Every July we go to WDW and my 8 year old gets SICK!!!!!

[bartleby1]

I rarely ever get sick and I never use Hand Sanitizer.

I'm the opposite. I rarely get sick but I use hand sanitizer by the gallons, LOL!

To the OP, try to teach your daughter to keep her hands away from her face. My oldest gets sick the most because she is constantly touching her face. Germs enter thru the eyes, nose, and mouth.

In Disney, we use sanitizer between every few rides and definitely before we eat anything. I also use disinfectant wipes on the table before we eat. Sanitize after touching menus before you eat. Menus are very germy, so are ketchup bottles, salt shakers, etc.

Also, I try very hard to not have our family share drinks, licks of ice cream, etc, so that if one of us picks up some bug, hopefully it doesn't get passed to others in the family. You are usually contagious before showing symptoms so we try hard not to share food while on vacation.

So far, we haven't had anyone get sick on a trip and we take yearly 2 week long vacations. We do drive so we aren't dealing with airplane germs, but so far we have survived Disney 9 times as a family and no illnesses.

 

[Poohforyou]

This happened to us 2 years in a row with dd13 (not at Disney). This year she was fine - thank goodness since she brought a friend and we had our puppy with us. I think in our case it was ingesting ocean water so we told her to be more careful about that and avoided the beach our last day.

At wdw she could be picking up something anywhere. You might want to work on boosting her immune system and reinforcing basis hygiene with her.

Remember, kids get sick. Nothing to be terrified about - save that for the teen years. She could have picked up a virus anywhere. It's even possible someone in your family is acting as a carrier.

I hope she's better soon.

 

[snowangel72]

Thanks everyone. She was sick for TEN days, ten days of nausea and intermittent vomiting. It was horrible. Two years in a row. Next year will be different!!!!!

 

[buzznina]

Saw a show awhile back and they followed a family around on vacation and they recorded the most germs on the families hands after rides. From the lap bars etc. We always try to sanitize after every ride.

 

[bartleby1]

Thanks everyone. She was sick for TEN days, ten days of nausea and intermittent vomiting. It was horrible. Two years in a row. Next year will be different!!!!!

Oh, wow. That stinks! Just curious, did you have her strep tested? My middle child never gets a sore throat from strep but is nauseous and throws up off and on for longer than a normal stomach bug. It will seem like a stomach virus for the first two days but then he appears to start being able to hold food down but then the vomiting returns. I now know that whenever his stomach virus lasts longer than the usual 24-48 hrs, he probably has strep. Just something to keep in mind! Good thing about strep is that they are feeling much better after two doses of antibiotics.

 

[Svhadden]

We (the kids and I, not dear dh) don't do dessert/white/cane sugar until the last couple of days of vacation so that we're not sick on vacation. With our poor immune systems, that just means we're sick after vacation, but at least we got to have fun while there . If I really was adamant about not getting sick, then we'd eliminate all white/cane sugar.

THIS.

It's a sad truth that white sugar is MURDUR on the immune system. It seriously depresses immunity, and if you're surrounded by a trillion unfamiliar germs, you're very likely to get sick . Why do we tend to get sicker in the fall/winter? Is it because germs like cold weather ? No. Starting in Oct, we begin loading up our bodies with sugar, sweets, treats, and continue until Jan. It's no wonder this is "cold and flu" season.

I totally agree with several pp's. Sunshine, extra Vit C, frequent, diligent hand washing, antibac wipes. Also recommend digestive enzymes to help the gut cope with all the sweet, rich food. Something else to consider is protease, which is a totally natural product that "eats" proteins (viruses, bacteria), and/or a good probiotic. Make sure the probiotic is very good quality, as some of them are really junk.

So sorry for your girl!

 

[dragonfly08]

If I'm not careful, my older DD gets sick when we travel, often even if we're eating homemade foods. She's not an overly picky eater but she has a sensitive stomach. Something as simple as eating my mom's lasagna because she uses ricotta in hers and I usually don't can cause at best stomach aches and at worst vomiting.

I learned early on to pack lots of snacks from home and eat as few meals out as possible, and not just on vacation. I pack lunch to go to the mall if we'll be there over mealtime, to avoid an ill kid! And when we do eat out, DD is pretty careful about her choices. We tend to stick to places where there are options we know agree with her. It's one of several reasons we won't ever get the DDP. We do a lot better packing PB&J and having soup or sandwiches at a QS location when we go to Disney. I don't much relax rules on sweets either because going hog wild there is absolutely a recipe for disaster. DD is, fortunately, now old enough to agree that skipping the Mickey Bar and enjoying her vacation is a much better option than getting the ice cream and feeling miserable later! But more than one trip went downhill fast before we/she figured that out.

And we all wash our hands frequently, especially before eating, which helps cut down on issues for everybody!

Good luck!

 

[delilah]

We have gone to WDW 2-3 times per year ever since our son was 3, and he is 15 now. Nobody had ever gotten a case of gastroenteritis, until this past June. My husband and son both got a case, and both had eaten the same thing at Sunshine Season's cafe--the seared tuna salad, which I have had in the past, also, and really like. But, I guess that is off our personal menu now. I went to a different park--Animal Kingdom, and I didn't get ill at all, ever, so, I think it was likely food poisoning and not a viral illness (which, technically speaking, is also a food poisoning, because it is spread through the fecal-oral route. It can be passed through food handlers not properly washing their hands, or at a buffet if somebody else touches the food and has the virus, etc.

From my perspective, the worst part of the situation is that I had made a reservation for the Spirit of Aloha show for the following evening. They were feeling a little better, couldn't really eat very much. We all agreed the show was very enjoyable, just wish under better circumstances. Another bad thing was that we had the Disney dining plan (which is why we wouldn't have simply cancelled the dinner show--we wouldn't have been able to get a refund). We had 2 unused counter service meals, and a bunch of snacks. Sometimes, we would bring extra meals to eat on the way to the airport, but, the guys still didn't have any appetite.

So, by no means do we get sick every time we go to Disney. There is a component of common sense, like not eating something like seared tuna in a high volume setting like Sunshine Seasons in Epcot. I am sure that I would trust one of the other table service restaurants, like Tokyo dining, to serve safely prepared fresh tuna, and that, as a matter of fact, is where I had the tuna before at Disney.

 

[snowangel72]

Oh, wow. That stinks! Just curious, did you have her strep tested? My middle child never gets a sore throat from strep but is nauseous and throws up off and on for longer than a normal stomach bug. It will seem like a stomach virus for the first two days but then he appears to start being able to hold food down but then the vomiting returns. I now know that whenever his stomach virus lasts longer than the usual 24-48 hrs, he probably has strep. Just something to keep in mind! Good thing about strep is that they are feeling much better after two doses of antibiotics.

I did think of that...the pedi was in charge and didn't offer it as a suggestion but you know it could have been that...

 

[honeybunches]

Our first trip was in June. It was SOOO hot and my DD got sick on our last night after eating at Cape May. I think that she was just way overheated because I had taken her out to the parks while DH and DS took a nap that afternoon. Since you're going in July, could that be it?

My husband and I do take probiotics..but I haven't seen any for a 1-2 year old? He does take an infant vitamin... The poly vi sol.

My kids have taken probiotics since they were babies. I get the kind in capsules -- we buy Nature's Sunshine bifidophilous but you can get something else, like Culturelle --- then open the capsules and sprinkle into yogurt or even directly into their mouths. I think Culturelle might even make chewable ones? The amount of bacteria in the capsules is way more than you can get in cups of yogurt.

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

My youngest gets heat sick, during a Summer trip. The long and hotter, the sicker. I have to keep her cool, avoid the heat of the day, no more June/JulyAugust Summer trips. If it were calling for 90's this September we would either reschedule or avoid peak hours missing a lot.

She is not good in the parks if too hot even off seasons; Shade, wet "Polar Breeze Wraps" lots of fluids, and ginger chews. I m not sure if its dehydrating, losing potassium, or other imbalance, but she hates the puking for sure. As soon as you say Disney she would rather go in the Winter.