Stomach Bug

Little Mermaid 35

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 18, 2017
Not sure where the right place to put this is so forgive me if this is in the wrong section...my family and I just got home from a WDW trip that started off great and ended less than magical. It was myself, my husband and our 6 year old son. We stayed at POR. Our son came down with a nasty stomach bug on the last day of our trip. We had four great days in the parks and on the 5th day which was supposed to be our last he woke up with a 103 fever...checked out a day early and started driving home and he started throwing up and threw up the whole way home. It was a LONG 6.5 hour ride home. This is our son's fourth trip to WDW and nothing like this has ever happened. I'm super diligent about washing hands/not touching his face or door knobs or handrails etc. But this still managed to happen. I have a phobia of throwing up so this was particularly horrible to me.

I have since been online looking up Disney stomach bugs...I had no idea how common of a thing this was! Apparently this happens all the time at WDW and Disney is like a stomach bug Petri dish:scared::crazy2:To be completely honest it was so awful and has left such a bad taste in my mouth I'm not super excited about planning another trip for a long time. I understand that you can catch a stomach bug anywhere but with that many kids in one place and everyone's touching everything on rides and in restaurants and bathrooms...ugh it's no wonder stomach bugs run rampant there! Sorry if this is freaking anyone out that's about to travel. Just make sure you wash your hands well with soap and water and try your hardest to keep your kids hands out of their mouths. Wash your hands after touching menus and after visiting the buffet. Getting sick on vacation blows:guilty:Really hoping I'll get over my fear of this happening again so we can plan another trip sometime down the road.
 
Being sick at Disney is bad. Having a sick kid at Disney is even worse. Sorry you had to go through it. But I can tell you from experience that the memory fades, you end up with a great story to tell, and when you go back next time, your son will be a little older and a little more resistant to the dreaded Disney bug.
 
Being sick at Disney is bad. Having a sick kid at Disney is even worse. Sorry you had to go through it. But I can tell you from experience that the memory fades, you end up with a great story to tell, and when you go back next time, your son will be a little older and a little more resistant to the dreaded Disney bug.

Thank you for this encouragement...I think this experience was particularly unpleasant bc of my phobia of throwing up. We're supposed to go back in two years with family and I'm hoping you're right that maybe by then he'll be a bit more resistant to this type of thing and also won't be putting his hands in his mouth as often. As much as I tried to keep his hands out of his mouth he still did it and I'm sure that's where he picked it up. Thanks for your kind words.
 
I've actually had to abort a three-parks in one-day thrill ride challenge trip in March due to a stomach bug combined with exhaustion from a lack of sleep the night before after only doing two attractions at Epcot. Not a good thing to do!
 
So sorry for you - that must have been awful for him. I'm really concerned about stomach bugs due to mine and DGS low immune system. I carry wipes and try not to touch handles - but I try not to be too obsessive as I do t want to pass it on to the children!
The worst I got was at a hotel in the Lake District (UK) and I couldn't leave the room for 2 days!
 
Two out of our four trips have ended with sickness.:crazy2::rolleyes::sick: Last year my dh was so violently sick that he never wants to go back to DW. :scared:As he put it-it’s a lot of money to spend just to end up staying in the room for days. (He got sick on day 3 of our 7day trip and could not get out of bed until day 5-and then he could barely walk.) It was *awful*. Ds was sick as well. Dd and I somehow managed to avoid it.

I’m sorry he got sick. It’s certainly not the souvenir you want to bring home! pixiedust:Hope he’s feeling better!
 
We just returned home from Disney and 2 of my kiddos got sick....it's the worst! You spend so much money and time planning. However this was my 8 the trip 7th family trip and we've learned alot. We try our best to prevent sickness but it's not always possible. We wash hands every couple of rides and I always carry hand sanitizer and wet wipes, and my 7 year old got sick after day 2 this year. He puked once but had a fever virus. We always carry in medicine with us thank goodness. My backpack always has Benadryl, Motrin/ Tylenol, and zofran ( incase of puking). My family also got our flu shots 10 days before we left for Disney. The reason there are so many germs besides the amount of people there and simply after paying/ planning for 6 months to a year sick or not... rain or shine you go to the parks. We did! Our 7 year old is the easiest happiest never complains sick child so we went. ( My oldest would have been a different story...im sure.)He did ride in the stroller most of the time. We also found the best Dr office... Night lite. They called to check on him twice! Even after we returned home and I told them our youngest had it and they asked if they could help in anyway. Can't say enough positive! We still had the best trip! The last night was when our youngest got sick and we were close to leaving. We went ahead and gave her Motrin and then left the park but it was already 830ish.
You will forget the sickness and still be left with the happy memories! And in time I'm sure you will want to go back!
 


Two out of our four trips have ended with sickness.:crazy2::rolleyes::sick: Last year my dh was so violently sick that he never wants to go back to DW. :scared:As he put it-it’s a lot of money to spend just to end up staying in the room for days. (He got sick on day 3 of our 7day trip and could not get out of bed until day 5-and then he could barely walk.) It was *awful*. Ds was sick as well. Dd and I somehow managed to avoid it.

I’m sorry he got sick. It’s certainly not the souvenir you want to bring home! pixiedust:Hope he’s feeling better!

This is exactly how I feel! It's so much money I feel wasted if one of you comes down with something and can't enjoy the entire trip...I'm so sorry you have gone through this twice! Definitely the worst kind of Disney souvenir!:sad1:
 
I feel like someone in my family ends up sick just about every time we go somewhere. We went to Nashville last year. Our son was 8 months old. My husband got a stomach bug on our 2nd to last day and I got it the day after we got home. Thankfully, my son escaped that one!

We went to Disney in May...son was 18 months old. He started coming down with a respiratory illness the last day. He got progressively worse through the week and ended up hospitalized for a day. So that was great.

We are planning to go back to Disney next year and are hoping for better luck!
 
Friends of ours had the bug go through each family member one at a time (4 of them) each having it for two days. And of course it started on their second day so they spent almost their whole trip in the hotel room. That’s my nightmare of a Disney trip when you spend all that money!
 
Friends of ours had the bug go through each family member one at a time (4 of them) each having it for two days. And of course it started on their second day so they spent almost their whole trip in the hotel room. That’s my nightmare of a Disney trip when you spend all that money!

Ugh!! Yes what a nightmare! I'm thankful we had four good days before he got sick but still this was literally one of my worst fears come true! It's especially awful when you spend all of that money only to have an illness ruin your trip!:guilty:
 
I feel like someone in my family ends up sick just about every time we go somewhere. We went to Nashville last year. Our son was 8 months old. My husband got a stomach bug on our 2nd to last day and I got it the day after we got home. Thankfully, my son escaped that one!

We went to Disney in May...son was 18 months old. He started coming down with a respiratory illness the last day. He got progressively worse through the week and ended up hospitalized for a day. So that was great.

We are planning to go back to Disney next year and are hoping for better luck!


Ugh so sorry you've experienced this! Prayers for an illness free Disney trip next year!
 
Ugh so sorry you've experienced this! Prayers for an illness free Disney trip next year!

I didn’t even mention the time I spent a good chunk of my honeymoon in bed at POFQ battling a nasty cold! It was kind of a blessing in disguise though. We decided a couple of years later to go back, since I’d been so sick the first time. And then we got hooked and kept going back...and back...and back...lol. Maybe Disney plants germs in the rooms so that people will need to re-do their trips?? ;)

And we had a wonderful trip with our son up until that last day. And actually, while we were still in Disney, he just had a mild cough. It didn’t get really bad until we were back home. It was a very long drive back to Central Illinois though.
 
I have 5 kids, we had a stomach bug in the house several times every year, mostly during the school year. Now that they’re teens, it’s rare.

This gives me hope! I hate stomach bugs so much! Can't wait for him to grow out of getting sick so often
 
We were there the beginning of last Dec. We are adults with no kids and there was a bug going around. I don’t want to jinx anything but this was our first and hopefully only time experiencing that. I am the same as the OP. My husband has to clean up if our dog gets sick. We were so lucky we did not catch it as my husband has a low immune system due to some medical issues. We noticed on the plane there the flight attendants kept bringing napkins and trash bags, etc to a row further up the plane and as we were getting off the kid got sick in the bag right as I was walking by. That whole week both at Disney and SW we either witnessed people getting sick or walked by as staff were cleaning up. We are going again Thanksgiving Week 2018.
 
Our 6 year old had bug on Day 3 of our trip. Staying at the Contemporary. Anyway in all fairness we didn't know but she had an ear infection flying down. The Tylenol made it better but by Day 3- between excitement, lack of real sleep, exhaustion, the mixed up schedule she got full on sick. Took her to a Medical center hospital recommended near property... wouldn't recommend it every but at least the Dr gave us the anti nauseous medicine and stuff for her ears. The more CM's I mentioned too the more I heard oh yeah the "Disney 3 day bug" they said it happens all the time with kids. If I heard it once I heard it from almost every CM.

Going again 2 years later and praying we all don't catch anything but bringing wet wipes, sanitizer, taking probiotics etc.
 
It happen to us several years ago. Our little guy was 4 or 5 that trip and anytime he was anxious ( like waiting for a ride he had never ridden before) his fingers went in his mouth. Yep, about day 3 he was sick. Long night in the room but he was better really fast. DH got it next. Oldest DS and I waited till we got home. It was pretty bad and I tossed PJs and tipped house keeping REALLY good. After that I always pack a tummy bug survival kit when we travel.
 
It happen to us several years ago. Our little guy was 4 or 5 that trip and anytime he was anxious ( like waiting for a ride he had never ridden before) his fingers went in his mouth. Yep, about day 3 he was sick. Long night in the room but he was better really fast. DH got it next. Oldest DS and I waited till we got home. It was pretty bad and I tossed PJs and tipped house keeping REALLY good. After that I always pack a tummy bug survival kit when we travel.
So what exactly is in the tummy bug survival kit?
 

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