I need a disease that would make a child REALLY sick for a day, but then be fine

Barb D · Nov 21, 2008

I want to make a child (10 or 11ish, 16th century) get really sick so that the group he's traveling with has to stay put for a day. He needs to collapse. Puking would be good. But then he needs to be well enough after a day to get on with life.

He's been exposed to my 21st century time traveler, and eaten an apple (presumably with pesticides on it) brought from the 21st century. The adults in the group have also been around the time traveler, but he's the only one to have eaten an apple. Otherwise they all ate the same foods.

vixey · Nov 21, 2008

Sounds like you've set up food poisoning. Any gastrointestinal flu would work. They usually last 24 hours - puking and diarrhea would halt any trip.

Clair Dickson · Nov 21, 2008

And if he gets dehydrated, he might collapse.

Barb D · Nov 21, 2008

vixey said:
Sounds like you've set up food poisoning. Any gastrointestinal flu would work. They usually last 24 hours - puking and diarrhea would halt any trip.

I was thinking that, but would 21st century pesticides on apple do that to a 16th century kid who's never been exposed to them? I know this is fiction and I can make it be so, but I'd like it to be logical, too.

I do like the idea of food poisoning, because then I don't have to worry about the rest of the characters catching it.

And oooh, diarrhea! That would add an extra element to the story!

Clair Dickson said:
And if he gets dehydrated, he might collapse.

Good point. Thanks!

firehorse · Nov 21, 2008

Hmm... I don't know the medicine around this, but I imagine - and it seems like you're thinking the same thing - the pesticides would be enough to make him extremely ill for a day yet not kill him.

Kitty Pryde · Nov 21, 2008

norovirus! short-lived diarrhea and projectile vomiting. it's spread by contaminated food or from person to person. it's the 'cruise ship virus' that you see in the news sometimes.

Clair Dickson · Nov 21, 2008

If it's a store bought apple, it could be contaminated with any number of things. if it's from a farm, it could have still gotten on the ground or somehow come in contact with nasties.

But, I can imagine that a sensitive system not previously exposed to pesticides could get sick from it-- in which case you might research the side effects of current pesticides. (Though wiki reports no acute side effects from DDT...)

RainyDayNinja · Nov 21, 2008

A math test.

"I'm too sick to go to school!" *cough, cough* "I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow." *cough*

willfulone · Nov 21, 2008

The child could get sick - even without the apple. The pesticides may or may not matter as an exposure factor. The time traveler could simply be carrying a flu bug with them and the kid - with no antibodies to fight such (due to no exposure) would get ill. The reason adults did not? Same as now. Illnesses affect the young and the elderly with lower immune systems to a greater degree than other populations.

So, the kid could just get sick with flu unrelated to anything he ate.

If you like the apple idea - you can go with that.

But, for me, that leap is farther to go with the pesticide angle and how to explain it than a simple 24 hour flu bug.

Christine

Deb Kinnard · Nov 21, 2008

Water-borne illness (viral, bacterial, whatever you want -- people in earlier centuries only knew that some water was potable and some wasn't). Bad water was ubiquitous before modern sanitation. It'd have to be a fairly innocuous bug, nothing like typhoid or cholera, just the same kind of bug that gives us "stomach flu" in this century.

Plenty of fluids, no bleeding, and good supportive care and he should be right as rain in a short time.

Tornadoboy · Nov 21, 2008

Kitty Pryde said:
norovirus! short-lived diarrhea and projectile vomiting. it's spread by contaminated food or from person to person. it's the 'cruise ship virus' that you see in the news sometimes.

I had it a few years back and BOY was that fun! Vomiting, diarrhea, fever, extreme chills, etc and it put me in bed like I had been hit by a 2-by-4.

The amazing thing about it (at least in my case) was that I was back to normal the next day like it had never happened, I have never been so sick and then so completely recover in such a short period of time before or since. :e2thud:

I need a disease that would make a child REALLY sick for a day, but then be fine

Barb D

vixey

C'est la vie!

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

Barb D

firehorse

Living the Dream

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud

RainyDayNinja

willfulone

I am a zebra...

Deb Kinnard

Tornadoboy

I bite