How to prevent spread of norovirus?!

[Zellie1027]

Just wondering how parents manage to prevent the spread of Norovirus through the house or whether you’re fighting a losing battle??

For context I live at home with my nearly 3 year old, 9 month old and husband.

Got woken last night to my toddler crying in bed. Walked in the room, sick all over the bed and a bit on the floor - cue absolute internal panic from me. Thought she’d finished and tried to walk her to the bathroom, she was sick on the way. Tried to get her to be sick in the toilet but she panicked and was sick on the floor. I then stood in said sick. She was covered and it was in her hair so I popped her in the shower. Went to go and attempt clean up in her room but my husband had already started. Started cleaning the bathroom with my trusty antibac spray. Husband has stood in sick in bedroom, walked into bathroom and stood in more sick. He strips the bed and puts bedding in the wash so now there’s probably remnants of sick on the carpet all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Toddler gets out of the shower and I take her to her room. I ask if she’s ok, she says yes then is promptly sick again to which I grab her as fast as I can but alas, sick on the floor before we reach the bathroom. Anyway, it continues in such fashion until we make a system of towels and get a bucket. I then come to the realisation from a quick google search that antibac spray is not what you use but instead bleach. So by this point I’ve resigned myself to the fact that everyone is going to be sick and we’re in for a terrible couple of days.

How do people manage to contain sickness like this? I know my 9 month is going to get this now, there’s absolutely no way I’ve contained this, it’s probably having a party on every surface in my house now. Do you have systems? Sickness buckets on standby at all times? Tell me, I need to know.

Before anyone thinks my god, what are they doing, this is our first ever sickness bug, I’ve never dealt with this before so I’m sure I’ll be a pro in a couple of years time!

Oh the joys of parenthood!

Oh no ☹️. So sorry OP
the only thing that’s worked for me is Milton. Wipe your door handles, banisters, anything that people and little hands touch with it.
when my ds was born, my dd had norovirus and my husband caught it. I was miltoning the shit out of everything and changing beds and towels everyday. Me and ds didn’t catch it

we have washing up bowls as sick bowls and those plastic Ikea trays in the trofast units work well too. Hopefully the epic sick is now over for you all tho! Il

Thank you @notthatoldchestnut! I actually have two bottles in the cupboard so I’ll get onto that right away!

Other than the obvious handwashing, lots of antibacterial spray and isolating a particular person J don't think its possible.
One fun year, 12 of us all got norovirus on holiday. We had 5 kids under the age of 8 (aged 8, 7, 6, 5 and 2) with us. It was awful especially when all yhe adults were very ill and all the kids were grumpy but well enough to fight and want to run around.

@zazazaaarthat sounds like hell on earth, how awful for you all! We have done lots of handwashing and I’ve antibac sprayed everything but then read that antibac isn’t good enough to kill the virus?! So now I’m just a sitting duck I fear

Cleaning with chlorine not hand sanitizer/antibac.
But often it's a lost cause.

It does sound unlikely that you will avoid it, but deep cleaning and hand washing is crucial. Ditch the hand sanitiser - alcohol hand sanitisers do not work on stomach bugs (there are a couple of non alcohol based hand sanitisers that will kill norovirus, but you really have to hunt these out, and they aren’t the ‘mainstream’ brands). Thorough hand washing with soap and water before prepping food and before eating and before touching your baby is crucial.

Mild bleach solution to wipe down all surfaces and hard floors and the bathrom. Obviously can’t use this for the carpets, but if you’re only walking on these, should be ok.

It might not be norovirus, not every stomach bugs is norovirus as kids pick up loads of stomach bugs (rotavirus is very common. They are immunised for this now but doesn’t stop all cases)

good luck!

It’s difficult to clean. Leave the bleach or anti bacterial on the surfaces for a few minutes to work. Steam the carpet.

Unfortunately vomitting aerosolises the virus for a few minutes and with small dc it’s usually inevitable that you get exposed. With older dc you can wear a mask and they can direct the stream into a suitable container.

I would put a plastic bag into a basin/bucket/bin beside their bed.
And put an old towel on top of the bed that you can chuck out after.

Clean taps and wipe entire toilet with bleach /cleaning solution. Wipe toilet door handles. Wash hands with soap and water before touching anything. For recovery make homemade electrolytes with a quarter teaspoon salt /teaspoon sugar in squash.

Thanks all! I’ve bleached every hard surface I can see this morning, cleaned the floors and washed my hands about 20 times. Toddler still sleeping bless her. She has an old bin and a towel under her like some of you suggested! Thanks for all your suggestions, I will sit back and hope for the best now!

You’re right, antibac won’t do anything here unfortunately.

I hate vomiting so if my DC are sick I clean up as if I’m someone who’s gone to clean up in an Ebola outbreak, I’m obsessive about what needs to be clean, what I mustn’t touch if I’m cleaning - taps are turned on with elbows etc, cloths I’ve used to clean are chucked away. But even then I think there’s an element of luck & individual susceptibility - I always dodge it, I’ve never caught a vomiting bug from DC, but DH generally catches it about half the time. I also never caught them from my sisters growing up.

@ShesTheAlbatrossit’s good to know that it probably can be avoided even with good cleaning! I suspect this time I won’t avoid it but at least next time I’ll be ready with the right cleaning products from the get go and hopefully we make it through without catching it!

I will add though, even with noro it’s not guaranteed to be awful. I read a study where they deliberately exposed people to noro. A decent % didn’t get ill despite being exposed, and off the people who did, I think it was a fairly high % who only threw up once. People have the idea that unless you’re reenacting the exorcist, it can’t be noro, but that’s not true.

I dont think you can. It started here this week with the 4 year old and we cleaned the plave within an inch of its life because we have a 4 month old. Next day I started being sick and 6 hours later the baby started and my husband followed shortly after. Kids recovered fairly quick but myself and my husband still aren't right

Bless you, that’s a tough first one!

my advice, leave them in the messy bit till you get a ‘sick bucket’, that little I used the bathroom bin. Yes chucking the contents on the floor or sink. Then you move no where without it even if they say they are done. Do not believe them, they honestly have no idea. They've not done this before either. Remember lots of it’s ok and doesn’t matter, keeping them calm. If it gets all crazy, a damp towel on top of the carpet till you can get to it.

ps this will be a funny story, come on both managing to stand in it

@ShesTheAlbatross you’re right, my little girl has come downstairs this morning as if nothing happened. Running around eating an Oaty Bar (my husband’s doing but I guess if she says she feels ok….). I am a worst case scenario kinda person unfortunately, does me well sometimes but most of the time leads me down a path of anxiety, particularly when it comes to sickness!

@romdowa I hope your 4 month old was ok? It’s horrible enough for the toddlers and adults but I worry about my youngest as she won’t have a clue!

@pinkfondu that’s great thank you! Yeah, learnt my lesson the hard way asking if she was ok, believing her and then finding out 30 seconds later she was not ok! Do not believe the toddlers! Surprisingly given my internal panic and horror I did remain very calm so I guess I can take one win from this!

My three year old has a sickness bug right now. Agree with keep them in the messy bit, then get a bucket. We also use those Ikea trays and keep one slid under his bed. Hand washing immediately.

I swear by diluted apple cider vinegar for the adults. We’ve had a few sickness bugs, and when we take this 2-3 times a day, we’ve generally managed to avoid it.

If you have a steam mop, get that out. I don’t have any bleach either, just soap and water and steam mop also

I’m impressed this is your first! I have a 3 year old and one year old and they must have brought home about 6+ from nursery in that time

Norovirus is insanely infectious (as few as 15 virus particles required to infect a person). You could drive yourself mad trying to clean every surface. Send one well person to go and restock the fridge and buy Dioralyte and hope that you're in the 20% of the population who are genetically resistant. Equally, it could be a kiddy vomiting bug you've already had and have immunity to.

I had noro and rotavirus last year... It was a bad winter. DP had a vomiting bug last week but I didn't get it this time. Just luck/immunity.

I think isolation is the answer. Some of the stomach bugs are air borne as well. So DH takes 2 days off work, sits with toddler, and you sit with baby in a different part of the house or preferably go stay with grandparents. Totally impossible if you don't have a big house and grandparents nearby. It's shit.