Hi All,

Just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a stay-at-home-mom of 2 boys (a 2.5 year old and a 7 month old). I've always been very scared to v*, but now that my older son is more into touching things and eating with his hands, etc. I've gotten 100x worse. Especially this time of year. I keep hearing from friends that their whole family is sick with sv. Every time I would hear or read or see something sv related, I would panic. I spoke with my doctor (homeopathic) and he suggested I take arnica album (sp?) once a day and take rescue remedy when I'm feeling panic-y. So far, they are working really well. I think my fear of v* truly deals with lack of control. For a while, any time my son would cough, or say he didn't want to eat anymore, I would panic. I'm getting better with that. But, although I don't fully panic as much, I'm still obsessively cleaning. I think that anything that comes from outside the house is dirty. I wipe down everything with Wet Ones. My hands are cracked and bleeding from constant washing. I wipe down all groceries before putting them away. My poor husband is dealing beautifully with this crazy behavior. He had to go the the DMV and I made him change his clothes when he came home!

That's my story in a nutshell. I hope I can get over this, as I don't want to pass on my behavior to my kids. I'm sure no one likes to v* but, I want my kids to have a healthy take on it, and not fear it. The fear only makes it worse, as I'm sure you know!

I do have a couple questions I'm hoping someone can answer.

1. are there OTC anti-emetics that are safe to take that I should have on hand?
2. I've read about how sv's are transmitted, and it seems like they shouldn't be so easily caught, but why do they become so common this time of year? Does NO ONE wash their hands properly? How do they spread through households so easily, if the answer is hand washing and thorough cleaning of the bathroom? I'd like to believe that its unlikely to catch one, but it just doesn't seem so.

Thanks for reading!