Hi,

Is it just us or do you also get this nasty tummy bug/ gastro every couple of weeks?

We are in Brisbane for more than a year now and every couple of weeks someone in our family brings this nasty bug home (from work, childcare etc). It makes me sick for up to a week and it is very frustrating. We have lived in NZ before and had never any problems with any kind of viruses or bacteria...

Is there anything you can take to boost you immune system and fight these nasty creatures?

Any advise is much appreciated...

Thanks, Diana

Hey D&W ,

We have experienced this also it goes in cycles especially with 2 kids at school, and with a newborn gastro is critical and not just it's a pain.

Echenicia (spelling ?) a few drops in fruit juice is a great immune booster, however gastro is usually an anerobic amoebic bacteria which will only go away over time as your body flushes it out, so drink drink drink and get lots of rest.

We also have separate drinking bottles (like cycling bidons) for the kids , so they don't re-infect each other and can get the necessary fluids.

Gastrolyte (long freezable ice lollys in plastic) are very good with young children because they re-hydrate quickly and don't mind getting an Ice lolly!

A constant frustration in our house too! Why oh why don't we all get it at the same time and get it over and done with??? Noooo, one gets it, a week passes, then another ones gets, a week passes and so on. Have done all the usual (ensuring they wash hands, applying antibacterial gel etc) but alas, at least every couple of weeks, we're on hands and knees scrubbing vomit from the carpets!

Check if your kids school/daycare have soap/hand towels in the loos.

There was never any in kids schools in our first 6 years here, there was also thread on it, newbee poms pretty disgusted, as they should be!!

Late last year soap and paper towels arrived in our kids school, seemed to coincide with the thread, the poms arriving en masse and suddenly we had soap, dont know if someone made some sort of complaint.

Schools problem was that soap and towels would be such a novelty, that kids would play with, making a health and safety concern, they did at first but the novelty of soap seems to have resulted in no major outbreak of gastro since. (touch wood )

If theres no soap start complaining.

Coincidence this topic was brought up today, was on a course and the tutor ( a microbiologist I think she said) , was saying one in 20 aussie men dont wash hands after the loo I actually pointed out the soap and schools point then, no wonder theres a lot of gastro.

Hi from England,
We were swamped with the "Novo Virus" at christmas, so was most of the country, it even caused fatalities among the young and elderly. When we ask at our local doctors he just told us that hand washing was the most important thing and washing down all hard areas with anti bacterial solution, door handles, light switches which harbour so many germs. Ours was over in a week or so, after we all had it, very violent but each individual had it for about 48 hours. Also avoid any dairy products, these cause muccus and make it even worse. Dry toast, jacket potatoes (no butter), plain pasta are good for lining the stomach and plenty of water.
The trouble is if your immune is down and you come into contact with someone who has the beginning of it your back to square one.
We all take extra vitamin c (told by doc) the fizzy tablets from health shops, and they seem to work, Echinacea is a real good immune booster aswell but not sure if kids under 12 can take it. Also doctor recommended the Actimel Drinks (if you can get them in Oz) we have them everyday aswell, and they seem to help.
Good luck

well mine are Eumundi-ites! Desperation after work one day drove me in to 'having' to use the childrens toilets once (and I mean only once - have learnt to dash to the loo before leaving work now) - couldn't believe how filthy they were - I was scared to touch the door handles (in fact I do believe I wrapped tissue paper around them). Guess what greated me when I went to wash my hands? A creepy crawly - NOOOO, I wish!!!! A nice curled up turd sitting in the basin - yesssss!!! Apparently one child (known only to the teachers) is too scared to go into the cubicle for fear of being locked in (I can completely sympathise there - i wouldn't want to be either), so she drops her draws and reguarly leaves a nice turd in the sink!!!! Ummm nice! These are the Years 3-4 toilets so maybe I should have cut them some slack, plus as the Principle pointed out, I shouldn't really have been using the toilets!!!

After this experience, i told my boys never, under any circumstances go into the girls loos (of course they won't anyway as they're boys )

Anyone reguarly de worm their kids? We were advised to by our GP - so fair haven't felt the need and they've been ok. Its just the headlice every week we have to get rid of!

You should get it checked out by a doctor. Giardia is quite common around here especially amongst groups of children. It has a sort of cyclical presentation too. Only way to check is to ask a doctor!

Giardia yep thst is a disgusting thing, very common in childcare places, but easily treated once the sample has been done.

Norovirus was crazy here in nov 2005, think most of the school had it then it went round again, tummy bugs love the warm climate too.

Other thing to check is your pool, home swimming pools are a huge cause of tummy/ear bugs, so many people skimp on filter time / proper testing, can be bug pits basically.

I wormed everyone with chocolate combantrin awful stuff gave me cramps, nobody else suffered, boys were looking in the bowl the next day for huge tapeworms but nothing exciting appeared.

Headlice, the one with long blonde hair never gets them, the one with short hair always got them, hes in high school and you tell them about nits and they do zilch, now he uses extra firm hold gel, glue type grip stops them getting hold, another thing that works is cheap white conditioner and those stainless steel Nitty Norah combs, dont use the plastic ones, they do nothing, too wide, anyway the steel ones are so fine they do remove both eggs and lice.

Noro and nit free in paradise