I debated posting this because I don't want to sound pollyanna but then I thought the story may give some hope. We just successfully made it through (I hope and pray we don't backslide!) my 22 month old son's first bout with flu/rotavirus. He hadn't been sick, other than colds, since his diagnosis at 7 days and I was living in fear of his first true illness. On Wednesday he had a nasty diaper and then didn't want to each lunch. He is a great eater so I suspected something. By dinner he was vomitting. He vomitted 3 times in a row and I quickly paged his endo. She said to get him to urgent care. I have solucortef and have been trained to inject it, but was a little nervous since this was my first time. His endo recommeded having an urgent care nurse watch me while I gave it so I would be more confident the next time. As I was on the phone with the clinic to get him scheduled in urgent care he vomitted again. I got worried (my husband said panicked) and decided we should go to the ER instead. Luckily we live very close (15 minutes) to a Children's hospital. He perked up on the ride to the hospital and by the time we were there he was alert and wanted to play and color. I ended up giving him the injection in front of the nurse. It went pretty well. The worst part of it was that I inadvertantly lied to him. Before we left the house, and anticipating the solucortef shot, I put EMLA on his leg. At the hospital I told him the shot wouldn't hurt - dumb me - I didn't really think about it and of course a topical cream wouldn't numb his muscle. Poor little guy looked so betrayed when it hurt. While at the hospital they drew blood. His sodium, glucose etc all were in normal range. So was his BP and temp. His potassium was a little low. They tested one of his diapers and said it was rotavirus but a nurse from his clinic questioned whether they could get the results back that fast. So I am not sure if it was rotavirus or just the flu. Trying to get to the end here. . . we have doubled his Cortef tablets since the vomitting and he has had a little diarrhea but no more vomitting, no dehydration and very good spirits. He has had more energy than me. I am exhausted. He has been waking up extra early - from the steroids? I am just so happy to say we made it through this and he is doing well. In fact my biggest worry has been how to get the couch cleaned! If that is all I have to worry about I feel truly blessed. Just wanted to share a successful illness survival story with you all. It has given me hope that we can get through this. PS - I hope no one thinks I was too cavalier by not giving hte injection immediately. I would have if he started to go downhill. We just live so close to the hosp. and I had the injection with me the whole time.