# When you had a stomach bug, did your parents put a bowl next to your bed
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 21, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488 "2012-04-21T10:31:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/1 "2012-04-21T10:31:54Z")
to barf in?
I was surprised to learn this was not a universal childhood experience, even in single-bathroom households where emergency toilet-access would not be guaranteed.
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### Author:  [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/2 "2012-04-21T10:36:54Z")
It was a bucket, but yeah. And I do the same thing with my kids. Look at it from the parental point of view. Which is better? Cleaning out the bucket, or cleaning up a barf trail from the bed or sofa to the toilet? :eek:
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### Author:  [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/3 "2012-04-21T11:21:39Z")
Bleh, clicked the wrong option. We always got a 5 gallon paint bucket double lined with trash bags.
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### Author:  [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/4 "2012-04-21T11:30:43Z")
> [@Mr.Accident](#):
>
> Bleh, clicked the wrong option. We always got a 5 gallon paint bucket double lined with trash bags.
Oh, the trash bags thing is a good idea. I’m going to use that.
We generally got a bowl, although the expectation was that you went for the toilet unless you really couldn’t make it (and carried the bowl with you in case you discovered halfway there that that was the case).
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### Author:  [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/5 "2012-04-21T11:36:50Z")
Trash bags–what a great idea! I think Mom just washed the vom down the loo, but that’s a nasty task just thinking about it.
Interesting poll…I’d never have thought to ask, but am now also wondering whether the barf bowl is universal.
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### Author:  [@DeepLiquid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeepLiquid)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/6 "2012-04-21T11:39:04Z")
We usually got a small trashcan.
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### Author:  [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/7 "2012-04-21T11:43:04Z")
We always got the bathroom waste basket. Wish I’d have thought about trash bags when I did that for my kids. Clean up is gross.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/8 "2012-04-21T11:45:05Z")
My mom got something like [this](http://www.mountainside-medical.com/product_images/l/856/wash_basins_rectangular_7.2_liter_mauve_medegen__58934_thumb.jpg) from the hospital each time she had a kid and that’s what we used. To this day we still call them throwup buckets.
Also, it wasn’t just for a bug, but I used to get debilitating migraines which gave me a 100% chance of puking with no notice so I had it for that to. There was no making it to the bathroom for that. In fact, even though I’m 31 I think she still keeps bags in her car out of habit because it’s just easier to keep an old grocery bag stuffed down in the glove compartment then to clean up after someone if they get sick…and I got sick in the car a lot (from migraines, I don’t get carsick).
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### Author:  [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/9 "2012-04-21T12:05:47Z")
I had sick buckets when I was young, and I put them out for the kids I worked with too. I don’t mind cleaning it up all that much, just pour it straight down the toilet and then give a good rinse with something strong. It’s easier to clean than…other disgusting kids’ stuff. And kids are pretty much full time pee/poo/puke/dribble/mushy food anyway, so what’s a little sick in a bucket 🙂
At least with kids you can be in charge of putting out a bucket. At the hotel where I used to work we were very near an eye hospital with a good rep. So sometimes people would come and stay with us for their surgery. I usually tried to discourage it a bit, because it would always be a mess and they usually do need someone to take care of them. But they would come anyway, insisting they’d be fine and I would offer them a bucket, just in case. Stupid grown ups never want a bucket, and then I’d get yelled at by housekeeping the following morning when they had to scrub sick off the bed, walls and floor.
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/10 "2012-04-21T12:11:36Z")
I got a bucket. A measley bowl just isn’t big enough. My parents were cool. They didn’t expect me to run to the bathroom if I was that sick. I remember one time they returned from shopping and got me the latest issue of MAD Magazine.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/11 "2012-04-21T13:07:38Z")
It’s odd how the memory of being held while puking into a bucket can be both one of the most miserable and one of the most comforting memories of childhood.
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### Author:  [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/12 "2012-04-21T13:40:53Z")
You need an \*other choice.
We got a large [2.5 gal or 5 gal] pot. Much larger target to hit. To this day people wonder because the trash can in my bedroom is a 2.5 gallon pasta pot that we picked up at a garage sale. It had been a spare in the kitchen, then I was having stomach issues when I was wrapping up my byetta use and would get random surges of nausea while or after eating, so we put it in the bedroom and never took it back out. [yes it got regularly dumped and washed after being used as a hrock bucket.] They make excellent trash cans =)
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/13 "2012-04-21T13:41:05Z")
A bucket, not a bowl, but I’ll vote yes since it is the same idea(and apparently, a more common one).
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/14 "2012-04-21T13:42:11Z")
> [@friedo](#):
>
> I was surprised to learn this was not a universal childhood experience, even in single-bathroom households where emergency toilet-access would not be guaranteed.
Where did you hear this? It’s at 100% yes right now, considering that the one no vote was a mistake.
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### Author:  [@gwendee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwendee)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/15 "2012-04-21T14:01:33Z")
> [@DeepLiquid](#):
>
> We usually got a small trashcan.
As did we.
My son is in high school now but it wasn’t until this thread that I realized I never did it for him. He’s never needed one. He’s thrown up plenty, but always isolated incidents. Once an done.
Something to be grateful for! Thanks gross barf thread.
There was a thread some time ago about a couple who disagreed over whether a pot, used as a barf bowl, could then ever be used to cook food in again.
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### Author:  [@Sally\_Mander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sally_Mander)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/16 "2012-04-21T14:06:58Z")
We always got the bathroom trash can, and I always did the same for my kids.
One time my daughter woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t make it to the bathroom. She woke me up and told me she had barfed in the trash can in her room. Her wicker trashcan. That was a mess. I ended up throwing the trash can away.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/17 "2012-04-21T14:26:17Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Where did you hear this? It’s at 100% yes right now, considering that the one no vote was a mistake.
Been barfin’ since 4:00AM, so the topic came up in an IM discussion with a friend. I mentioned how in my late 20s, my mom was dating a guy who was a bit of a germophobe, and that went I went home to visit, how I was amused that my mom served salad in what used to be the big green barf bowl.
The concept was completely unknown to him. I guess he must have just puked all over the damn place.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/18 "2012-04-21T14:44:06Z")
Xmas, early 1960s.
5AM.
Me: "SANTA CLAUS WAS HERE! SANTA CLAUS WAS HERE! **BAAAAAARRRFFF!"**
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### Author:  [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/19 "2012-04-21T14:44:41Z")
We got a big metal mixing bowl from the kitchen. The only problem with the system was that Mom and Dad were usually notified that we needed a bowl by the act of us throwing up on the carpet the first time, but that decreased as we got older and better able to recognize the “OMG TOILET NOW” signals.
I actually still had a plastic tub randomly under my bed a few weeks ago, which came in really handy when I woke up in the middle of the night with a stomach virus. The bathroom was only 10 feet away but I couldn’t make it. Thank goodness for that plastic tub.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-had-a-stomach-bug-did-your-parents-put-a-bowl-next-to-your-bed/619488/20 "2012-04-21T15:06:15Z")
No, and frankly the idea of a container full of puke strikes me as awful to think about. Lil bro and I were not the type of kids to spontaneously vomit past the age of two or so, though, so there were no accidents where we couldn’t wait to throw up in the toilet past toddlerhood.
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