Suspect food poisoning - going into panic mode

[cdnmom]

Panicking here - my ds9 (pans) had a b-day party on Sat at my house...we ordered Italian food for a local restaurant. Early this morning 3 (out of 5) of my family members are throwing up. I called everyone who attended the party and found that 10 people (out of the 20) that were here are bed ridden and throwing up. I am panicking, from my understanding, food poisoning is usually bacterial and can be quite severe....my ds9 unfortunately is included in that number and is also throwing up and has moderate fever. I want to start an abx (he is not on any right now)....not sure if he can keep it down though. I don't know what else to do. He threw up 10 times from 6am to 11am but is ok now. I'm dosing advil and he's managed to keep that down for now....should I be bringing him to emerg? I have stash of Zith at home, should I start it? I also have 2 repeats of Augmentin but can't get my hands on that until tomorrow. Please help.

[Hopeny]

I suggest calling doctor and notifying local health department and the restaurant. Going to ER will probably get faster testing to figure out what it is. Some food infections can be really bad, personally I would seek help and not self treat if this has gone on for a few days and multiple people are sick. It could be something else passed through the food or contact. Good luck

[nicklemama]

I would definitely follow and report the food poisoning to the doc and health dept. When stomach illnesses hit our family, it does nothing to DS. No flares in symptoms. DS has had 3-4 and usually dh and I have the illness following DS. Give him a respiratory infection and boom.

[cdnmom]

Nicklemama, thanks for making me feel a bit better. If I knew for sure it was a stomach bug (viral), I probably wouldn't panic so much but I'm terrified that it's bacteria. Ds has had 2 exacerbations, both triggered by bacteria - strep and myco p. I hope it's not e. coli or salmonala. I will definitely report to health dpt...kinda don't want to give the restaurant a heads up and give them a chance to "hide" their negligence but I don't want other people to get sick eating their food either - I'm caught in the middle. They are closed today (national holiday in Cda today). I am going to collect stool sample from 2 of my children who were throwing up most of the morning and bring to a doctor tomorrow to see if they will culture it....in the meantime I will watch them closely...I don't think anyone will give them any meds at this point; they are both doing much better....eating now, keeping food in and playing (no more lethargy). The puking lasted about 6 hrs but seems to have passed. Just worried there is bacteria lingering in their sysmtems. It's been a crazy morning to say the least!!

[rowingmom]

Glad to hear they are doing better, and that the worst seems to be over. I think you are right to test for e coli, it's nothing to play around with, and report the restaurant too since others seem to have been effected.

 

DS16 felt badly over the weekend and threw up a couple of times, but in this case it was going around his lacrosse team. Fortunately I was opening the cottage, so missed the whole thing. You are a good mama!

[tpotter]

I suggest calling doctor and notifying local health department and the restaurant. Going to ER will probably get faster testing to figure out what it is. Some food infections can be really bad, personally I would seek help and not self treat if this has gone on for a few days and multiple people are sick. It could be something else passed through the food or contact. Good luck

Agreed. I believe that if it's e-coli for instance, abx can make it worse.