Can older children have rotavirus as bad as young children?
Posted: Sat Feb 22, 2020 11:23 pm
I don't have any bowel problems myself, but I have read about rotavirus and how it can cause diarrhoea for a week or more in younger children. When my brother was 8 about 25 years ago he had a stomach bug that lasted over a week, it started with vomiting and a fever (he only vomited once), followed by diarrhoea a few hours later. I remember how my mum thought it was a 24-48 bug at first and my brother had these tablets called Enterosan (kaolin and morphine, long discontinued), but the tablets went through him the next time he went to the toilet. I am surprised the tablets didn't work at all.
After my brother went to the doctors soon after, no stool sample was taken and the doctor wasn't sure of the cause, but he gave my brother an antibiotic which I think was metronidazole. It was still a few days before the diarrhoea and stomach cramps stopped and I can still remember how my brother had 7 days off school.
What I also remember is how the diarrhoea had a distinctive smell, like a mixture of sweet/rotting and I have since read this can be the smell when someone has rotavirus. But if my brother did have this virus, I am surprised it lasted so long as I wasn't aware rotavirus lasted so long in older children.
After my brother went to the doctors soon after, no stool sample was taken and the doctor wasn't sure of the cause, but he gave my brother an antibiotic which I think was metronidazole. It was still a few days before the diarrhoea and stomach cramps stopped and I can still remember how my brother had 7 days off school.
What I also remember is how the diarrhoea had a distinctive smell, like a mixture of sweet/rotting and I have since read this can be the smell when someone has rotavirus. But if my brother did have this virus, I am surprised it lasted so long as I wasn't aware rotavirus lasted so long in older children.