BRAT & The Stomach Bug

Unfortunately, there isn't much we can do when our precious Littles have the vomiting and diarrhea bug. It's so sad seeing their helpless and confused faces when they don't understand what's happening to their bodies.

Hydration is #1 most important! Luckily our son asks for water often, but we have a few tricks to encourage that. I always have my water bottle handy and drink from it often, to be an example. He enjoys drinking from my water bottle, but when he's sick I let him have it all to himself. I also keep several styles of sippy cups around the house because he seems to enjoy the novelty of something different. I keep sippy cups handy in all areas of our house; in our kitchen/living room, his room, and downstairs. We also bought some strawberry Pedialyte and offer it to him as "juice", which is very exciting in our house. If that didn't go over well, the doctor suggested mixing half Gatorade and water.

The BRAT diet is a great guideline for offering your Little options that will sit best in the tummy. B is for banana. Sometimes our Little like them sliced, cut into lengths, or whole; try some different options to make it interesting. R is for rice. Our little isn't a fan of rice, but I imagine a bit of butter and salt would make it appealing for some. A is for applesauce. This reusable squeezy pouch made this food much easier to clean up! When you're cleaning up vomit and changing diapers and outfits every 20 minutes a break from cleaning up is golden. T is for toast. Our Little usually enjoys toast with some butter, but with his reduced appetite we found that adding a few drops of jelly made the difference in enticing him.

Our doctor suggested avoiding dairy while he was sick, but yogurt when your Little is on the mend yogurt is a good way to get probiotics in and get the gut bacteria back to normal. (Squeezy pouch is an awesome tool here too!) Administering probiotics also accomplishes this.

Best of luck and I hope your Little feels better very soon!