Emetophobia - my worst nightmare

[zonedout]

Ds1 goes to a school set on several different sites. Today one of the sites has been closed for deep cleaning due to norovirus wiping out hundreds of children this week. There are loads of siblings in ds1's building/class and 8 of his classmates were off today.

I am a single parent (really outing myself here!) and terrified of what feels completely inevitable right now. I was awake all night last night, waiting. Shall be doing the same again tonight.

You know, I feel like I have improved a lot with my emetophobia recently. I am no longer worried about the odd v. It's the awful, debilitating violence of noro that terrifies the life out of me.

The waiting is utter torture

Just wanted to share something I read on facebook yesterday that I found quite interesting and relevant. Patrick Holford was being asked why he thought there was such an increase in bugs this time of year. He said he thought it was probably the lack of sunlight and vitamin D as that helps support a healthy immune system. That makes complete sense to me! He mentioned garlic and onions as being protective anti viral. So onion and garlic soup for dinner ?
Also do we all live in cities I would have thought people were not so phobic in more rural areas as people do not live in such close proximity?
Hope everyone is well today. I love your sense of humour Zoo and that is exactly what we need to get us through.

I live in a rural area (so not the case) .

I have kept dd2 home today as she was coughing all night, wasnt sure if i should send her in or not, took dd1 in and there was talk of a bug (several children have had it and a few are off with it), i'm now pleased i kept dd2 off as one of the parents said their ds had it at the weekend and they sent him back to school monday , he is one of dd2's best friends so i am now panicking slightly, luckily they had it quite mild (just the other end) but it could effect dd2 differently if she got it. I am now tempted to keep her home for the rest of the week (she has hospital on friday anyway). I'm secretly hoping the coughing keeps her awake tonight so i can keep her at home (i know thats bad) .

I live in a city. Well a suburb of a city.

The vitD is really interesting, we love the sun and every time it's out we practically live in the park. Also eat loads of onions and garlic most of the food I cook starts with onions and garlic.

I used to live in the highlands for 5 years and me my ex parner and my son were never sick!!! So my fear has defiantly heightened in the last year and 4 months that I've been living where I do now :(, maybe we should make a emet camp in the highlands lol. Sometimes when I'm sitting there thinking I think it would be easier if everyone was emet as there wouldn't be half as much sick about (I wouldn't wish this fear on anyone!)
Spag Bol has onions and garlic in do you think that would work the same?

Maybe if we all move to Australia and eat garlic and onions we will all be ok? , i wonder how often people in sunny countries are ill? We have hardly had any vit d this year (with the crap summer we had).

Dd2's TA said her dd1 was sick this morning, this is the 3rd time in a year she has had a stomach bug and they are the type of family that almost live outside (our always out walking, visiting national trust places, going to the beach and spend the summer in the garden). My dd1 never goes outside (unless i drag her out screeming) but is rarely ill (though trys it on a lot), dd2 spends a lot of time outside and she's the one that gets poorly, she had loads of time off last year with flu and strep throat .

Spag bowl and garlic bread , you can put garlic in most things (stews, soups, pizza) and you can get garlic tablets.

Cod liver oil is apparently a good thing to take. My auntie takes that and something else and is well I can't even remember her ever being ill!

Garlic tablets never thought of that :) good idea! We'll all be rattling soon :D

I'm hoping my probiotics will be here soon , think i will get the kids something with vit d in it too (i think alot of the kids vitimans do now anyway) and will be stocking up on garlic, anythings worth a try . I would happily move to a remote island and home school my kids if i could.

I have the same thought of home schooling too! Don't probiotics keep bugs alive? As they feed of them or something?

Im wrong there just looked probiotics up! I seen something the other day about something feeding stomach bugs but now I can't find it anywhere

I'm not sure Stef, all i know is 'i gave them to the kids last year and we stayed bug free' . They are ment to add friendly bacteria to the cut which should fight off bad bacteria (apparently).

Just read that proper butter, cheese, cream, yoghurts and Whole milk can help avoid stomach bugs the thing I was reading was on about how some people always get bugs where as some do not. This woman who was prone to bugs added these things to her diet and none of her family have caught anything for 3 years!

Dd1 lives on cheese and yoghurt (she gets a bug about once a year at the most). I think we will be adding more to our diet . Dd2 used to get a lot of bugs, one year she was sick 3 times (but would be sick with a cold and was sick with chickenpox). She still gets loads of colds and virusis in the winter.

I do think there are more of these bugs around as there are to many vaccinations. When we were kids we had chickenpox, whooping cough, measles etc.. but rarely got bugs, i do think our amune systems were built up by having these childhood illnesses. I can only remember having one bad tummy bug when i was a child, now days kids seem to get them every year (sometimes more). I also think we have probably become to clean, too much anti-bac which kills the good bacteria as well as the bad.

I have a question about probiotics now. I started taking them last week thinking they would help and I've had crippling stomach ache and been a bit, TMI alert, loose just when I need to go to the toilet. At first I thought I'd got DS3's and DH's mild stomach upset but now I'm wondering if it is the probiotics. Help?? I can't win! Trying to boost my immune system against bugs and instead I get cramps and pain.

On the plus side interesting to read about dairy products as I love cheese so will keep eating it!

Yes I will be eating more whole dairy products after reading that and also garlic and onion :). My ds's favourite food is cheese and he's 5 and Friday was the first time he's ever been sick so maybe that's why!

Anyone fancy eating a whole boursain? 2 birds, one stone.

Ha ha would be nice! This new diet of garlic and cheese won't win us many friends and there is the factor that cheese is kind of a bit on the fatty side.

Becky- probiotics can do that, when i first gave them to dd1 she had tummy ache, it probably means you already have a good amount of 'good bacteria' in your gut (so by adding more you upset the balance), try halfing the dose you are taking or take it every other day (with dd1 i give it every other day).

Dd1's lunch box consists of a cheese sandwich, a baby bel and a yoghurt (and some fruit) , she is probably overloaded with dairy.

I also think that an increase in socialising has made norovirus so rife. when I was a child growing up in the 70s we rarely did playdates, or parties. It just wasn't a big thing. Now there's a pressure to start socialising the minute your baby is born.

Also I think there is an increase in general selfishness. People expecting their lives to carry, refusing to cancel social commitments, despite having norovirus the previous day.

And (my pet hate), people calling in relatives (often elderly - wtf are they thinking!) to help when their families are sick and spreading the virus around that way.

Thats true, people dont seem to care about spreading it around. The parent i was talking to this morning had their dd in the car with an upset tummy, he told me she had a hospital appointment today and they were still planing on going even though his dd and his wife (who had to dash off back home to use the loo) have the bug.

I grew up in the 80's and spent a lot of time going to friends houses but people tended to stay in the village and mix rather than going to clubs and places in town, now people go all over the place and drag their sick children along wether they like it or not.

I have been lurking on this thread so far, finding it really reassuring to hear of other people who have this fear. I have always been very afraid of being sick but I don't know if it's severe enough to class myself as emetophobic. I currently have the dreaded bug but am so so grateful that it's only d so far and not d and v - seems to be the one with temp/aches instead. However, feeling this nausea and the accompanying terror is really worrying me as dh and I are planning to ttc again in a few months. The first time around, I vomited 2-3 times a day nearly every day from 9-21 weeks. I am so scared of this happening again! I just wanted to ask if anyone on this thread experienced a lot of sickness in pregnancy and if so, how did you cope?

Marne, that's awful. Imagine how many people at the hospital they could potentially infect.

I can trace the source every time my DC have had norovirus. A few times from softplay, once from a party (they both came down with it at exactly the same time), recently after a playdate with a friend who swore, despite interrogation from me, that her son was no longer contagious - well after he had a pooh accident, it was obvious he wasn't over the bug, and two days later DS had it.

Funnily enough, and I cling to this, they rarely catch it at school (touches every piece of wood), I guess infection control is reasonable, and children who are sick are sent straight home. Plus DS has ASD so he's not that social

Its a very small hospital, they mainly have elderly people there and then outpatiants, if it was passed on to an elderly person it could finish them off .

Last time dd2 had noro it was caught at school, all the other times she has caught it from her sister. There old school wash auful for parents sending sick kids to school so most the time it came from the school.

Dd1 has Aspergers and doesnt get too close to people and dd2 has ASD and all the other kids like to look after her (at the moment she's still cute and they like to mother her), the boy that was ill at the weekend is one of those that likes to get very close to her.
I think maybe the anxiety of having children with sn's probably makes the phobia even worse .

Stef sometimes I daydream about moving to a remote house in the highlands as I'd be less likely to get sick as less people to catch things from...but then I try telling myself I'd just panic all the time about food poisonong etc etc - they'd never be a reason to relax IYKWIM

Zoo love your sense of humour. It's a case of if you don't laugh then you'll end out crying I think!

I think about home schooling DD too btw!

Oh, and I live in a village.

I assumed it was always worse in winter as the weather was cold so people were inside more with heating on, which is lovely warm conditions to bacteria to survive etc. I wonder if pre central heating there was so much of it about. Or in cold countries - I wonder if they have this problem too?

I'll have to start holding my nose when reading this thread as I'll be able to smell the garlic through the computer

Jelly I had awful pg nausea from 4 weeks - when DD was born. It was worst between 6 - 20 weeks though - I spent pretty much every day for those 3 or so months in bed feeling 5 seconds away from being sick all day and all night long. I don't know how I got through tbh! I was signed off work (work with food and so it was impossible to go in) for my entire pg and given anti emetics at 5 weeks pg. I couldn't do anything. At all. I had to take every day at a time and it was the slowest 9 months of my life! Tbh it was so bad I'm not sure I would have any more DC. Having said that, I survived it and I wasn't sick. I retched a bit but wasn't actually sick. I think it was down to the meds and my strength in not wanting to be sick IYWIM. Things like ginger, mint, sea bands all helped a bit. I was so anxious I'd be sick though I didn't leave the house for pretty much my whole pg aside from hospital appointments. I also did ms hypnotherapy CD and nevasick CD (google it). I'm not sure if that was much help

Well, just got back from a morning at work. Had 2 people in my class I teach who were still unwell with the tummy bug going around . They weren't sick but said they still felt unwell and v sick . I washed my hands as soon as the lesson finished, didn't touch my face during the lesson and showered as soon as I came home. I'm hoping that will be enough to escape it