What a way to end LNO...

[gcvmom]

I got home from my monthly Ladies Night Out (LNO) a little while ago. Sat down to watch Letterman, when suddenly I hear this weird sound like cellophane crinkle... only it wasn't cellophane, it was difficult child 2 spewing forth the entire contents of his stomach on the bathroom floor. So now I'm sitting here trying to muster up the strength to go in there to clean it up -- and it is EV.REE.WHERE. Walls. Four feet up the door. Cabinet. Toilet. Tub. Floor. Ugh. I don't know WHAT got into him tonight. Nobody else got sick and they all ate the same thing. Maybe he didn't wash his hands well enough before eating something today.

I guess I'll have to re-dose his medications... I see all his pills sitting in the huge pink puddle...

It was one thing when they are little and they barf... but gosh, what an awful mess an almost-13yo stomach can make.

 

[Marguerite]

It makes a good case for Swedish-style bathrooms, the ones you can hose out and hose down. Lots of drains and smooth shiny walls that rinse down easily.

What a way to end your night out!

by the way, does David Letterman usually have that effect on people in your house? mother in law reacts to him badly, but I thought it was just her...

Marg

 

[GoingNorth]

If he got sick today it wasn't due to something he ate the same day. Likely it is norovirus (aka the vomiting virus). The sudden, violent vomiting is sort of diagnostic and is often followed by a nasty case of the runs.

It is spread by touching contaminated surfaces or eating contaminated foods. It likes confined places, too. That is why you so often hear about it on cruise ships and at casinos and the like.

Good handwashing is preventative, but there is no treatment beyond symptomatic. Many doctors will advise letting it run it's course while watching out for dehydration.

Unfortunately, odds're good the rest of you will catch it as well.

 

[Wiped Out]

You are a better person than I-I would have asked husband to do the cleaning or might have added to the mess! I hope he is feeling better soon. Hugs to you both.

 

[tiredmommy]

 

[smallworld]

YUCK!

I wouldn't have been able to clean up the mess either.

Hope you're not in for a long seige with the rest of the family.

 

[timer lady]

Ick.....ick....ick! I would have struggled with the clean up & I'm usually a strong person. I just gag at that stuff.

One night, when kt was about 7 years old, she came down to our bedroom & told us she didn't feel well. Yep, you guessed it, she proceeded to puke all over our bed (got it in my hair). She's covered in it & in tears, husband is freaking & I'm left to clean up the mess. An hour later (after 3 showers), change of sheets, we all climbed into our bed & fell dead asleep. Ick, ick, ick.

Just wanted to share the joy.

 

[gcvmom]

It took me over an hour to finish the job. But I was thorough and used a bleach solution to disinfect... at least now the bathroom's clean! I'm up now. Just dropped difficult child 1 off at zero period and checked on difficult child 1. No fever. He said he felt better after the purging... and he slept fine the rest of the night.

Most of his dinner was already digested into an unrecognizable state -- exept for a wee bit, and his medications from roughly 3 hours prior were still there.

Could a food allergy cause vomiting within 6 hours of eating the offending substance? He had frozen/pre-cooked shrimp with his pasta for dinner. (husband warmed it in boiling water). The last time he had a lot of shrimp was about a year ago at a seafood buffet and I remember he vomited later that evening as well.

Bizarre. I'll probably send him to school anyway since there's no fever and no vomiting since the incident.

 

[smallworld]

You should check with your pediatrician, who may refer you to an allergist.

 

[gcvmom]

Well nevermind about the suspected shrimp allergy -- he said he didn't have any with his pasta last night.

So maybe he just picked up a bug somewhere -- he's not very good at remembering to wash his hands before he eats every time.

Well, he was able to eat 1/2 a bagel and some apple juice this morning. Says his throat is sore, but I wonder if that's from the vomiting? Still no fever, so I'm sending him to school.

 

[totoro]

Notice it is always the Mom's that get this duty?
Actually husband is pretty good about cleaning up our cat's vomit. She is one of those fast eater's and then power puke... but it is never like the projectile vomit of a teen, sometimes it hits the ceiling!
That is how a lot of bathrooms are down here and in Mexico, like Marg said. I am an even bigger fan now.
I would love that!

You are a good woman!

 

[gcvmom]

I would LOVE to be able to just hose it all down into a drain in the floor! If we ever remodel this bathroom I'd seriously consider having a floor drain installed... AND a urinal! I was very serious about having one installed when we did our addition 10 years ago... but they are pretty expensive if I remember right.

 

[Marguerite]

You don't need a urinal, just teach the males to wipe up their spills. If they don't wupe up their spills, you take them by the hand gently, hand them the bleach and cloth (gloves if they're squeamish, but point out it came form tyheir bodies) and make them do it. husband too if he's a culprit. Or get husband to show the other household males, because a husband doing it is the best example to get the message across - a bloke cleaning up his splashes is not woman's work.

My sister used to have a roster for her boys to clean their bathroom once a week. It wasn't enough and I suspect they never cleaned around the toilet. The tiles there were orange (not meant to be). The floor was sticky under your bare feet, I would avoid going there. My sisters got cranky with me for my views on their boys' toilet habits (such as not shutting the door while they were in there; not putting the seat back down, etc) and said, "Just you wait until you have boys! You won't be so smug then!"
Well, I now have boys and both of them (and the girls) were trained to put the seat back down beforeflushing (it's a health thing - the contents of the toilet get stirred up and if you swab the ceiling you will find fecal coliforms in bathrooms where the lid isn't put down before flushing) and all the kids learned to keep the door shut on the toilet door except when actually going in or out.

It can be done. It's a lot cheaper to train the household, and your future daughters in law will bless you for it. I know mine does.

Marg

 

[Marg's Man]

You don't need a urinal, just teach the males to wipe up their spills.
<snip>
your future daughters in law will bless you for it. I know mine does.
Marg

I'll add two points here;
1. You don't WANT a urinal. As one who regularly uses them, they are THE most dreadful places for teaching bad habits. 'Nuff said - I'm not going into details but my sister in law's yellowed, sticky floors are the least of it!
2. Marg blesses her father in law because he taught me to put, not only the seat but the lid too down. I taught my sons, insisted on it in fact, and it has worked through the generations.

Get husband to help out if can. This is one area where a male role model is definitely best.

Marg's Man

 

[gcvmom]

Okay, points taken. Actually, it's a lot better than it was a few years ago. difficult child 1 tends to sit, regardless of what he needs to do. difficult child 2 has the less accurate aim, and Ido insist that he clean up afterwards. Progress!

 

[emotionallybankrupt]

Ick.....ick....ick! I would have struggled with the clean up & I'm usually a strong person. I just gag at that stuff.

One night, when kt was about 7 years old, she came down to our bedroom & told us she didn't feel well. Yep, you guessed it, she proceeded to puke all over our bed (got it in my hair). She's covered in it & in tears, husband is freaking & I'm left to clean up the mess. An hour later (after 3 showers), change of sheets, we all climbed into our bed & fell dead asleep. Ick, ick, ick.

Just wanted to share the joy.

Ah, yes. The joy indeed. Last year, my then 7 year-old did the same, except that the casualties included one of the dogs and my cell phone. It was hard to know where to start for damage control.... Good ole doggie was the most confused of all, though.

 

[Marguerite]

difficult child 2 has the less accurate aim

Something you can do for the bad aim - I've seen photos of public toilets that had a fly PRINTED on the porcelain, the blokes would idly aim to flush the fly down with the stream.

But there has been a product on the market here in Australia designed to toilet-train young boys. Part of the kit is something like a ping pong ball but in this case, it's wired for sound, if there are enough electrolytes near the ball (as you get when there is a sudden flow of urine nearby) it lights up with sound as well.

But you can do something simple - just get a red marker and colour in a ping pong ball with little targets all over it and teach the boys to try and flush it with their stream. When the toilet is flushed, the ball should not flush away as well.

At this time of the year in Australia we often get plagues of Bogong Moths. These are large for moths, dusty and brown with a brown geometric pattern on their wings. They migrate north for winter then back south to Mt Bogong in the Victorian Alps, to spend the summer months deep in their cool caves. Bogong Moths are prized bush tucker (although I'm not keen to try them). But they are so dusty! Sudney usually misses the plague, Canberra usually cops it. Australia's Parliament House is a large, well-lit earth-covered builsing right on the migration route for the moths, they have to dim the lights in migration season and even then, you get drifts of dead moths everywhere. Sprays dono't l=kill them because they are so dusty with wing scales that they are unwettable.

A lot of Aussie toilets have louvred windows and the moths get in at plague time. If the seat is left up on the toilet, the moths go in there (another reason we learned to leave the lid down!). it is very off-putting to sit on the toilet and startle the moths, because you then feel them fluttering against your bare behind!

But for the blokes - a bogong moth in the toilet bowl is a big challenge. Thes things are unflushable, I've gone to the loo and seen the toilet bowl full of moths; dropped the lid, flushed with an evil grin, lifted the lid and seen them take off from the surface of the water, completely dry.

If you want to try the "fly on the wall" (or toilet bowl) approach, get a fine brush and some black glass paint, and paint the fly just above the water line in the toilet bowl. Make sure the surface is dry, then leave it for another half hour or more to dry completely.

Once the toilet training is complete (say, when they get married and leave home) you can scrape the fly off.

Marg

 

[gcvmom]

Once the toilet training is complete (say, when they get married and leave home) ...

Oh, you ARE an optimist!!

 

[KTMom91]

There is no way I could have cleaned that up. I cannot handle yak. Doesn't matter if it's kid, dog, or cat yak...I just can't. When Miss KT feels the need to tell me yet again that I am not a warm, fuzzy, and cuddly mom, she reminds me of when she was 3, had a tummy ache, told me she was going to yak, and I said, "Run for the bathroom! Run! Run! Run!"

Kudos to your bravery in conquering the yak.

 

[gcvmom]

Well, it was either me, or hiring a cleaning crew, because if husband had tried, he'd only have contributed his own sizeable share to the mess. I guarantee none of my kids would attempt it, either. It will be interesting to see how they manage stuff as adults!