I'm next, aren't I?? :(

[namechangemam]

Background: I have severe emetophobia and my anxiety is through the roof and beyond, so please no nasty comments. 😓

Toddler DD threw up randomly Tuesday night, was only sick once then perfectly fine. Last night (48 hrs later) older DD was sick. This morning DP has thrown up.

I am just waiting now for my turn. It's inevitable that the bug will get me, isn't it? 😞

DP thinks I could be OK as it was him who cleaned up toddler DD's sick on Tues and not me, and he looked after her all day the next day while I went to work. But I'm not so sure.

Im so scared. If it's going to happen I just want it over asap. 😢😢😢

Not "more prone" just potentially not benefitting from natural resistance.

As a PP said, there are other determinants too and that's only for norovirus specifically. Most vomiting bugs are not norovirus.

Interestingly, the risk of catching covid and of becoming seriously ill if you do catch it is lowest in O- people. You are also at lower risk of heart disease, dementia and many cancers. It's a great blood type to have!

My DS has had a couple of vomiting bugs in the last year and with DW being emetaphobic I have done all the clean up / had most contact. I haven't caught the bugs and neither has DW. One of the bugs spread all the way around the kids at the childminder (even though they stayed home when it all kicked off, they'd obviously managed to share the germs heartily before hand 🤦‍♀️) but none of the parents were ill and neither was the childminder.
I guess what I am saying is this isn't inevitable.

DP is also emetophobic and worries near daily that he's picked up something which will cause sickness, so I understand how wearing this is. However, in over two decades of worry he's been sick once from a bug, so I would say your chances of getting sick are very small indeed. Especially since, as in our house, you're not the one cleaning it up.

You may have escaped it. A child threw up at a play date in my home a couple of weeks ago, the start of a sick bug. Mum came immediately to collect her then I bleached the bathroom, changed all the hand towels and Dettol sprayed anything child might have touched, including door handles (wearing gloves). And obviously cleaned up the vomit.

I was sure we’d catch it but we didn’t!

Thanks everyone. I haven't been sick yet but I do feel "off", can't explain it better than that. But I've not eaten anything this morning due to fear of being sick so it's possible ironically that I feel sick from not eating, as my tummy feels v empty and hungry. I'm not risking it though. Toddler has gone to sleep so hopefully I can get some rest myself now.

What are chances our holiday will be ruined? 😞

I’ve only had a vomiting bug once and that was a couple of months ago. It was completely over in less than 48 hrs, so I think your holiday will be totally fine.

Also the last couple of times toddler DD has had sickness bugs (once last year when only 6 months old and again a few months back), I got them both and DP and eldest DD didn't. could it be I have some kind of immunity to whatever it is now since I had the last ones?

Holiday will be fine.

Five full days until then. Everyone been sick once or twice so far except you. Even if you did get it today or tomorrow be absolutely fine by Wednesday.

I understand the anxiety, I have it re kids being unwell. Not bothered re me but get very bad if they are sick.

Try some dry toast for you, at least then something plain in tummy.

I also swear by activia type yogurts, put good bacteria back into everyone's tummy.

My daughter had a sickness bug two weeks ago, my son caught it a couple of days later.

Im a single parent so did all the cleaning up, laid next to them in bed, cuddled them in the day and didn’t catch it.

Try and sip water and nibble something if you can, not eating will make you feel sick x

Hi OP, you have my sympathy as I am emetophobic too so I know how horrible it is. Not any advice as such because I know nothing I’ll say will probably help but all I can say is when I caught a stomach bug off DS, the worry about it was a lot worse than actually being sick. I am having therapy for it, it’s helping a little maybe you should look into it?

We ended up with a sickness bug a week or so before holiday too. I did the cleaning/sleeping with kids and ended up catching it 2 nights before we went. My husband fretted on the plane but he never ended up catching it!

What are chances our holiday will be ruined? 😞

The actual bug will not ruin your holiday. Likelihood is given the timings you have listed if you are going to get it, it will be by the weekend. How is DP now? Has he recovered in 1 bout as your toddler did?

What you need to do is uses whatever strategies you have to calm yourself down - use deep breathing (breath in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4) if you have nothing else. You will as I am sure you know talk yourself into being ill if you don't get a handle on it. Do you have any kind of mental health support? If you do now is the time to call them. If you don't maybe now is the time to call your GP to get that support inplace - kids get sick, especially when the start school/nursery, so it will happen.

Take care OP

I hope you are looking into some sort of therapy? I'm amazed by the amount of posters who say 'I'm emetaphobic' and then expect everyone to weigh in and support them. This is enabling your irrational aversion. I say this as someone with a sibling who was/is an emetaphobe. Part of her therapy was with family and friends and we were told NOT to shore up her irrational belief system surrounding her phobia. You should look at EMDR or Thrive counselling.

i suggest you go and do something to distract you. No one knows if you will get it next but the way you are behaving is a self fulfilling prophecy.

I am the same with being sick. It gives me actual fear. You may get it or may not. I think with a sickness bug it is the lack of control I hate. Last time my little one had noro I used masks, gloves, used bleach etc and I caught it but it was over within 12 hours and I felt ropey for a few days after. It helped me in a way as I had built it up in my head to be something horrific and the reality was unpleasant but not as bad as i had envisioned in my head. Keep up with the cleaning and hygiene precautions, but If you get in next few days your holiday will not be ruined.

Your dh is right, you might not get it. I'm always quite strict about making the sick person use a different bathroom and using bleach to clean and sleeping in a different room if my dh is sick which seems to help stop the spread. Good luck op!

You are best trying to eat something.

Low blood sugar can also make you feel a bit sick, especially combined with stress.

And in the extremely unlikely event that you are actually sick, your tummy will feel much less stress if there's something to get up rather than being poorly on empty.

If you've got some vitamins, have some vitamins, steadily sip some water but don't drink it heavily, and have some thing like toast and try and distract your mind by watching a good TV show and getting all cosy.

This feeling will pass, and whatever it is, this time tomorrow you will feel right as rain.

Not a very scientific method but I often find that if I put a bowl next to my bed at night when I feel I may be due a vomiting bug .I often don't need it and wake up fine the next morning. Do this for several nights until the coast is clear!!

@Carpy88999 - “Stop worrying” is up there with one of the most unhelpful and invalidating things you can say to someone with anxiety.

Vomiting doesn't bother me anymore after 3 pregnancies but as a kid, I was terrified of being sick to the point I would wish every day not to be 🤣 I think it's so beyond your control, if it happens you just need to go with it, stick to water because it's not too unpleasant when it comes back up. And remember that being sick is your body trying to make you better.

Not necessarily no. My middle son has brought home 4 stomach bugs since July last year, I’ve caught 2 of them and avoided 2 of them, but I’m more susceptible to getting ill anyway as I’m immunosuppressed. My eldest son who is 7 and my partner have never caught them off our middle son and my youngest has only caught 1 of the 2 he was exposed to. It’s not a given that you’ll definitely get it. Bleach everything (bleach is the only thing that kills the germs) - toilet, sick buckets, touch points in the house (door knobs, light switches), designate a towel for your sick DD, wash any bedding that they were sick on on at least a 60 degree wash but preferably a 90 degree wash.

I empathise with you. I’m terrified of sickness bugs too. I won’t go into details as to why as it won’t be helpful to your anxiety, but just wanted you to know you’re not alone.

I do this too. When one child is sick I keep buckets near all the kids and me and partner of a night just in case for a good while!

I never caught a sickness bug despite 2 kids who brought home everything going around nursery and school. It's not inevitable. And there's no way your holiday will be ruined even if you do catch it, it will be over in 2 days. Fingers crossed for you

I do the bucket thing too. I have one beside my bed currently just in case. I'm just lying here in the dark next to sleeping toddler and the bucket. I feel absolutely fine now, the nausea has subsided. But I'm too anxious to let myself believe I'm going to be OK so staying close to the bucket for now...

If you didn’t clean up any of the vomit when it happened and since then have bleached the bathroom, anywhere else that vomit came into contact with or went near and any contact points, changed all towels, toothbrushes etc that were in the bathroom at time of vom, then it’s very unlikely that you’ll catch it, and s n emetophobe I’m pretty sure you’ll have done all that because I’m one too and we’re excellent at post puke cleaning 😂 Ss long as everything has been well cleaned with bleach, if you make it over 48 hours from the last person throwing up without it happening to you then you’re pretty much home free. Also, it doesn’t sound like norovirus as nobody has been horrendously ill with it so if you do catch it you might just end up with diarrhoea for a day.

Sorry to say, but worrying won't prevent it from possibly happening.
Worrying only means you suffer twice if it does happen.
And suffer once if it doesn't.
I used to have anxiety disorder so I can relate, but honestly, if it happens, it happens.