Treating a Stomach Bug
It seems that the vomiting bug is running riot around the schools at the moment so what can you do to protect yourself and aid healing.
My children, aged 4 yrs. and 6 yrs. have only ever had one stomach bug in their lives which is pretty impressive given their attendance at nursery from a young age. My 4-year-old was sick last week for the first time and was rather confused as to why her food was coming up and tasting funny!!!!!
Anyway, I immediately took action to prevent the rest of the family getting it.
When a virus or bug enters the stomach it is usually dealt with initially by the stomach acid. This often kills it however certain medications & conditions can reduce stomach acid. This is one of the reasons why I disagree with giving gaviscon, omeprazole and ranitidine to babies but that’s another discussion! Click here for more info about this subject.
If the bug gets past the stomach it will be dealt with by the immune system in the gut. The biggest and most important part of the immune system is in fact in the digestive tract. Here your body plays host to millions of ‘friendly’ bacteria that help digest your food and deal with invaders.
Now the biggest problem with this is that many young children do not have the ‘friendly’ bacteria they need. This can be due to medications (such as antibiotics), diet, being bottle fed or born by C-section to name but a few. Then when you have a stomach bug you end up stripping any of the ‘friendly’ bacteria you had present.
This leaves a gapping whole in your immune defence which often means you get something else immediately or soon after the stomach bug.
So here is what you need to do as soon as you hear of any stomach bugs or anyone in the house goes down with sickness and diarrhea.
- The person who is sick needs to take a powdered probiotic in water and continue to take for 7 days after the symptoms have stopped.
- The rest of the family need to take a double dose of probiotic for the first two days and then a normal dose for 7 days afterwards.
Please be aware that yoghurt type drinks and products marketed for friendly bacteria will not work for this issue. The number of bacteria is insufficient and not suitable for ingesting during a stomach bug.
Here are the products I recommend:
For babies:
Biocare Infantis or Acidophilus powder
Optibac for babies and children
Proven for babies
For children:
Biocare probiotic straws or acidophilus powder
Optibac for babies and children
Proven chewable probiotics
For adults:
Optibac Everyday Forte
Nutrigold Pro-otic
Biocare Acidophilus Forte
These are all available from www.naturaldispensary.co.uk
Use this code: JAC010 to get 10% off your order.