My two-year-old has been fighting a stomach bug for the past two weeks. These two weeks have dealt me some of the most challenging times I’ve experienced as a stay-at-home parent. Watching your children suffer is never easy, but you know you’ll get through it. Dealing with a toddler with a stomach bug provides it’s on challenges

Here’s how we dealt with our first significant illness in a post-potty-trained life.

The Symptoms

My youngest and I picked up the oldest from his school on Thursday. He acted the same as usual. He told me he had a great time at school and about some things he did during the day.

We got home, and he told me he needed to go to the potty, which was great. We had been potty training for over a month, so this was nothing new. We grabbed one of the little potties we had stored around the house.

Then the thunderstruck.

For the first time since potty training began, he experienced peeing out of his butt. The sounds and the experience were all new to him. So, as soon as he ripped a big one and leaked out, he looked at me with a surprised face and said, “What was that?!”

I checked the potty as best I could with him sitting on it. Sure enough, the old mud-butt had hit him.

I explained what he had experienced, cleaned him up, gave him probiotics-enhanced water, and hoped that would be enough to keep him from experiencing more diarrhea.

The next few days, everything seemed normal. He never acted sick or had more diarrhea, and we thought it might have been something he ate.

Sunday, we took the kids to an event. Towards the end of it, a petting zoo popped up. All the kids swarmed the animals. I tried to keep mine away while they set up and got some organization, but that never happened. Eventually, I just let him pet the animals.

Our youngest refused to nap that afternoon. So, as the time wore on, we needed to go. We forgot to wash the oldest’s hands. We got through the tears of leaving, but the thought of the germs got side-lined. Of course, as we drove off, his thumb went immediately to his mouth. I grabbed my hand sanitizer and scrubbed him as best I could from the driver’s seat.

Monday morning, he woke up earlier than usual. I wake up early to work out before everyone wakes, but he beat me awake. I watched him try to settle in his crib all morning, so I left him alone to see if he would go back to sleep. He seemed to slide in and out of sleep, so I went to get him at the regular time.

When I entered the room, he sprung up and said, “Something happened.” I didn’t know what he meant, so as I approached the bed, I saw that he had thrown up. I hadn’t seen it on the monitor because the night vision mode took out all the color.

I got him cleaned up and sanitized the room. My wife immediately thought it had been from the animals from the afternoon before, but I wasn’t sure. I took him down to the living room to relax and watch cartoons. I tried to make sure that he had liquids and stomach-friendly snacks.

He was lethargic for most of the morning. Meanwhile, I juggled caring for him and his brother. I tried to keep them apart as much as possible in the same household. The oldest wanted nothing more than to touch his younger brother (he always likes to touch his head or hands while we watch TV).

After I got the youngest to sleep for his first nap, I tried to deal with the laundry from the morning expulsion. He followed me into the laundry room and then lost what was left in his stomach on the floor.

For the next two weeks, he had diarrhea and intermittent vomiting. But he also seemed to have spurts of normalcy.

The Wake Ups

As I write this, we are in the throws of the 4-month sleep regression with our youngest child. I have it a little better than my wife right now, as I can’t feed the baby like she can, but I’m still getting woken up when the baby cries.

We hadn’t slept well for a week or more before the stomach bug hit. You’d think I’d get used to going without sleep, but it is tough, no matter the situation.

But to have the sleep regression on top of a toddler who vomited at two or three in the morning made the rest of the day long. Luckily, he only had a morning expulsion three times, but we both went to sleep, fearing what would happen that night.

After the first time he vomited, and I didn’t know about it, I became a little more aware during the night. I constantly checked on him when the other child woke me or if I heard something. Every time after that first vomit, I sprinted to his room. I would get him out of bed, clean him up, and get his bedding to the laundry.

I tried to rock him in his chair the first time, but I think he wanted to get out of the room. So after that first time, we would go to the playroom and watch cartoons for a little while until I was sure he wouldn’t throw up again and let him calm down.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget laying on the couch watching Blaze and the Monster Machines at 3 AM. They weren’t fun times, but he would lean on me in a way that made me feel needed and loved. The subsequent times this happened, we found new places to sleep. We once slept in the guest room, on the long skinny couch, and the upstairs sleeping couch.

But the rough start to the night with the youngest and then the early wake-ups with the oldest took a toll on me. I cut my workouts and early morning hours. I didn’t even write much for two weeks. I focused on saving as much energy as possible for the day.

Luckily, the days were pretty straightforward. We watched a lot of cartoons. Don’t get me started on how much I love and hate Youtube Kids. I would try to be with my kid as much as possible while he wasn’t feeling good, which meant lots of sitting with him. He would watch cartoons, and I would play on my phone.

I would try to get him to play when he had the energy. Luckily, he only had to run to the bathroom once. Every other time, he had control. Besides that one time, he never threw up during the day, and he wasn’t in pain.

The Fighting

But we started fighting a little bit more. I’m not sure if it was because we were so tired, stuck inside for two weeks, or if he just remembered that he was a toddler.

While he was never great at getting ready for bedtime, it became an all-out war. He would never want to stop what he was doing.

I would try to be patient with him despite my nerves being fried from dealing with both kids all day. I would give him time warnings, like, “Okay, in five minutes, we’re going to go play with your bath toys.” Yet he dreaded the transition.

My oldest suddenly felt “scared” when we went to his bathroom at night

He would cry and run away. He would yell that he was scared and refuse to take a bath. I would try to console him. We would rock in a chair while I cuddled him and tried to discover why things became scary. I tried bringing in new toys to the bath to entice him. Nothing seemed to work.

I would eventually lose it on him. A couple of times, I picked him up and placed him in the bath to tears and screams. I would quickly soap and rinse him, but he tried to escape. It would break my heart to see him react this way, and I felt like I gave him so many chances to do what needed to be done.

Then, minutes later, he would be fine. He would smile and laugh in his room as we put his pajamas on. Then it would start over again as I tried to read him a story.

I think his change stemmed from all the changes and the fear of what kept happening at night. I’m also pretty sure he liked watching cartoons at 2 AM with Dad.

The Doctor

We didn’t take him to the doctor at first because we thought it would blow through. He never had a fever or acted like he had pain. In fact, he would sometimes go more than twenty-four hours without symptoms, mostly because he would sometimes go a day without pooping.

He would have days where he would eat a lot and days where he wouldn’t, but that’s normal for my toddler. He can be a problematic toddler to feed. We also worried that maybe he had picked up a worm or something from the animals at the petting zoo.

After over a week of diarrhea and one last vomiting episode, we finally realized we needed to get him to a doctor. I would have to take both kids with me since I didn’t have help during the day. So, I psyched myself up to have the strength and patience I needed.

Luckily, my infant had a great long nap for his first one. The way he slept and woke up made it perfect so we could have some enrichment time before going to the doctor, and then he could sleep on the way in the car.

Only he didn’t sleep.

We got to the doctor in peace, with no tears from anyone, but the infant didn’t sleep. I spent most of the waiting time trying to rock or push him in the stroller, to no avail. Finally, the littlest one had enough and lost it just as the doctor came in.

I’m talking, screaming at the top of his lungs, lost it.

The doctor understood and tried to get us out of there quickly. He told us that we needed a sample from the toddler, we could pick up the testing kit somewhere else, and he gave us something for the vomiting. I quickly packed up the kids and got the hell out of there.

The infant continued to be grumpy and needed a nap, so I raced home to get him down. Moments later, the toddler had his first bowel movement of the day, and lo and behold, it came out solid.

Since going to the doctor’s office, he’s been cured. It’s as if the office had magically taken out all his sickness.

The Lessons of Dealing With a Toddler with a Stomach Bug

As mentioned, I didn’t intend to be a stay-at-home parent. So I’m learning a lot.

It wasn’t much harder physically to deal with two while one was sick. The sick one mostly just watched TV. However, the emotional toll it took can’t be explained enough. Often, he was too tired to play, so there weren’t many other options but to zone out.

While I know I could have made different choices and forced my son to watch something else, most of the TV time was spent watching YouTube. Video on demand is great until you have to change the video for a two-year-old with no attention span. As soon as I tried to start something, I would be told, “I don’t like this one,” or “I want the one with dinosaurs,” even though we were watching the one with dinosaurs.

Stomach bugs are awful. There isn’t much to do for your child besides letting it run its course, which can take up to two weeks. Also, be ready for the bug to jump to you as well. My wife and I got symptoms, but the effects didn’t last more than a few days, thanks to medicine.

I’m unsure if I would have gone to the doctor sooner than we did. My son still played a little and had fun during the days. Plus, I don’t see the point since there isn’t much you can do besides eating bananas and yogurt – especially since America’s healthcare system is awful.

All Well Now

Luckily, as I write this, things are back to normal. As a stay-at-home parent, this was a new experience. While it wasn’t terrible, it did provide me with frustration. I’m still just glad that I could be there to help the family out, even if I didn’t get any writing done or make any money during this time.

If you enjoyed my misery or would like to follow along with our adventures, make sure you follow me on all the socials. I’m most active on Threads right now. You can also contribute to help fund the site and help me make a career of bringing you the content you love.