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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU in thinking if your child throws up in a store you leave afterwards

59 replies

cannotmakemymindup · 06/12/2017 23:21

Today we visited Ikea, whilst strolling through children's section, parents with a toddler are looking at items when their child promptly projectile vomits. They clean up the floor, myself and another lady get assistance from instore staff for them to.
They merrily carried on shopping after this with their asleep child now held in their arms. We kept bumping in to them whilst I kept rapidly walking away
I don't understand this, if that was me I would have abandoned my shopping trip and drove straight home, hoping my child stayed asleep the whole way home and wasn't ill again.
So AIBU in thinking they should have left instead of walking round with an ill child plus not washed themselves up (hands etc). Possibly spreading a sickness bug through the store?

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 07/12/2017 00:53

You're not going to catch something from being in the same building as a person who has thrown up, especially if you wash your hands before you eat etc.

Sorry but I don't understand why this would be stressful? I can understand being surprised or even judgemental about it but stressful? It is so unlikely to affect you.

MinervaVoss · 07/12/2017 00:54

I saw a similar thing last week. Young girl vomits outside a big shop and complains her tummy is sore. Mum doesnt even clean up the sick, just carries on into the store putting her dd in a trolley on the way in.

It is pretty grim and I would have to (and did) leave regardless of if the child had a bug or not.

Cavender · 07/12/2017 00:58

Really? One sick child in a huge store the size of Ikea and you were “stressed”?

Work on the basis that the parents know better than you why their child was sick.

You weren’t watching them the whole time, they could well have washed their hands/used wipes/used antibacterial gel.

At this time of year a proportion of everyone you meet in shops, at work, at your kids’ schools etc will be infectious without appearing to be ill.

The child wasn’t screaming. They weren’t distressed. They didn’t continue to vomit. You have no reason to complain at all.

RestingGrinchFace · 07/12/2017 01:08

Some children throw up really often.

Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 01:12

It stressed me because I wasn't just passing the area, when it happened had been browsing. I don't know whether their child had been playing with the toys, tables or anything else in the children's secteprior to being ill, so then im thinking has my Dd touched something their child had and accidentally put her hand bear her mouth etc. We had already eaten our dinner, washed hands so it wasn't a concern that way. Not sure i would have been able to stomach dinner after watching someone projectile vomit
I really just don't want us coming down with sickness bugs. They're not exactly fun. However we have all since washed hands and Antibac to.
Which after every shopping trip, before a meal out we generally do anyway as I agree their might be people with bugs around.

OP posts:
Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 01:13

*section

OP posts:
theftbyfinding · 07/12/2017 01:17

"Also the child wasn't instantly okay again. They were asleep the rest of the shopping trip." How the fuck do you know this?

Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 01:23

Because I was in the same section as them. Then we moved on to where you start picking up utensils etc working our way through getting the bits we needed and they were never far behind with a sleeping child. At the end, my DD needed the toilet, afterwards I return to till area - to find my husband and realise the mum is their holding the child still asleep waiting for her Oh to go through tills.

OP posts:
Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 01:25

Trust me, I wasn't looking to see them our entire shopping trip they just kept catching up.

OP posts:
Cavender · 07/12/2017 14:32

You didn’t know if their child had been playing with the toys. That’s true.

But if any one of the many children who play with those toys could have a bug, hand foot and mouth, nirovirus etc. and you’d never know.

If this stuff worries you to that extent just stop allowing your D.C. to play with the toys in any public place.

TonicAndTonic · 07/12/2017 14:42

It's a bit icky to not wash hands after cleaning up sick but tbh if you came down with a bug after that trip, you'd have no way of knowing if it was anything to do with that child. This time of year particularly there could be loads of customers in ikea spreading germs of all kinds!

Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 20:28

I think I will say I was being unreasonable in thinking they should leave the store. But a little bit more hygiene would have been better in the situation.

OP posts:
SylviaTietjens · 07/12/2017 20:33

Bit grim he didn’t clean himself up properly afterwards. If I had managed to convince myself to go to IKEA with both dh and dc’s though nothing on this earth would make me leave until I had purchased what I needed from the visit - plus eleventy million other things that looked incredibly useful on the way round.

StealthPolarBear · 07/12/2017 20:39

How are people so relaxed on this thread and so emphatic about the 48hour rule in schools and workplaces on every other thread?
The second reply on this thread was "kid could have been sick..." well obviously. Not seeing how that excuses it tbh but lots of people on this thread are downplaying it

StealthPolarBear · 07/12/2017 20:40

So if your kid is sick on Sunday night you must keep them off school Monday and Tuesday but feel free to take them Christmas shopping

StealthPolarBear · 07/12/2017 20:41

So if your kid is sick on Sunday night you must keep them off school Monday and Tuesday but feel free to take them Christmas shopping

Original poster
cannotmakemymindup · 07/12/2017 20:43

Thank you stealthpolarbear

OP posts:
SleepingStandingUp · 07/12/2017 21:19

I think some of us just kids who vomit without a bug and can tell the difference. I would do 48 hers for ill vomit but not other vomit

newnamechange84 · 07/12/2017 21:22

YABU. My eldest DS had severe reflux and used to constantly vomit. I used to frequent one cafe with him as they were so understanding but other than that we'd never have gone anywhere.

StealthPolarBear · 07/12/2017 21:26

Sleeping but there's just been a thread about school where the general consensus was yiu can be sure, yiu can never be too careful etc

SleepingStandingUp · 07/12/2017 21:40

I technically agree Stealth however if my child eats some food / has a feed then calmly vomits thin vomit , I clear it away and he is chilled, possibly asking for food , no temp and no other vomit I know it isn't a bug.

JonSnowsWife · 07/12/2017 21:50

It depends why. If it's an obvious noro type bug then of course YNBU.

However I have a DD who suffers from chest infections and she almost always clears her lungs by vomiting, it's just her body's way of dealing with it. DS does the same.

BertieBotts · 07/12/2017 22:00

School is a different situation, because a child goes into school, sits in very close proximity with other children, the teacher etc, they don't tend to pay attention to hygiene very well, share toilet facilities, probably touch hands and put hands in mouths, share food, etc.

It's not the same as being held by a parent in a shop, not coming into direct contact with other people.

I agree better hygiene from the parents would have been nice.

JonSnowsWife · 07/12/2017 22:13

IIRC Noro is airborne. So no amount of hand washing / antibac gel would prevent you from catching it anyway.

Not everyone vomits because they're suffering from a tummy bug. Could have been acid reflux or anything.

JonSnowsWife · 07/12/2017 22:19

Stealth DD had severe reflux as a baby. We were told she'd grow out of it by the time she was 1. She didn't and continued to throw up after every single feed/meal, projectile. I was studying my finals to get into uni, and she was in day nursery every day, she had to be as there was no one else to have her.. Anyone who didn't know her history would walk in and assume she was poorly too. She was in a sense, just a not contagious sense.