My 4 year old son has caught some sort of stomach bug and has been home all week. I think it’s a stomach bug because I felt a bit nauseous last week (which I never usually do) and my 5 year old daughter felt nauseous for half a day on the weekend. It has now passed to my son, wife, and baby, so the week has been tough.

My son hasn’t been able to each much the first few days and he finally started to feel better recently. It was a steady diet of juices and simple meals to start out mixed with a lot of Lucky Charms in the morning. That seemed to get him on the right track. What makes me wonder is whether my daughter caught this same bug a few months ago when she was going through all of her stomach issues. Since we have cut out gluten, she hasn’t had another episode. She doesn’t want to start on gluten any time soon, but eventually we will need to revisit it to see whether or not she is actually allergic (and to get an official diagnosis).

For now, we are almost through the thick of things. Before having kids, I never realized how hard things get when one person gets sick because then it just ripples through the whole house. Now with 3 kids, I’m fully aware of the circumstances. It makes me look at working parents in a completely new light and it gives me a new appreciation for when things are just going routinely.