Stomach Flu Tips

Oh where to begin...  I am so sorry that I have not been writing recently.  We have been so busy with family in town and the holidays.  Then to add to the craziness we all came down with the stomach bug.  It was our first time dealing the stomach bug and type 1 diabetes.  I was so nervous.  It is so hard to keep your BG's in the right range when you are sick.  You have to have insulin to digest your food but then if you throw the food up then you have too much insulin in your body.  So then your BG is too low.  It is a roller Coaster Ride.  Up and down.  We did fantastic though or I should say my husband rocked it.  Here are some tips that helped us when dealing with a T1D child who has the stomach bug. (Please remember that we are not doctors and this should not replace your Endocrinologist advice.)

1. Sick Room:
All of us that were sick, Rose, James, and I, camped out together in the front room with the TV.  We put down a plastic table cloth and then laid blankets over it.  We slept there.  My husband sat in the rocking chair next to us for most of the night, running Rose back and forth from the Bathroom.

2. Soda and Soda Crackers:
Rose was in heaven.  She got to drink as much soda as she could while she was sick.  It was the easiest way for us to get carbs into her and even though she throw most of it up it kept her BG above 130.  So here is how we did the soda.  After Rose throw up she would sit at our table.  She would drink about 4 oz of regular cola and then sip on some diet lemon lime soda.  She had to completely drink the cola but the lemon lime soda was completely optional.  Rose also had to eat at least three soda crackers.  Rose was still getting her basal insulin through her pump, but we did not dose her for her food or soda.  We didn't know how many carbs her body would actually digest before she would throw it up, so we just figured we would correct her if she was too high in a couple hours.

3. Keytones:
We tested Rose's keytones every time she went pee.  If her keytones were to get too high we have to increase her insulin to get rid of the keytones.  Luckily her keytones were trace and we were able to keep them that way through out the entire sickness.

4. Pro-Biotics:
We take a pro-biotic daily but when we are sick we take them twice a day.  I truly believe this helps us get over being sick faster.  So funny story. I had to take James into the pediatrician because he didn't have a wet diaper in over 18 hours.  Well they told me that there wasn't much they could do but that a pro-biotic would help him.  Thank you Doc, but we are already on Pro-biotics.

Overall the sickness for Rose lasted less than 24 hours.  James got the worst of it.  He was sick for six days.  Poor thing has lost four pounds in 3 months.  All he wanted to do was nurse.  I am so glad that I haven't stopped nursing him yet.  I always thought I would stop nursing my kiddos at one but to me, James is still a baby and I couldn't take it away from him.

We are on the mend from the stomach flu but now I have a wicked cold and Rose has pink eye. (Can you tell in the picture above?)  Yeah I don't know how we are going to not all have pink eye by the end of the week.  How do you get a three year old not to scratch her eye and then not touch anything? Plus it is one more thing I have to remind her about.  Poor Rose I am always nagging her, "Put your heels down!", "Stop chewing on your tubing!", "No, you can't eat that!", and now "Don't touch anything!".  Poor thing.