brat(y) diet.

Disclaimer: This post talks about bodily fluids and one way to help make them not so bad. Skip it if you don't want to know about all of the 'ins and outs'.

I was really looking forward to today. See, I had this fantastic idea to take today off and work on homework, since Chris would also be home. The plan was to send Nate to school for a while so that we could both work on some 'to do' list items and then spend the weekend doing something fun. Well, you all know about best laid plans ...

I initially woke up at 2:30 a.m. to Nathan screaming, saying he needed to go to the bathroom and that there was a monster in his room. I ended up passing out in there after getting him back to sleep. Fast forward to 6:30 a.m. where I am woken up to this gagging sound. Instinctively, I picked him up and held his head over the side of the bed ... just in time, too, because he threw up everywhere. This was followed by diarrhea. Fabulous!

On the plus side, I didn't have to take unplanned time off of work to keep Nate home from preschool because my time off was already scheduled. On the downside, Nate isn't feeling too hot and I haven't gotten anywhere with my homework.

Enter the BRAT diet - and no it's not a diet for when your kid is being high maintenance :)

The BRAT diet is this ingenious way to help provide bland foods for your child in order to help their tummies get back to normal by eating:

• Bananas
• Rice
• Applesauce
• Toast

We did this last time that Nate had an upset tummy and it worked like a charm. I'm hoping that it continues to do so this time! Technically, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not changing your child's diet within 24 hours of getting sick, but I just want him to feel better fast. Good 'ole WebMD has more to read up on if you want. I personally like to modify the BRAT diet into the BRATY diet, with the addition of yogurt. I place a ridiculous amount of irrational hope in yogurt and the probiotics that it contains to help Nathan feel better and keep him in good health.

As of this evening, Nate is finally interested in eating some of his BRATY foods and has not expelled anything from either end for quite a while. He's still not acting like himself, though - he asked to come lay down inside rather than playing outside...and he made some weird little nest in the floor of our room.