Diarrhea is one of the most common childhood illnesses in the summer. It is common to see young parents holding their toddlers in the clinic asking worriedly, “What should I do? My baby poops when he eats and cries all day long, could it be enteritis?” . The purpose of this article is to give young parents a correct idea of how to face diarrhea in their little ones with the right attitude.
First of all, we need to clarify what is considered diarrhea?
Diarrhea is defined as an increase in the “amount” and “frequency” of stools and the “water content” of the stools. In fact, the number of bowel movements per day varies according to the individual’s body type and feeding style. Generally speaking, from once every three days to four times a day can be normal. Babies fed mother’s milk will have more bowel movements per day than those fed formula; smaller babies will have more bowel movements than older babies. Therefore, instead of mandating that more than a few bowel movements be considered diarrhea, it is better to compare the “habits” of each infant’s bowel movements with their usual bowel movements, as long as the number and amount of bowel movements are significantly higher than usual, or the water content of the stool is greatly increased and becomes dilute or watery.
Second, what causes diarrhea in children?
Diarrhea is generally classified as infectious or non-infectious. Infectious pathogens can be bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, etc. Common causes of non-infectious are food-baiting, allergic, inflammatory bowel disease, medication, primary or secondary digestive malabsorption, etc. We generally refer to diarrhea of less than two weeks as acute diarrhea and diarrhea of more than two weeks as migratory diarrhea, depending on the duration of the diarrhea. The causes of both are different, as well as the principles of management by physicians.
What should parents pay attention to when facing a baby with diarrhea?
First, parents should promptly send their baby’s stool for examination. It is best to keep a stool box for routine hospital tests at home, and it is best not to scrape the stool from the diaper, but to send the stool for examination within half an hour after taking it. In order to be timely and effective, parents can choose to send the specimen to a nearby hospital for laboratory testing.
Second, the use of antibiotics. If the stool test can be seen white blood cells, mostly invasive bacterial infection, it is best to use antibiotics, and should be in the stool routine test three times negative before stopping the drug, do not stop the drug too early. When antibiotic treatment is not effective, or when the disease is repeated, stool culture should be done in time to understand the type of bacteria and the presence of drug resistance. If no white blood cells are seen in the stool test, it is mostly a viral infection or non-infectious diarrhea, so no antibiotics can be applied for the time being, and oral medication such as Mamia and Similac can be used to support the treatment.
Thirdly, in acute diarrhea, the most serious situation is dehydration and electrolyte acid-base imbalance. If the baby’s stool contains a lot of water and the number of diarrhea or at the same time combined with vomiting and poor feeding, it is very easy to combine dehydration and electrolyte acid-base imbalance, at this time should promptly go to the hospital, mild cases can be under the guidance of the doctor oral rehydration salt, serious cases need intravenous drip rehydration. Otherwise, it can be secondary to shock and kidney failure. When the baby has the following symptoms, it means that there is dehydration.
1.Lips and skin are dry and lose elasticity.
2. Decreased urine output, or even no urine.
3.Dry howling, no tears when crying.
4, sunken eye sockets, chimney sunken (children under one and a half years old, the chimney door has not yet closed, dehydration will be serious chimney sunken situation).
Fourth, sometimes after acute enteritis, the baby will cause temporary lactose intolerance due to damage to the intestinal mucosa, resulting in a longer period of diarrhea. At this time, you should promptly replace the special diarrhea milk powder, otherwise diarrhea is difficult to improve.
How should diarrhea baby be reasonably fed?
First, children with diarrhea in principle do not advocate fasting, should continue to feed, but also need to be flexible according to the condition. For example, children with frequent vomiting should not eat for the time being, but use intravenous fluids to correct dehydration and electrolyte disorders.
Second, the diet during diarrhea should be adapted to the digestive and absorption functions of the child. Generally, the principle of gradual progress can be adopted with reference to the appetite of the child and the diarrhea, for example, infants can be given 1/2 diluted milk first and gradually increased to whole milk. After the child with diarrhea starts to eat, even if the amount of stool increases, it can still be replenished by rehydration to supplement the continued loss, and as long as there is appetite, feeding can be continued; if the diarrhea is obviously aggravated and causes heavy dehydration and abdominal distension, the diet should be reduced immediately.
Third, early restoration of an adequate balanced diet, to prevent a longer period of time in a semi-starvation state. Acute bacterial dysentery and other intestinal infections, such as antibacterial drugs to quickly control the infection, generally 2 to 3 days to resume a normal diet. Rotavirus enteritis is a self-limiting disease, mostly due to viral infection of the intestinal wall congestion edema, a large amount of water and nutrients can not be absorbed, more excretion, even after 2 to 3 days stool is still dilute, should generally resume a normal diet within 5 to 7 days.
Fourth, the treatment of patients with prolonged, chronic diarrhea, in addition to treatment for the cause, the key is to improve the nutritional status of the sick child, and to pay attention to vitamin and various mineral supplements.
It is easy to give birth to a child, but difficult to raise a child – this is the voice of most young parents, in fact, as long as more knowledge, more careful, you will be able to take care of the baby to grow up safely and healthily, the years of nurturing young children will be the sweetest memories of a lifetime!