequent, I will have to be able to overcome it, for my well-being and that of my family.

I hope this guide will help you overcome upcoming outbreaks and don’t hesitate to make an appointment with a healthcare provider if your emetophobia is making your life too hellish.

Well and if not, when will there be a real adult gastro vaccine?

Photo credit image of one: Pixelshot