Systems of Stomach Flu?

Question

I think I may have the stomach flu. Starting Monday at school I accidentally drank bad milk which I think was the cause of this. Ever since I've been queezy, can't think of eating food, wanting to vomit, and bad stomach cramps. What can I do to make it feel better? Is this stomach flu or something else? Please help, thanks.

Answer 1

Did you drink all the milk? If you did, it could be food poisoning. Here are symptoms of flu. I also have symptoms of food poisoning which includes sour milk below. I hope you start feeling better soon. If you don't feel better, you should see your doctor.

What are the symptoms?
When you have stomach flu, you may have one or more of the following symptoms:

• fatigue
• chills
• loss of appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• stomach cramps
• diarrhea
• low-grade fever
• muscle aches.
The illness may develop over a period of hours, or it may suddenly start with stomach cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea.
How is it diagnosed?
Your health care provider will review your symptoms. He or she may examine you and order lab tests to rule out more serious illnesses, such as appendicitis, and to detect complications, such as dehydration.

How is it treated?
The most important thing to do is to rest the stomach and intestines. You can do this by first eating nothing and drinking only clear liquids. A little later you can eat soft bland foods that are easy to digest.

During the vomiting phase of the illness it is best to have only small, frequent sips of liquids.
Drinking too much at once, even an ounce or two, may cause more vomiting.

Your choice of liquids is important. If water is the only liquid you can drink without vomiting, that is okay. However, if you have been vomiting frequently for a long time, you must replace the minerals, sodium and potassium, that are lost when you vomit. Ask your health care provider what sport drinks or medical products could help you replace these minerals.

Other clear liquids you can drink are weak tea and apple juice. You may also drink soft drinks without caffeine (such as 7 UP) after letting them lose some of their carbonation (go flat). Chilling the liquids may help you keep them down. Avoid liquids that are acidic (such as orange juice) or caffeinated (such as coffee) or have a lot of carbonation. Do not drink milk until you no longer have diarrhea.

You may start eating soft bland foods when you have not vomited for several hours and are able to drink clear liquids without further upset. Soda crackers, toast, noodles, applesauce, and bananas are good first choices. Avoid foods that are acidic, spicy, fatty, or fibrous (meats, coarse grains, vegetables) and dairy products. You may start eating these foods again in 3 days or so, when all signs of illness have passed.

Sometimes treatment includes prescription medicine to prevent nausea and vomiting or diarrhea. Nonprescription medicine is available for the treatment of diarrhea and is very effective. If you use it, make sure you use the dose recommended on the package. Before you use any medicine
for diarrhea, always check with your health care provider first.

If you have been vomiting for more than a day or have had diarrhea for over 3 days, call your health care provider. You may need to have a physical exam to rule out more serious problems and to check for dehydration. You may also need to have lab tests to determine whether bacteria or protozoa are causing your illness.

Dehydration is a potentially serious complication of stomach flu. It can occur if your body loses too much fluid because you keep vomiting or having diarrhea. If you are severely dehydrated, you may need to be given fluids intravenously (IV). In children and the elderly, dehydration can quickly become life threatening.

How long do the effects last?
Stomach flu rarely lasts longer than 1 to 3 days. However, it may be 1 to 2 weeks before your bowel habits return completely to normal.

Call your health care provider if:

• You continue to have severe symptoms for more than 2 or 3 days.
• Minor symptoms persist for several days (for example, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea).
• You develop symptoms that are not usually caused by stomach flu, such as blood in your vomit or bloody diarrhea.
How can I take care of myself?
Rest your stomach and intestines by following the guidelines above, but make sure you prevent dehydration by drinking enough liquids. Drink just small amounts frequently during the vomiting phase of your illness.
What can I do to help prevent stomach flu?
The single, most helpful way to prevent the spread of stomach flu is frequent, thorough hand washing. Also, avoid contact with the body fluids of an infected person, including saliva.

Do I Have Food Poisoning?
If a person has food poisoning, he or she might:

have an upset stomach (called nausea, say: naw-zee-uh)
have stomach cramps
have diarrhea (say: dy-uh-ree-uh), which may contain blood
have a fever
Sometimes feeling sick from food poisoning shows up within hours of eating the bad food. At other times, someone may not feel sick until several days later. With mild cases of food poisoning, you will not feel sick for very long and will soon be feeling fine again.

Sometimes it's hard to tell if you have food poisoning or something else. You might do a little detective work and see who else gets the same sickness. Did they eat the same thing you did? If only people who ate that food got sick, food poisoning could be the problem.

It's one thing to get food poisoning from something in your fridge, but imagine how many people could get sick if a restaurant served food that had these bad germs in it. When that happens, people from the health department might get involved and try to figure out what happened and make sure everyone gets the medical care they need.

What Will the Doctor Do?
If you go to the doctor, he or she will ask you a lot of questions about how you're feeling, when you first felt sick, what you ate in the past few days, and if anyone else you know is also sick. The doctor might also take a sample of your stool (poop) and urine (pee) to test for possible germs that might have caused food poisoning.

The type of treatment you'll get for food poisoning will depend on the specific germ that is making you sick. The doctor might give you medicine, but most of the time people who have food poisoning don't need to take medicine.

It's also rare that a kid with food poisoning would need to go to the hospital. Usually, only people who get really dehydrated have to go to the hospital. Being dehydrated means your body has lost too much fluid due to diarrhea and vomiting. A dehydrated person can get fluids and medicine through an IV at the hospital. To keep from getting dehydrated, try to keep drinking fluids when you are sick.

You may also need to go to the hospital if you have blood in your poop. If you do see blood in your poop, you should definitely tell your parents about it.

How to Fight the Germs
Many things can be done to prevent food poisoning from happening. These precautions should be taken at every stage a food takes — from preparation to cooking to storing leftovers. A lot of this responsibility falls on grown-ups, but kids can help fight germs, too. One of the best ways is to wash your hands if you're helping to prepare foods.

When should you wash? Before you start helping — so germs from your hands don't get on the food — and after so you don't pass along germs from the food to yourself or anyone else. If you don't, here's how germs can travel: You help make hamburger patties. You get bad bacteria from the raw ground beef on your hands. You hold your little sister's hand. She uses that hand to eat a snack. Now the bacteria have made it inside and can make her sick.

Other steps you can take to keep your food safe include:

Wash fruits and vegetables well before eating them.
Only eat foods that are properly cooked. If you cut into chicken and it looks pink and raw inside, tell a grown-up.
Look at what you're eating and smell it, too. If something looks or smells different than normal, check with an adult before eating or drinking it. Milk is a good example. If you've ever had a sip of sour milk, you know you never want to taste that again! Mold (which can be green, pink, white, or brown) is also often a sign that food has spoiled.
If you're going to eat leftovers, ask a grown-up for help heating them up. By heating them, you can kill bacteria that grew while it was in the fridge.
Check the date. Lots of packaged foods have expiration dates or "sell by" dates. Don't eat a food if today's date is after the expiration date. Use it before it expires. Some of these dates are "sell by," which means that the food should leave store shelves by that time. Ask an adult for help deciding if it's past the sell by date.
Cover and refrigerate food right away. Sitting at room temperature, bacteria get a good chance to grow. By putting food in the fridge, you're putting the chill on those bad germs!

Answer 2

First, you should take your temperature. If it's higher than 98.6, then you should go see a doctor. Some things you could do at home would be drinking lots of Pepto Bismol and 7up. Try taking a nice nap, as well. You'll feel better in no time!

Answer 3

Your immune system sounds pretty strong to me. Even so, sometimes we get a cold or the flu, and sometimes we don't. You'll really just have to wait and see if you caught something or not.

Answer 4

Stomach Flu (Viral Gastroenteritis)
What is stomach flu?
Stomach flu is a viral infection that affects the stomach and small intestine. It is also called viral gastroenteritis. The illness is usually brief, lasting 1 to 3 days.
How does it occur?
Gastroenteritis is caused by swallowing certain viruses. The body fluids of infected people contain the virus, sometimes even before their symptoms begin. The virus can be spread by direct contact with an infected person (for example, kissing or shaking hands) or by sharing food, drink, or eating utensils.

The virus enters the stomach and intestine and inflames the lining of these organs. As a result, the stomach and intestine are temporarily unable to perform their usual functions. The virus can also cause food to move more rapidly through your gastrointestinal (GI) tract.

Some bacteria and other tiny organisms called protozoa can cause infections that have symptoms similar to those of stomach flu.

What are the symptoms?
When you have stomach flu, you may have one or more of the following symptoms:

• fatigue
• chills
• loss of appetite
• nausea
• vomiting
• stomach cramps
• diarrhea
• low-grade fever
• muscle aches.
The illness may develop over a period of hours, or it may suddenly start with stomach cramps, vomiting, or diarrhea.
How is it diagnosed?
Your health care provider will review your symptoms. He or she may examine you and order lab tests to rule out more serious illnesses, such as appendicitis, and to detect complications, such as dehydration.

How is it treated?
The most important thing to do is to rest the stomach and intestines. You can do this by first eating nothing and drinking only clear liquids. A little later you can eat soft bland foods that are easy to digest.

During the vomiting phase of the illness it is best to have only small, frequent sips of liquids.
Drinking too much at once, even an ounce or two, may cause more vomiting.

Your choice of liquids is important. If water is the only liquid you can drink without vomiting, that is okay. However, if you have been vomiting frequently for a long time, you must replace the minerals, sodium and potassium, that are lost when you vomit. Ask your health care provider what sport drinks or medical products could help you replace these minerals.

Other clear liquids you can drink are weak tea and apple juice. You may also drink soft drinks without caffeine (such as 7 UP) after letting them lose some of their carbonation (go flat). Chilling the liquids may help you keep them down. Avoid liquids that are acidic (such as orange juice) or caffeinated (such as coffee) or have a lot of carbonation. Do not drink milk until you no longer have diarrhea.

You may start eating soft bland foods when you have not vomited for several hours and are able to drink clear liquids without further upset. Soda crackers, toast, noodles, applesauce, and bananas are good first choices. Avoid foods that are acidic, spicy, fatty, or fibrous (meats, coarse grains, vegetables) and dairy products. You may start eating these foods again in 3 days or so, when all signs of illness have passed.

Sometimes treatment includes prescription medicine to prevent nausea and vomiting or diarrhea. Nonprescription medicine is available for the treatment of diarrhea and is very effective. If you use it, make sure you use the dose recommended on the package. Before you use any medicine
for diarrhea, always check with your health care provider first.

If you have been vomiting for more than a day or have had diarrhea for over 3 days, call your health care provider. You may need to have a physical exam to rule out more serious problems and to check for dehydration. You may also need to have lab tests to determine whether bacteria or protozoa are causing your illness.

Dehydration is a potentially serious complication of stomach flu. It can occur if your body loses too much fluid because you keep vomiting or having diarrhea. If you are severely dehydrated, you may need to be given fluids intravenously (IV). In children and the elderly, dehydration can quickly become life threatening.

How long do the effects last?
Stomach flu rarely lasts longer than 1 to 3 days. However, it may be 1 to 2 weeks before your bowel habits return completely to normal.

Call your health care provider if:

• You continue to have severe symptoms for more than 2 or 3 days.
• Minor symptoms persist for several days (for example, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhea).
• You develop symptoms that are not usually caused by stomach flu, such as blood in your vomit or bloody diarrhea.
How can I take care of myself?
Rest your stomach and intestines by following the guidelines above, but make sure you prevent dehydration by drinking enough liquids. Drink just small amounts frequently during the vomiting phase of your illness.
What can I do to help prevent stomach flu?
The single, most helpful way to prevent the spread of stomach flu is frequent, thorough hand washing. Also, avoid contact with the body fluids of an infected person, including saliva.

If you would like to discuss your symptoms with the SCC Nurse, please call 702-1915 during regular business hours. If you would like to see a SCC provider, please call 702-4156 for an appointment.

Answer 5

sounds like food poisoning to me.

Answer 6

ask the doctor

Answer 7

well, it could be food poisoning.

Answer 8

www.webMD.com look up the symptoms.

Answer 9

you mean symptoms, eh?

Answer 10

probably i hope your okay