What to feed children with diarrhea? The child has diarrhea: causes

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Diarrhea is classified by doctors as repeated bowel movements, accompanied by an intensive excretion of liquid feces. This condition can be especially dangerous for babies, due to the rapid dehydration of the body. Parents need to learn about what to feed their children with diarrhea to help the child cope with the disorder.

Causes of diarrhea

A small member of the family may experience diarrhea due to excessive intestinal motility, when its contents simply do not have time to be absorbed properly. The reason for the increased activity of the body may lie in overeating, nervous overexcitation or food poisoning. In infants, such disorders are explained by teething. In older children, the food bolus may ferment in the intestine due to insufficient digestion of carbohydrates.

Among other provoking factors, infectious diseases, digestive disorders, and incorrect nutrition are noted. Regardless of the cause, the stool can be mushy or watery.

Diarrhea is dangerous

Such conditions can depletethe child's body and cause severe dehydration. If the baby has a fever and is constantly sick, this is a reason for immediate medical intervention. Darkening of loose stools and bloody inclusions may indicate internal bleeding. It is important to understand how to feed children with diarrhea and how to organize a drinking regimen.

Symptomatics

At the slightest deterioration in the child's well-being, parents should be sensitive to the problems that bother him. The main signs of diarrhea are as follows:

• Baby complains of abdominal pain.
• In the intestines there is a seething, rumbling.
• Characteristic frothy stools with a fetid odor.

Principles of dietary nutrition

Basic recommendations on what to feed children with diarrhea are given by the doctor, based on the actual condition.

The general rules are as follows:

• Dairy products should be excluded from the diet.
• The gastrointestinal tract needs rest and recovery, so heavy, fatty foods should be avoided (depending on the severity of diarrhea, the period of abstinence is 1-5 days).
• Plentiful drinking is shown - to compensate for fluid losses.
• When identifying fermentation processes, it is necessary to limit the intake of carbohydrates, giving preference to protein foods, such as fish, eggs, lean meat.
• With putrid diarrhea, the protein menu is excluded. Kissels, potatoes, drycookies, rice porridge. Sugar can be used for this type of diarrhea.

As the baby's condition improves, the range of dishes expands, but raw foods are consumed only after full recovery.

Diet for mild bowel disorders

Many parents wonder what to feed their children with diarrhea in case of minor disorders. If diarrhea is not accompanied by pain, nausea, refusal of food, it is recommended to exclude products that are characterized by a laxative effect or initiate high bile production. These are vegetables, mushrooms (for children over 12 years old), rich pastries, fatty meat, smoked meats, milk.

With diarrhea, it is better to switch to food that has been steamed. Cereals should be cooked in water, coarse fiber is excluded. Crackers are considered very useful.

Recovery of the body

In the recovery phase, the children's menu is replenished with sour-milk food. It is good if the products contain lactobacilli, bifidobacteria and prebiotics. At this time, you should still refrain from rich broths, canned food, whole milk.

If your baby is sick

Immediately after the onset of diarrhea and vomiting, you must call a doctor. Before the arrival of the brigade, it is better to follow these recommendations:

• Infant should be offered formula or breastmilk more often than usual.
• When a child has diarrhea, the nature of the mixture can not be changed.
• After each episode of diarrhea, the baby is given a drink, forwhat you can use a syringe without a needle or a teaspoon.
• If the baby vomited after drinking, it is necessary to give him a drink again. Fluid can be given in small amounts every 15 minutes.

Unstable teething stools

Why does diarrhea develop in babies? If he is teething, this condition is often accompanied by diarrhea. This is due to the fact that the child has an intense salivation: he swallows much more saliva than usual. As a result, intestinal peristalsis increases dramatically. Diarrhea during teething (eruption) is always watery. The duration of the disorder does not exceed three days with episodic 2-3 times a day.

If the baby does not feel worse, he does not need special treatment, it is only necessary to reduce the load on the digestive tract. If the baby is on mixed feeding, it is advisable to increase the dose of breast milk, reducing the consumption of the mixture. After the acute period has passed, standard nutrition is restored.

Additional recommendations

Children over three years of age can be given drinks with astringent properties as a fixing agent, for example, a decoction of pomegranate peels or oak bark (1 tsp. 2-3 times a day).

You can not force the baby to eat - this can provoke an attack of nausea. Portion sizes should be small so that the weakened digestive system does not experience congestion.

The main drink should be warm boiled or mineral water,tea.

How do you know that the actions taken are effective?

According to medical observations, if all recommendations are followed, diarrhea disappears within 1-3 days. The first signs of recovery are an improvement in appetite, stable activity. All signs of disorder are quickly reduced to a minimum.

Parents need to scrupulously monitor the condition of their child. With diarrhea, the child should not have a fever, frequent vomiting and bloody stools - all these are signs of an intestinal infection that requires the patient to be moved to a hospital.