How do children catch stomach bugs?

[almostbutnotquite]

I get the whole washing hands before eating thing but generally how do these things get passed around?

DDs friend was in school with a high temp early in the week and now is off with a stomach bug. DD played with her a lot.

I'm emetophobic and in a state of panic

Stomach bugs are spread mainly by contact, germs on hands, cutlery or anything else you put in your mouth.
From what I’ve read it’s only airborne if the poorly person is sick near you and you inhale particles (gross I know) also not putting the loo lid down before flushing can spray tiny particles through the air onto toothbrushes, towels etc.
I believe norovirus isn’t contagious until symptoms start but is still highly contagious for up to 72 hours after symptoms finish and the virus can live on hard surfaces for a very long time.
The virus has a very hard shell which doesn’t make it easy to break down.
The high temp earlier in the week is unlikely to be linked to the stomach bug, stomach bugs usually hit fast and hard, the incubation period is 12-48 hours after infection, on average it’s 36 hours after infection.
Maybe get your DD some anti viral hand foam from Boots, it coats your hands with a protective layer that kills most bugs and stomach bugs on contact and lasts for 6 hours I think.
I use Sterizar on my DS hands before school and when we go out anywhere.
I’m not a germ freak but DS is SEN with a compromised immune system. A stomach bug lands him in hospital.

Fellow emetophobe here too :(

I agree that a typical tummy bug wouldn't start with a few days of fever - they usually come on pretty fast and fever isn't especially common with them. Your daughters friend may have caught a tummy bug on top of her fever, or probably more likely she has some other kind of virus that caused a fever and has led to being sick - like a throat or ear infection.

Tummy bugs are spread though tiny particles (of v or d) being ingested (eaten). This can happen if you are very close to someone when they are actually being sick or if you touch something with particles on (door handle, taps etc) and then touch your mouth. The particles can hang around a long time even with thorough cleaning and the virus can remain in someone's digestive system for weeks, meaning that every time an infected person goes to the loo they risk passing it on if they don't wash properly.

The 48 hour rule exists because until someone (especially a child) has been 48 hours free from v or d they are very likely to have another episode out of the blue.

In this case, your DD wasn't near her friend when she actually v and hasn't been around her since, so she's unlikely to catch it!

BI x

depends on what you mean, 'food poisoning' just means eating food that has some kind of contamination, which could be microbiological or just some chemical that we can't digest. If you mean gastroenteritis then this will be due to some microbe infection in the gut.

In both cases, something bad has to get into the mouth, either by eating food/drinking something that carries the problem - either by contact with dirty surface etc or within the food itself - or by putting something infected in your mouth, like a finger. The problem is that any microbe capable of causing infection could be anywhere, once it's left it's host. For example norovirus can survive for a long time outside a human body, depending on the surface and temperature. It can stay for weeks on hard surfaces, and up to twelve days on clothes, and it can survive for months in water. So if a child goes to school with it, it can be transferred pretty well anywhere, hence the 2 day wait after an infection is over to give the immune system a chance to kill off all the bugs.
Probably the best thing to do is to follow standard advice, keep your child's hands as clean as possible and try and discourage them from putting their fingers or anything else in their mouth if possible.