After autumn, the incidence of diarrhea in babies, especially infants, begins to rise. How should autumn diarrhea be treated and how should it be prevented?
Autumn and winter is the season of high incidence of pediatric diarrhea disease, mostly caused by rotavirus infection, because it occurs mostly in autumn and winter (October-November), so it is usually called “autumn diarrhea”. The age of onset is from 6 months to 2 years. Autumn diarrhea is mostly caused by viral infections, 40%-70% of which are caused by rotavirus (named because of its resemblance to a wheel). In addition, coxsackievirus and ECHO virus can cause fall diarrhea.
Why are infants and young children susceptible to fall diarrhea? This is because the source of infection is mainly the patient, the latent infected person and the person with the virus, and the stool of the patient in the acute stage contains a large amount of rotavirus within 2 to 4 days of the onset of the disease. If parents do not pay attention to their own personal hygiene and their baby’s personal hygiene, and the infant accidentally comes into contact with and enters the digestive tract, it will cause acute enteritis, which is often called “disease from the mouth”. Because of the weak gastrointestinal function and imperfect immune function of infants and children aged 6 months to 2 years, they are most susceptible to viral infections and illnesses. Infants under 6 months of age are protected by antibodies from their mothers and breast milk, so they are less likely to develop the disease.
The disease is epidemic or small epidemic, spread by fecal-oral transmission, but also through the respiratory tract and cause disease. The incubation period is l to 3 days. The disease starts rapidly, the initial symptoms are often mainly cold, such as cough and runny, fever (generally 38 ℃ – 40 ℃), sore throat, etc., a few children can be accompanied by vomiting or abdominal pain and other symptoms. At this time, some parents may mistakenly think that the baby has a cold and give the baby cold medicine, this approach is wrong.
1-2 days after the onset of the disease, the child appears diarrhea, the number of stools increased, light 5-6 times a day, or more than a dozen times. The stool is yellow thin watery, or egg flower soup-like, rapid defecation, large amount, larger children can be sprayed stool, no pus and blood stool, no fishy smell. Stool tests are normal or have a small number of white blood cells. The disease is self-limiting, with a natural course of about 3-8 days.
Due to frequent diarrhea and lack of desire to eat, children are prone to varying degrees of dehydration and metabolic acidosis, and in severe cases, electrolyte disorders can occur.
How should autumn diarrhea be treated? Children with severe diarrhea symptoms, such as high fever, frequent vomiting and diarrhea, and combined dehydration, should be treated in a hospital in a timely manner. Under the guidance of a doctor, the child should be given oral rehydration or intravenous fluids to replenish the body’s water and electrolytes to prevent progressive aggravation of the disease. For children who are not seriously ill, they can be given an appropriate fast (usually 8-12 hours) and oral rehydration salts (ORS oral rehydration salts are designated by the United Nations World Health Organization as mandatory for the treatment of diarrhea in babies), and parents can give their children symptomatic antidiarrheal drugs, intestinal mucosal protective drugs such as Smitha, and drugs to restore the ecological balance of the intestine such as bifidobacteria, Silencon and Pefixan.
After the child’s condition is relieved, the following foods can be fed, which not only provide the necessary nutrition for the infant, but also have certain anti-diarrheal effects.
(1) Jiao mei soup: Grind rice flour or milk paste into powder, fry it until it is burnt, then add water and appropriate amount of sugar and boil it to make a thin paste. Burnt rice soup is easy to digest, and its carbonized structure also has a good adsorption and antidiarrheal effect, so it is the preferred food for infants with diarrhea.
(2) Carrot soup: carrot is an alkaline food, containing pectin can make the stool form, adsorb intestinal pathogenic bacteria and toxins, is a good anti-diarrheal bacteria food. Carrot soup is made as follows: wash the carrot, cut open the stem, cut into small pieces, add water and boil, then filter through gauze to remove the slag, then add water to make soup (in the ratio of 500 grams of carrot plus 1000 ml of water), and finally add sugar and boil. 2~3 times a day, 100~150ml each time, stop using after diarrhea gets better.
(3) Apple puree: apples are also alkaline food, containing pectin and tannic acid, which have adsorption, astringent and anti-diarrheal effects. Take a fresh, soft apple cut in half and scrape it into a puree with a mixing spoon.
Parents can also perform massage therapy on the child, such as tonic spleen meridian (rotate and push the ribbed surface of the end of the baby’s thumb 100-300 times), clear the large intestine (the radial edge of the index finger (the side near the thumb) from the tip of the index finger to the tiger’s mouth in a straight line is the large intestine point.
From the mouth of the tiger to the tip of the index finger straight push 100-300 times), abdominal massage (that is, the palm of the hand in the child’s abdomen gently circling the navel as the center, about 2-3 minutes, first clockwise and then counterclockwise massage), rub the umbilicus (with the ribbed surface of the three fingers of the index, middle and ring finger in the umbilicus, slightly heavier, about 1-2 minutes), push on the seven bones (seven bones that is the seven sections of the tail end of the back spine, from the tail of the turtle up seven sections that (The seven joints of the spine are the seven sections of the back, from the tail of the turtle upwards. Use the two fingers to push and rub along the seven knuckle bones upward from the turtle tail point, about 100 times per minute, for about 2-3 minutes), etc., 1-2 times a day, for 15-30 minutes each time.
How to prevent autumn diarrhea in children? The key is to pay attention to dietary hygiene and prevent illness from entering through the mouth.
(1) Guide your baby to develop good habits of washing hands before and after meals, not drinking raw water, and not eating unclean food indiscriminately.
(2) The baby’s eating utensils, such as bottles, spoons, etc., should be washed and scalded with boiling water before and after each use, and it is best to sterilize them by boiling once a day.
(3) Mothers who are breastfeeding should pay attention to the cleanliness of their breasts and change their underwear regularly to reduce the chances of their babies getting infected with viruses.
(4) The baby’s toys should also be disinfected frequently.
(5) Keep the home environment clean, leaving no sanitary corners. Second, usually need to enhance the baby’s own immunity, to avoid infection with a variety of diseases to attack.
Try to avoid taking your baby to public places or medical places where sick children are concentrated, and do not contact babies with diarrhea to avoid being infected.