What is fall diarrhea?

  Fall diarrhea is a common name that indicates the seasonal epidemic character, the so-called fall and winter epidemic diarrhea. Unlike other diarrheal diseases, the most important cause of this diarrhea is rotavirus, not bacteria. The main characteristic of rotavirus diarrhea is that it occurs mostly in infants and young children under 2 years of age, with a pre-existing fever, vomiting and diarrhea, often thought to be an upper respiratory tract infection or gastrointestinal cold.  Initially, the diarrhea is not severe, and the obvious, even severe diarrhea is mostly seen on days 2 to 4 of the course of the disease, when the symptoms are almost exclusively diarrhea (commonly known as egg-flake soup-like thin watery stools) and are the main cause of parental concern. The disease is self-limiting, i.e., self-healing, with typical diarrheal symptoms lasting 4 to 7 days after the onset of the disease. If there are no other complications, such as moderate-to-severe dehydration, electrolyte disturbances, pre-renal azotemia and central nervous system damage, there is no need for infusion or hospitalization, let alone any antimicrobial agents.  Once antimicrobial agents are used during this period, it will lead to severe dysbiosis and late mucosal immune malfunction. Therefore, the use of any antimicrobial in children with rotavirus diarrhea should be prohibited, and it is unethical to use broad-spectrum antimicrobials in such children when there is no proven co-infection with bacteria.  At home, the proper care is to prevent aggravation of dehydration by reasonable rehydration with oral rehydration solution prescribed by the doctor; reasonable feeding with an easily digestible starchy diet, encouraging breastfeeding for those who are breastfeeding, increasing the frequency of breastfeeding and reducing the amount of breastfeeding each time, and adding some salt and sugar to the drinking water in appropriate amounts. If you find no urine for 6 to 8 hours (moderate dehydration) or vomiting disappears and then vomits again (possible intestinal obstruction), you should go to the hospital promptly.