The stomach bug (a.k.a. norovirus), is no fun for anyone — no ifs, ands or buts about it! And it's even less fun when it travels around your entire family.
So, how do you keep the pesky virus from spreading from one kid to another — or even to you, the parent?
The short answer from "The Doctors" host, Dr. Travis Stork, is to clean everything you suspect could be contaminated.
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"Every time your child vomits or has diarrhea, what happens is that virus is expelled everywhere," the doc says. "It's on surfaces, it's in the bathroom."
"If you touch the virus and then touch your lips or mouth," he continues, "you can get it as well."
Now, keeping the child with the virus in a separate room is definitely a good precaution — but it's not the only precaution you should take, the doc explains.
"It's the one time where I say if you know a surface is contaminated," he says, "you need to use a disinfectant to try to keep the rest of the family safe."
While Dr. Travis is usually an "all-natural cleaner type of guy," as he puts it, he stresses that this is the time to use actual disinfectant wipes or sprays.
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"These are more powerful," he explains. "They're also more caustic, so you have to be a little bit careful."
If you don't have disinfectant wipes or sprays on hand, Dr. Travis says you can make your own disinfectant using bleach. All you need is about a gallon of water and 1 tablespoon of bleach.
