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Deb Kelner, she/her's avatar

What is it about a parent’s brain (usually a mother’s from my experience) that tells them to reach out their hands to catch the vomit? Why do we do that? Yes, I think there must be badges or stars or some sort of ‘leveling up’ associated with this particular behavior.

Such enormous fun, being sick while away from home. You know me to be one such friend.

I read recently a recommendation to have activated charcoal for food poisoning while traveling. Is this something you’ve ever heard about?

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stephanie's avatar

I once clutched my infant son next to me when he started a particularly aggressive barf session; the vomit barely missed my mouth, gathering instead on my neck and traveling down my shirt. I carefully carried him that way upstairs to step into the shower, fully dressed, and wash us both that way. 😬 Otherwise I faced having to clean the couch & rug as well as our clothes & bodies. #MomBrain

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Jen B's avatar

Yep, been there. So fun, isn't it?

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Deb Kelner, she/her's avatar

#mombrain!

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Jen B's avatar

No, I've never heard about activated charcoal in a travel first aid kit. I'll research that.

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stephanie's avatar

We & our besties passed around some violent mercifully brief illness while vacationing together in Phuket a few years ago. My husband was first and worst, then me, then our college friend, and on our last day there his husband felt queasy but nothing too distressing, thankfully. An unexpectedly hard part was finding bland saltine crackers in Thailand but at least we had plenty of free bottled water & a gorgeous resort during recovery.

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Karen (formerly Kcinnova)'s avatar

I remember you posting about that!

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Janelle Holden's avatar

Yes, and Mexico is forever linked to being sick for me, unfortunately. Recently had food poisoning in Porto and then bronchitis. No fun! But I still travel.

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Jen B's avatar

You had such a rough time in Porto.

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Cie Scattergood's avatar

Let’s see. I had my six month old throw up in my face after his first week of daycare (a horrible weekend ensued). In Portland, OR, I got food poisoning in our hotel room, threw up twice (did not make it to the bathroom the second time), and my husband had to pack me and the now two year old out to drive us the three hours home.

Husband discovered he was allergic to mussels the hard way on another trip (we were in town cheering on a competitor in a drag queen contest).

We’ve not had to extend a stay, fortunately—though driving 3 hours in the dead of night has not been fun.

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Jen B's avatar

Holy flipping, that's rough.

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Maria Anderson's avatar

Mao-Tse-Tung’s revenge in Beijing. Five Imodium before a 13-hour flight “cemented” an uneventful trip back to the US with just bread and water for sustenance.

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Jen B's avatar

Oh my gosh, that must have been rough.

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Maria Anderson's avatar

I was so glad to be home where I could freely drink water. I was super careful but, I survived!

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Karen (formerly Kcinnova)'s avatar

I've been very lucky to not have a sick family member while traveling via planes or trains. I grew up dealing with motion sickness on just about every morning of automobile travel (my brothers will still talk about how miserable it was to have me throw up while seated between them on the back seat of a Chevy wagon; what they fail to mention is that I was seated between them to keep them from fighting). We have a minor horror story of a kid puking all night long while tenting (my husband ran of out of clean shirts to put under the kid's head before the night was over) and the same kid once projectile vomited on a car ride home from a mountain hike (headrests save drivers' lives is all I'll say), but we haven't lost vacation time due to being unable to travel.

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