What to do if your baby has severe diarrhea

  In babies with severe diarrhea, diarrhea is often frequent, with 8-15 times daily stools, watery, voluminous, with sour odor, irritability, lethargy, depression, even coma, convulsions, bloody mucus stools, sunken fontanelle, dry skin and lips, etc. Some patients may have obvious dehydration, acidosis, electrolyte disorders, such as low potassium or low magnesium, etc.  1, treatment: first of all, we must correct dehydration and electrolyte disorders to prevent the emergence of circulatory failure. At present, the World Health Organization recommends oral rehydration salt to all countries, which can be prepared as liquid according to its instructions and added several times according to the baby’s diarrhea. As long as attention is paid to adequate hydration, babies can usually safely pass the diarrhea period. If your baby has more diarrhea, or has dry lips, sunken eyes, gray face, reduced urine volume and loss of skin elasticity, it shows that your baby has signs of dehydration and should be sent to the hospital immediately.  2, family care: (1) dietary adjustment: light breastfeeding infants continue to breastfeed, appropriately limit the number of nursing or shorten the duration of each nursing, suspend complementary foods; artificially fed children can be fed with equal amounts of rice soup or diluted milk or other milk substitutes, from rice soup, porridge, noodles, etc. gradually over to a normal diet. For lactose intolerant children, add lactase to the diet or remove lactose from the diet. For allergic diarrhea, switch to hydrolyzed milk powder or amino acid milk powder if protein allergy is considered. During diarrhea, continue to eat and give the baby a normal diet appropriate to its age, and do not “fast” as much as possible, as fasting can lead to prolonged symptoms and loss of nutrition.  (2) Keep the abdomen warm: a child’s belly button getting cold can easily lead to increased intestinal peristalsis and aggravate the frequency of diarrhea, so pay attention to reducing the child’s belly button getting cold.  (3) Regulate intestinal flora: Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that live normally in the intestine and help keep the digestive system healthy. Eating more probiotics can achieve the purpose of treating intestinal diseases by restoring the micro-ecological balance of the human intestinal tract.