To cancel a camping trip

[BristolZoo]

Yesterday afternoon my kids (9 and 11) accidentally ate some raw chicken.
It was from one of those breaded chicken packs, which they thought was pre-cooked, but wasnt.
Ive had a good Google and it says that they could be ill in around 2-3 days time.
We are supposed to be camping this weekend and the thought of camping with two kids with food poisoning is awful to say the least!

DH thinks im nuts because they seem fine today. But we'll lose the money of we dont cancel today.
I cant decide!

I was going to say this - I was served very pink chicken in a Japanese restaurant before... I complained and they said it was fine. Was not sick.

Thank you!! You’ve just reminded me to pack Babywipes as we go camping in a couple of weeks.

My dad did that. My mum gave him it for pack up thinking it was the cooked type!! He had a bit on lunch break at work in his work van and knew it tasted wrong. He was sick all night. But it didn’t start until the evening say 8 hours later

People often think that eating raw or undercooked chicken will ALWAYS make you ill. It won't always make you ill - in fact, you're much more likely to be perfectly fine. Millions of people accidentally / unwittingly eat food contaminated with raw chicken every day and most of them will suffer zero ill effects.

Obviously that's no reason not to take a lot of care when preparing and cooking chicken, because of course you don't want to risk food poisoning, but the risk is relatively small. You'd be daft to cancel a holiday on the off-chance.

If it helps: I have actually had campylobacter poisoning, and yes, it was unpleasant. But I still wouldn't cancel a trip just on the small off-chance that I might get it.

Work put out a buffet once including chicken pieces as your described. Someone didn't check the label and thought they were cooked when they weren't. Lots of people ate them before anyone realized. No one got sick.

You’re welcome! I wasn’t a big wipes user when mine were young because I saved loads of money by using face cloths at home instead and chucking them in the washing machine but I always took wipes away with us.

Ok, thank you.
We plan to get on with it and keep our fingers crossed.
I think, if they were going to get sick they would most likely have some symptoms by now anyway!? Maybe.

Its been nearly 24 hours.

Ive ordered some wet wipes, immodium, pepto bismol and electrolytes and have given them both some charcoal tablets so, as long as they are well tomorrow, we'll go and hope for the best and face whatever comes! 🤣

Plus take the sick bowl and bin liners. Pack all the kit in the bowl - hopefully it will not be needed.

The way sashimi-grade chicken is reared, stored and prepared in Japan means the risk of getting food poisoning is really tiny.

Are you sure it was raw? Breaded chicken is rarely just raw chicken on the inside

No absolutely no Imodium. Bad medical advice. The diarrhoea is yoir body clearing out the bacteria,
so Imodium jusy holds it in an keeps you sicker for longer. Supportive treatment only with fluids and salt replacement.

As someone who has a strange anxiety about raw chicken, I do get where you’re coming from. I’ve never even been sick from raw chicken but it terrifies me. I do imagine that it would happen before you leave anyway as it’s pretty much 48 hours later. So if you’re ok by tomorrow just go

I can assure you that has happened to me a couple of times and I had no food poisoning, not even a minor upset.

I am sure your children will be fine. If they are not, you'll have to deal with some diarrhoea and vomiting but not for long. However there is no point in worrying about what may not happen.

YANBU at "camping"

Lol - agree. My first thought too.

This 😁

The charcoal tablets are completely pointless for food poisoning - more likely to cause nausea and upset stomach!

I once ate chicken at a wedding. Went to a very quiet wedding reception in the evening and came down with awful food poisoning in the early hours.

Wonder to this day if the reason the wedding reception was so quiet was that others were also ill.

I think if they were going to be really ill - they would be by now. There's no harm in being prepared, but dont let it spoil your trip.

My fiancé got food poisoning from cooked chicken and rice on a plane and it showed itself within 6 hours - if they only had a bite and are fine today they’ll probably be fine. Just take some bin bags / foldable bucket for emergency poo / vomit and diloralyte just incase 😂

My son ate raw chicken in the same way as yours when he was 6. He was fine so didn't think anything of it... Until 6 days later.
He ended up in hospital with E-Coli so just be warned that it can suddenly come on a lot later. He's now 14 and 6ft so didn't do him any harm long term!!

I'd get some good probiotics and peppermint oil capsules too. Helps the stomach recover (as someone with IBS and food intolerances). Good shout on charcoal, I have that ready for when I have an accidental 'contamination'.

Fingers crossed its all ok!

As someone currently experiencing food poisoning - which, I think if the suspect meal is what I think it is, took 3.5 days to take effect - I would definitely cancel, for a few reasons:

• it can take a few days for food poisoning to take effect, rarely even a few weeks. In fact, it usually takes 3-5 days as toxins build in the intestines. But if it’s from raw chicken and therefore likely to be campylobacter, salmonella, shigella, or E. coli, it could well strike whilst you’re camping;
• kids can be much more severely affected than adults;
• you can take medication with you but if you use things like loperamide to stop or reduce diarrhoea, you risk making the symptoms last longer, and there are studies linking use of loperamide with much higher risk of kidney damage or other widespread issues with things like salmonella or E. coli, so it’s really not worth the risk using those because you didn’t want to cancel a camping trip;
• kids often aren't great at good hygiene, and camping can also lend itself to not ideal hygiene circumstances, and even if they’re symptom-free or escape completely, they may still be carrying illness and you risk spreading it to others whilst camping;
• even if it’s food-bourne for them, if they then get ill and spread it to you, how are you going to look after them or get home?
• being ill whilst camping with gastroenteritis is horrendous both for the people suffering and for those with them. Speaking from experience as someone who was camping with a group and only two of us escaped a gastroenteritis outbreak. Travelling back in a car with very unwell people was also hideous for them and the well driver and passengers!

So you’re not being unreasonable for wanting to cancel, in fact, I’d suggest you’re unreasonable if you do NOT cancel. But then, I’d also be really annoyed if I was camping on the same site and using the same facilities - bathrooms! - with a family who turned up knowing they were at a reasonable risk of exhibiting gastroenteritis symptoms, especially given the low bacterial load required for most of the above conditions.

I don’t like camping so sounds like a reasonable excuse to me.

seriously though I hope you guys have a great time whatever the decision

I've had food poisoning and gastroenteritis and both times I was really unwell in a couple of hours for a whole day and night.

My DC bounce better than I and also have less sensitive tummies. So I would go.

Your DC sound fine. It's so distressing in these circumstances but I do hope they are ok.

They only ate a mouthful so this is a huge massive overreaction