Sorry for the crickets lately, but we have been on the mend over here... First, Kurt came down with a seriously runny nose and then Kris got the stomach bug. I am not one to go crazy about germs, I actually think it is good for the immune system, but I don't mess around when it comes to a stomach bug. I went into serious clean freak mode and have the chapped hands to prove it. I think we fared pretty well, luckily it's been a full two weeks and neither Kurt or I caught it, which I think is pretty good considering Kris and I shared a glass of wine an hour before it started and Kurt was laying in bed with him 5 minutes before. (I do realize that actually writing this may totally jinx me) Anyway here are some tips that I picked up...
1.
Grape Juice: Have any of you seen the whole Grape Juice thing on pinterest? Well I pinned it a few months ago and sure enough found my self frantically scrolling through my boards when it struck. I didn't have Welsh's 100% Grape Juice (which actually makes me want to vomit when I drink it, I'm not a juice person and have a hard time stomaching it) but I did have
Honest Kids Grape Juice on hand which both Kurt and I had.
2.
Essential Oils: Ok, I plan on doing a whole post on essential oils soon because I am big believer and there is so much info. In the meantime, this is what I did specifically for this situation. Kris started getting sick at around 10 pm. At that point I moved to the couch and Kurt to his room, all three rooms had a diffuser with
thieves in it. I also directly rubbed
thieves on all of our feet. I put one drop of
oregano oil on my tongue about three times throughout the night when I would wake up to check on Kris.
Oregano oil is not suitable for children and is really, really strong so just I did this. I also added
peppermint to Kris' diffuser because it soothes the stomach and diluted it and rubbed it on his belly. I did the same with
frankincense as well. I think this helped, he only threw up once after I started the oils on his belly, which is pretty good considering that I have heard this go around of the bug has been pretty violent. I kept up with the thieves on all three of us... diffusers and applying it to the feet. Kris also had a fever so I rubbed
lavender on his chest and neck.
Please note: Do some research before using essential oils on yourself or your family, some people have sensitivities and only a few are suitable for use on children. Also, I only use young living brand of essential oils, they are they only ones that I know of that are pure enough to ingest.
3.
Quarantine: I completely quarantined Kris from the rest of us. He was not allowed to leave the bedroom for two days. And when he finally was able to get up and out of the house, I went crazy in there disinfecting. I read that bleach is the only thing that will actually kill norovirus (stomach bug) so I used Clorox Clean-up and Lysol on everything!!! Disinfecting wipes won't kill the virus so I wouldn't use that. I actually never use bleach to clean, it is way to harmful of a chemical however... desperate times = desperate measures. I disinfected the whole house this way to be extra careful and opened doors and windows to air it all out. Plus I was extra careful to do this when Kurt was sleeping so he didn't come into contact with any of the chemicals.
4.
Wash up: Wash your hands with soap and water like crazy and do not touch your mouth or eyes. This is pretty difficult with a toddler so make sure you wash your little one's hands as well. I even found this cute Mickey soap to make it a little more fun for him, even though anything involving water is fun for him.
5.
Laundry: I washed everything with hot water for a few days and kept all of Kris' laundry separate. (Especially underwear or anything that was soiled from vomit... I know, gross!) I completely stripped the bed and washed everything with very hot water and sprayed the mattress with Lysol and I always have a mixture of thieves and water in a spray bottle that I sprayed all over as well.
Hope you are all feeling well and that you don't have to resort to these tips at all.
