Doctor, what is an effective treatment of nausea?
It’s 1 a.m. Your 5-year-old is standing by your bed and says, “My tummy hurts.” You open one eye. He takes a step closer, leans over your bed and throws up what appears to be everything he has eaten over the past 24 hours. What should you do? The following are some information and treatments that have worked well for me over the past 25 years.
The most common cause is a “stomach (gastrointestinal) virus,” which overwhelms the normal bacterial flora and inflames the stomach and intestinal linings. The result is vomiting and often some diarrhea. This affects children and adults, usually only striking one member in the family, as opposed to food poisoning, which usually makes everyone who ate the contaminated food ill.
I have found two over-the-counter products that both lessen the severity of the disease and shorten the duration of vomiting and diarrhea. The first is a probiotic, known as either Lactinex or Flogen. Both are refrigerated and are the concentrated live acidophilus bacteria (the natural bacteria that helps digest your food and that is found in cultured yogurt). Acidophilus is the natural enemy of strep and staph bacteria, viruses and yeasts. It works through a process called “competitive inhibition.” To put it another way: There are so many good guys at the bar, the bad guys can’t get enough drinks to get rowdy and cause problems.
You will have to ask your pharmacist for Lactinex or Flogen. I recommend taking two tablets, two to three times a day, for three days. Lactinex can be chewed and is also effective against viral pharyngitis. Both can help prevent diarrhea and yeast infections in women who are taking antibiotics (which kill the good as well as the bad bacteria in our systems). They can also help prevent “traveler’s diarrhea” by taking two tablets, two times a day, for two to three days before going on the trip.
The second over-the-counter medicine is Ibuprofen or Naprosyn (Advil, Motrin, Aleve, etc.). These are anti-inflammatories, which decrease stomach and intestinal inflammation and significantly relieve abdominal distress (cramps and pain). Again the dose is one to three tablets (depending on age and weight), two to three times a day, for three days.
If the “victim” throws up within 15 minutes of taking the medicine, repeat the dose. If the vomiting continues without relief, or seems to be getting worse, or is mixed with any amount of blood, call your doctor! If it lasts more than three days, call your doctor. If the vomiting is projectile (leaves the mouth and almost hits the wall across the room), call your doctor.
One last word: If the “child” in question (the one who threw up all over your bed) is not the 5-year-old but the one you married – you wives will recognize this as “the one who will never grow up and never move out – this treatment is equally effective.
You might want to keep these products on hand. Whenever anyone in the household has a stomachache or sore throat, give them a Lactinex to chew on. This may prevent those unpleasant middle-of-the-night “interruptions.”