Dr. Chheda – A typical stomach virus will start with vomiting for 24 to 48 hours. If you’re gonna get a fever, you’re gonna get it during the vomiting period. After the vomiting period is over, then you end up with diarrhoea, and the diarrhoea can last for up to 10 days.

For toddlers, we actually want them to have diarrhoea because that’s the only way to get rid of the virus. So you will have vomiting and possibly fever for 24 to 48 hours, and then the diarrhea starts. The diarrhea can last for up to 10 days depending on the type of virus it is.

They can get dehydrated, but as long as they’re taking in enough fluids, they shouldn’t have a problem with dehydration. During the diarrhoea period, we get more concerned with the vomiting period with dehydration. But with the diarrhoea period, they’re eating fine, they’re just passing everything through, so you wanna make sure that they’re getting plenty of liquids.

One thing that some people avoid is dairy products, because if you have dairy products during the diarrhea period, the vomiting may come back. So you wanna try to avoid dairy products, but otherwise everything else is typically fine to have during the diarrhea period.

You also may wanna avoid anything with a lot of sugar content like fruit juices, because the sugar can cause the diarrhea to be worse. However, if that’s the only thing that they’re drinking, we want them to drink it because we want them to stay hydrated during the diarrhea period.

For the vomiting period which is early on, that’s a little bit more tough, but you should talk to your pediatrician about that if you feel like they’re getting dehydrated. 🏥