Once infected, quarantine the sick person. “If you can quasi-quarantine yourself, active infection shouldn’t last much longer than 48 hours,” Dr. Shust said. For caregivers, even after that 48-hour period, you don’t want to be preparing food for anyone for a while, as you can still shed the virus. If you are a single parent and absolutely must prepare food, really scrub your hands when you wash — you want “friction and suds,” Dr. Shust said.

For sick kids, try these tips. “Put a glow stick in the trash,” Dr. Wilkinson suggested, because if your kids need to vomit in the middle of the night, they will know where to direct it. She also recommended putting multiple trash bags in a designated barf bucket, so that once a kid has thrown up, you can remove the soiled bag and still have other bags ready to go. For toddlers and babies too young to direct their emissions, you may just have to hang out in the bathtub with them for a while and wait for the worst to pass.

Stave off dehydration. “After you vomit you should wait an hour before you try something on your stomach, and something small can be ice chips or a Pedialyte popsicle,” Dr. Wilkinson said — the ice helps water drip back into your system more gently than chugging water does. If your child is showing signs of dehydration — “crying without tears, mouth looks really dry, excessively tired,” explained Dr. Shust, you should call your pediatrician.

If at all possible, you should try to avoid a trip to the E.R., Dr. Wilkinson said. “From a public health perspective, I’d love for people who are contagious not to be in an E.R. You might pick up another illness in the waiting room that you will then have a couple days later,” she said. Your pediatrician can call in anti-nausea medication or help you triage over the phone, Dr. Wilkinson explained, so that should be your first choice unless things seem really dire. “You know your child best,” she said.

P.S. Do you have pro tips for cleaning up after sick kids, like that fancy glow stick move? We want to hear about them.

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