Vomiting on every holiday this year

[Nobodyiswatching]

This year I have taken the kids to Majorca (back in April.) We stayed in a lovely 5*AI. Kids aged 7 &11. Four days in, my little be comes to the side of my bed at 3am and tells me he feels sick. Cue violent vomiting and diarrhoea for the next 24th a. Eldest then comes down with it. He was even worse. Even after he had cleared out his system he couldn’t stop retching. All bedding and mattresses soiled. Has to keep the bin by his bedside for the next two nights. Then DH comes down with it and I spend the rest of the holiday caring for people and watching other people have the holiday of their lifetimes from the balcony.

Now we’re the first week into another holiday. Day 3 eldest suddenly projectile vomits in the car. We stop car halfway to the attraction and undergo an intensive cleaning operation - it went everywhere. Car seats and personal belongings ruined. Next night I wake up to the dulcet tones of the youngest standing at the foot of my bed projectile vomiting. And I then came down with it yesterday and spent last night hunched over the sink and the toilet with quite possibly the worst case of D&V I’ve ever had. Today has been a complete write off.

I’m so fucking fed up. Our holidays this year have been totally ruined by this. Is it just bad luck? We never had this issue before. But it’s been so intense both times, and has taken us down one by one, effectively screwing our holiday both times. I’m so done. I’m so sad.

Anyone else relate? I had lovely holidays planned for this year and each time we’ve been decimated by D&V. It’s just been horrific. I feel like we’ve totally lucked out

You can’t avoid it completely but really, really good hand hygiene (particularly before eating) works well for us. I have a 11&8 yr old now and our family have had two sick bugs since the first was born.

Exactly, norovirus (vomiting bug) is almost unstoppable. You can get it just by being in a room (car, plane, etc) with someone who is infected. It is not killed by hand sanitiser or alcohol wipes either. You have to actually wash your hands.

I'd do self-catering holidays and avoid hotels and buffets, also avoid large resorts and be wary when at busy attractions like arcades and amusement parks (or preferrably avoid them too) to minimise chances of catching it.

Sounds AWFUL OP. I'm so sorry.

Agree about the buffet issue though: I avoid them for this reason. People are absolutely minging. Studies have shown that hardly anyone washes their hands after using the toilet. The thought of the large number of poo-hands on the buffet serving tongs is enough to put me off...

The hotel we just stayed at had greeters on the door of the main restaurant offering hand sanitiser, most people took it , I think because it's offered rather than just left for you to access people don't say no. Also at 7 and 11 why are they not going to the toilet to vomit? I have a 7 year old and we've been through many sickness bugs, only once he didn't make it to the toilet but he did get as far as the bathroom. If you were not cleaning up vomit from all over the place you'd be less likely to get it yourselves. Also make sure your DC are regularly washing their own hands, I always take a nail brush in my toiletry bag so after a day at the beach etc nails can have a good scrub.

Make sure DCs wash their hands after the toilet
Don't swallow pool water
Don't eat salad, fruit and anything that have to be washed in water and not cooked after
Don't have ice in drinks
Cut DCs nails short
Don't let DC lick or suck hands

If one person is ill separate their cutlery, glasses and towels from what is used by others, and wash your hands often.

It is entirely possible to have holiday and not be ill.

Mine are adults now but we avoided AI hotels and did self catering with our own pool. People don’t self isolate properly after gastroenteritis. Then it gets spread in the pool, the buffets with all the shared utensils, double dippers and people not washing hands. Babies without nappies in the pool. I could go on!

Christ I have full sympathy, this is honestly my worst nightmare. I won’t allow my DC to attend birthday parties or softplay in the run up to Xmas incase they catch anything and make them carry sanitiser around at school, drilling into them the necessity to keep hands clean. Genuinely live in fear of a stomach bug over Christmas. On holidays abroad, even worse! Sounds so miserable, I feel for you.

We used to do this for a week before big holidays. Restricted where we went, ate only at home, and really vigilant with hand washing. Seemed to work.

I’m so sorry that your holidays have been ruined op. That’s really bad luck.

I think partly it’s children and travel. Especially dc under eight. Their immune systems aren’t fully developed,

I think it’s partly aeroplanes which are disgusting nowadays. They don’t allow enough time in the schedule to clean them properly between flights.

And it’s partly hotel buffets which are susceptible to heat, flies and unsupervised dc.

And dare I say, not to you specifically op, but generally speaking, perhaps our own homes are so clean nowadays that dc take more of a hit when they encounter new microbes as it were?

Having said all of that, when my two were young, we all got a gastric bug in Wales one summer and our youngest vomited around Scotland because of travel sickness, so I think it’s often par for the course with youngsters , and it helps if you can be at your destination for ten days or two weeks to “acclimatise” as it were.

I hope you have better luck next time!

We had this very briefly with my younger brothers. My father became absolutely militant with hygiene for them and we didn’t have it again. They were just doing typical kid stuff like touching door handles and then biting nails, not washing hands before having a snack, not washing hands thoroughly, etc but that was more than enough to pick up norovirus.

Seems unusual. How often have they previously gotten d&v from school and do you and dp catch?

are you all drinking the water
eating salad items
having ice??

also do they have sen as seems odd to me they are both vomiting everywhere at their ages? I mean yes can happen but normally you have a stomach ache or throat feeling beforehand.

My kids are ND and vomit a lot. Dc2 one year maybe vomited about 10 separate times. But the rest of us dont catch it.

i dont think hand sanitiser works for d&v viruses need soap.

The first few years relatives flew over on long flights they made my dc sick every year from the d&v bugs from flights.

But then we dont have AI and i dont like food being kept warm for hours

Unfortunately, you can do all that and more, then touch a lift button, a handrail, or eat food that someone has prepared unhygienically (and this can happen in a 5* hotel as well as a cafe bar) and succumb to a sickness bug.

I get ill every year, fortunately most times it is just a cough or cold, but I’ve had tonsilitis and a chest infection recently too.

I blame people on planes. Nobody is going to cancel their holiday because of a minor illness or bug, but that means people like me (and seemingly your family OP) are going to wind up being ill all of the time. I have just been to see my family for the last time before I go on holiday in 10 days, I go into hiding to try to minimise my chances of getting ill before I go 😂 but then still end up near germy people on the plane.

One thing I would wish for people to do, is to be like people from eastern Asian countries, and wear a mask when they are under the weather. One person with a bug could take down quite a few people on a plane, but with a mask and a little handwashing they could spare people like me, and your family OP.

Or it could just be a little bit of bad luck, hopefully you’ll be fine next time

Never happened to me in over 50 years of travelling abroad. I never drink tap water when I’m abroad and I try to avoid uncooked food that might have been washed in tap water.

Hi, just curious, you think we can get sickness bugs from pools ? Does make sense, I just hadn't had that exact thought. Would be such a shame to be somewhere with a pool and have to avoid it because of the worry. have you chosen to avoid pools for this reason ? No offence, just wondering.

Hand sanitizer is useless when it comes to Norovirus. Wash your hands thoroughly (for at least 20 seconds, ie happy birthday chorus x2) with hot water and soap before eating or drinking anything, that includes icelollies!

This is why if I am AI on a holiday I always insist we are the first waiting at the door for every meal therfore first to handle tongs etc. Even then I am obsessive over hand washing no touching banisters lift buttons etc. Also constant hand sanitiser.
Sorry youve had your holidays ruined. I am quite often ill when returning from one and feel its probably to do with the planes

Honestly we are not going abroad next year for this reason. Every year SOMEONE gets sick. This year it was a terrible diahorrea bug that ripped through all of us, last year my youngest had a vomiting bug, the year before that he had diahorrea. We never stay AI and we’re not a sick family at home: my youngest has had 4 years of 100% attendance!

We stayed in a beautiful 5* resort this year and both both DC came down with D&V which thankfully only lasted 24 hours but then passed on to me and wiped me out for the last 2 days of the holiday. At the breakfast buffet I saw children picking up bits of food and putting them back in bowls, people coughing over the buffet etc. Gross. We won’t be staying in a hotel again. It will be villas/apartments and self-catering from now on.

I am currently on holiday on a French campsite. My husband has been violently sick this evening. Am absolutely terrified we are all going to come down with it - think we are going to move to an apartment for a couple of days if I can find one tomorrow as it is not nice being this sick on a campsite! Really hoping it’s food poisoning rather than noro. Pray for me.

Yes its bad luck.

So sorry op that sounds awful and is my worst nightmare to be honest. I can’t cope with sick very well at the best of times but at least when you’re at home you have a supply of extra clothes, bedding and a washing machine!

We went abroad earlier in the summer and although my dc didn’t have d&v she did have a bad viral cough and to be honest the worry of it developing into something else while we were away really put my on edge and effectively spoilt the holiday a bit. Sometimes I think it’s safer to stay closer to home although not the best outlook I guess.

When flying take a travel pack of antibacterial wipes / spray on the plane with you and wipe over anything you touch before getting settled. Armrests, tray table, seat buckle, controller, screens, etc
Same when you enter hotel room/ airbnb... wipe over door handles, remote control, key card/ keys... you get the gist
We've had the same experiences, but never since we started doing this.

Not D&V every time but my husband, toddler son, and I travel a fair bit just inside Japan and in the past year have had so much sickness with it. My husband seems to get fevers and colds on holiday a fair bit, so I'm often solo parenting in a place without a huge amount of stuff to keep little one occupied, which sucks. In his case, I think it's partially because he has a stressful job. He gets into holiday mode, relaxes, and his body goes ahh and lets him catch up with healing.

As a prev poster mentioned, washing hands before eating is really important. We also wash hands and gargle when we get in from exploring or being out, especially if we've been on public transport or crowded places.

Worst incident for us was Kyoto in Feb this year. Touring a historic temple when we feel a rumble from the baby carrier. Take kiddo to change him and it's carnage. Nappy overflowing with what looked like mushroom soup. Tried my best to clean up in the temple toilet but it was so difficult- I really wished I'd had a puppy pad to put him down on. Got in a taxi terrified of getting anything on the seat.

Thankfully we stayed in an apartment style hotel with washing machine. I caught it too and had an incident of sitting on the toilet, turning around to vomit, and getting shit on my foot. Not my finest hour 😑😭

Whilst it’s great that you are so careful with hygiene, anti bacterial wipes and hand gel do not kill norovirus which is responsible for these kind of violent sickness bugs. It’s why the bottle says “kills 99.5% of bacteria” or similar!
Very good handwashing is needed with soap, and things like bleach are needed for surfaces etc. I’m only mentioning this as a lot of people think hand gel etc will protect them from catching noro (or worse, be sufficient to clean their hands when they themselves have had or been dealing with norovirus) and it absolutely won’t.