Treatment of a child with intestinal infection
Intestinal infection is a disease that is localized in the gastrointestinal tract and is accompanied by general and local symptoms. The causative agents of pathology are pathogenic viruses and bacteria. The disease is very severe in childhood, often causing serious complications. Therefore, treatment of intestinal infection in a child should be timely and effective.
The incidence of intestinal infections in the world, including in Russia, is quite high. Intestinal infections stand in the next place after SARS and influenza by frequency of occurrence. Almost every person knows their signs, as many have had intestinal infections in childhood.
What is important to know about intestinal infection in children?
Intestinal infections in children can be caused by various types of viruses and bacteria. All these pathogenic microorganisms are resistant to negative environmental factors, they can for a long time maintain their activity at low temperatures outside the human body.
They dwell on food, household items and dirty skin of the body. To bring an infectious agent into the gastrointestinal tract is very easy, infection occurs through the mouth. The process of treating intestinal infection in children will take a lot of nerves from parents and will cause even more suffering to the child.
Intestinal infections are divided into the following diseases :
- Bacterial intestinal infections: salmonellosis, dysentery, escherichiosis, iersiniosis, campylobacteriosis, cholera, botulism, typhoid fever, acute intestinal infection caused by Klebsiella, Clostridia, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus and others.
- Viral intestinal infections that cause rotaviruses, enteroviruses, adenoviruses and others.
- Fungal intestinal infections caused by Candida fungi.
- Protozoal intestinal infections: amoebiasis, giardiasis.
Treatment of intestinal infections in children is complicated by the fact that specialists need about 3 days to accurately determine the causative agent of the disease. Over this period of time, the pathogenic microflora begins to show activity in the biological material collected from the patient. While the analysis is being carried out, the child receives treatment with drugs effective against an overwhelming number of pathogens.
Symptoms of
Symptoms of intestinal infection in children are divided into local and general.
General signs of the disease:
- intoxication: fever, headache, general weakness;
- dehydration: rare urination, dark color of urine, dryness of mucous membranes and skin, violation of skin turgor.
Local symptoms of intestinal infections in children :
- by type of gastritis: stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, loose stools;
- by type of gastroenteritis: pains in the stomach and near the umbilical zone, vomiting, watery stool with mucus;
- by type of gastroenterocolitis: persistent abdominal pains of diffuse nature, vomiting, loose stools with an admixture of blood that does not bring relief;
- by the type of colitis: pains in the lower abdomen, pain during defecation, loose stool with an admixture of mucus and blood, false urge to the toilet.
Severe course of the disease can cause the following complications, each of which has its own characteristics :
- neurotoxicosis: restless behavior, frustration, delusions and hallucinations, convulsive syndrome;
- circulatory disturbance: low blood pressure, cyanotic skin, weakness of cardiac activity;
- renal failure: pain in the lumbar region, a decrease in the volume of excreted urine or its complete absence;
- hypovolemic shock resulting from dehydration: eyelid twitching, weight loss, sharpening of facial features.
How to distinguish viral intestinal infection from bacterial infection?
In order to correctly diagnose and select an effective treatment, it is important to find out why the intestinal infection has arisen, what has become its basis - a bacterial or viral infection?
Bacterial intestinal infections develop as a result of the entry into the body of bacteria such as salmonella, dysentery bacillus, etc. It is possible to distinguish such an infection from the virus by the following signs: the disease begins as a poisoning with a simultaneous rise in body temperature from 37 to 38 °.
In most cases, the child has profuse vomiting and symptoms of colitis - intestinal spasms. Feces can be painted green and have mucus in their composition. In severe infection in the feces, you can see blood. The urge to defecate is extremely painful. Treatment of bacterial intestinal infection requires the appointment of antibiotics. Most often, the child is hospitalized for the period of treatment in an infectious hospital.
Viral intestinal infections are also not uncommon. Specialists distinguish 10 groups of intestinal viruses. The most frequent pathogens are rotaviruses and enteroviruses.
Rotavirus infection is called intestinal flu, it occurs in half of patients with a viral intestinal infection. Viral infections develop sharply, like a cold or flu, body temperature suddenly rises to critical levels - from 39 ° and above, the stool becomes watery and plentiful, colored yellow. Therapeutic tactics for intestinal infection of a viral origin are different from treating a bacterial form of the disease.
What to do before a doctor visits?
How to treat a child with an intestinal infection, the doctor will tell.
Prior to his arrival, the child can be assisted in the following ways:
- Offer as much as possible a drink. Even infants need to give boiled water from their nipples to fight dehydration.
- From 6 months of age, the child can be given Enterosgel or Activated Carbon. Calculation of the dose is simple: 1 tsp. Gel or 1 tablet of coal per 10 kg of the child's weight.
- It is important not to give any food to children. Food products, getting into the digestive tract irritated by the infectious process, even more irritate it and aggravate signs of intestinal infection in the child. Only children up to a year can still offer breast milk if they are on natural feeding.
What can not be done?
If the symptoms of intestinal infection in a child is prohibited to do the following:
- Give painkillers. Analgesics can lubricate the picture of the disease, as a result of which the doctor can make the wrong diagnosis and postpone the provision of the necessary specialized care for an indefinite period.
- Provide binders or fixing preparations, for example, Loperamide or Imodium. It is impossible to stop diarrhea, because along with the colonic masses the intestines leave the pathogens and their toxins. If you stop diarrhea, then the bulk of the pathogenic microflora will remain in the body, exacerbating the situation.
- You can not do enemas at home.
- You can not hesitate to call a doctor and engage in self-treatment of a child. Acute intestinal infections can hide surgical pathology, so an ambulance should be called immediately, otherwise the consequences can be sad. The younger the child, the more dangerous it is for him to have an intestinal infection.
Medical treatment
Treatment of intestinal infections in children should be carried out in a comprehensive manner, suggesting the organization of oral rehydration, symptomatic, etiotropic and pathogenetic treatment, dietotherapy.
The diet in children in the treatment of intestinal infections is based on a reduction in food volume and an increase in the frequency of feeding, using products in digestible form or artificial mixtures in infants with protective factors.
At the basis of treatment of symptoms of intestinal infection in children is oral rehydration of the body with special solutions of salts and glucose( preparations of Regidron, Citroglucosolan).You should also pay attention to a plentiful drink. If the use of a sufficient amount of fluid is impossible, the child is given an infusion treatment with intravenous administration of a solution of albumin, glucose and others.
Etiotropic treatment of symptoms of intestinal infections in children is performed using the following drugs :
- antibiotics: gentamicin, Polymyxin;
- Intestinal antiseptics: Furazolidone, Nalidixic acid;
- Enterosorbents: Smecta;Read more about when else this drug is prescribed →
- bacteriophage of specific significance: salmonella, klebsiella, dysentery and others;
- immunoglobulin: antitroviral and others.
Pathogenetic treatment is carried out at intestinal infections in children, the symptoms of which require the assignment of enzyme preparations( e.g., Festal) and antiallergic agents( e.g., Suprastin, loratadine).
Symptomatic treatment of intestinal infections in children comprises receiving antispasmodics( e.g., Drotaverine, No-spa) and antipyretic drugs( e.g., paracetamol, Panadol).
Power
after a medical examination and destination of all therapeutic measures aimed at addressing the symptoms of intestinal infection in children, treatment should be sure to continue regular diet therapy.
Children under one year of natural feeding should often offer breasts and boiled water from the nipples, so that the baby quickly regains lost body fluid. Children who are on artificial feeding during treatment and some period after recovery are given a low-lactose or lactose-free mixture.
Children older than one year should receive maximum protection digestible food, such as mashed vegetables, fruit and rice soups, low-fat fermented milk products, fruits and berries, cereals and grains, cooked in water, fresh fruit juices without sugar. You also need to remember about the drinking regime: to prevent dehydration the child should be often drunk. As a drink you can offer boiled water, black tea, chamomile, mors, still mineral water.
Prevention
In order not to worry about the treatment of intestinal infection in children, attention should be paid to the prevention of this disease. General recommendations are reduced to the observance of personal hygiene, mandatory washing of hands after toilet and street, careful processing of food, especially washing of fresh vegetables and fruits.
If one of the family members or the child has symptoms of an intestinal infection, treatment should be carried out in a separate room where the disinfection needs to be done. Illnesses are allocated separate bedding, towels, crockery and cutlery. After each visit to the toilet, you need to use any disinfectant to treat the toilet bowl or baby pot if the child goes to it.
Detection of signs of intestinal infection in a child is an urgent reason for contacting a doctor. There is no question of any self-medication in this case. It is necessary to consult a pediatrician, undergo due examination and receive adequate medical care.
Author: Olga Rogozhkina doctor,
specifically for Moizhivot.ru
