How to treat diarrhea in a child: effective drugs

For all parents, the most important thing is nothing more than the health of their baby. Every child has at least once been exposed to an acute infection that causes loose stools.

Diarrhea in a child is the most common occurrence, which can mean a serious disorder of the digestive tract. Failure to follow the rules of personal hygiene leads to the occurrence of diarrhea.

Most often, children's diarrhea is a sign of a disease of the small or large intestine. But in medicine, diarrhea is divided into several types, depending on what cause it is caused.

Allocate food diarrhea, toxic, infectious, medication, caused by nerves and caused by a malfunction of the stomach.

Every parent should know how to cure childhood pathological bowel movements and prevent their recurrence. Let's talk about what causes diarrhea in a 2 month old baby.

What is diarrhea

Diarrhea is a long-term digestive upset that causes thinning of the stool and frequent bowel movements. The most common manifestations of diarrhea are rumbling in the abdomen, false urge to defecate, flatulence.

Diarrhea is dangerous because it can cause dehydration and indigestion.

To determine childhood diarrhea, you need to know criteria such as age and quality of bowel movements.

1. In newborns and infants, frequent and loose stools are not a criterion for diarrhea, since they can defecate up to 10 times a day and eat liquid food.
2. In an infant under one year old, diarrhea is characterized by watery, loose stools with a frequency of more than 4-5 times a day.
3. In children over two years old, diarrhea is manifested by very loose stools and frequent bowel movements, reaching an amount of 5 or more times a day.
4. Normally, in children from two years of age and older, the stool is shaped excrement up to 1-2 times a day without pathological impurities.

Any deviations from the norm in a child's chair require examination and laboratory tests.

Diarrhea causes

Diarrhea occurs in children in each case for individual reasons.

It is almost impossible to understand on your own which factor caused the appearance of loose stools (for the exception is when the parents initially know that the baby has taken an allergenic drug or has been poisoned bad food).

The main causes of diarrhea in children:

1. Food causes (unboiled water, allergic reaction to food, lactose intolerance during breastfeeding, food poisoning, digestive disorders). Often, the baby is exposed to the use of poor-quality mixture or dairy products.
2. Medication (allergy to medications), neurological (emotional disorders). As a rule, parents already know about such diseases of their child and are aware of what actions to take to eliminate diarrhea. The use of antibacterial drugs is often the cause of digestive disorders.
3. Dyspeptic causes (irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn's disease, cancer of the rectum, impaired absorption in the intestine).
4. Toxic reasons (these include acute viral intestinal infections). Eating low-quality dairy products or contracting rotavirus infection are always accompanied by persistent digestive upset, most often with vomiting.

The children's digestive system is very sensitive to any kind of stimuli and, unlike the adult organism, is not able to cope with pathology on its own without consequences.

Diagnostics

A pediatric pediatrician begins to determine this disease from the collection of anamnesis.

When talking with the parents of the baby, the doctor needs to find out how much liquid was drunk by the baby, and what it was (tea, water or other liquids).

The doctor also needs to know how many times a day a child has a bowel movement: if the frequency is more than three times a day, then this indicates signs of the onset of an intestinal disorder.

If diarrhea is detected, children's feces are sent to the laboratory to determine the hidden blood in the contents and to identify parasitic bacteria. If necessary, an ultrasound examination of the abdominal organs is done.

The basis of diagnostic measures for diarrhea is to establish its cause. To do this, the baby needs to pass blood and feces tests. A general examination is also carried out and it turns out how to treat diarrhea in a child.

Complications

The most dangerous complications, both for children's health and for his life with diarrhea, are such consequences as:

1. Dehydration of the child's body.
2. Infection.
3. Lack of vitamins in the body.
4. Hemorrhoids, cracking.

Lack of fluid in a child's body, which provokes diarrhea, has a detrimental effect on all vital organs. Dehydration combined with intoxication requires urgent medical attention.

To eliminate harmful and dangerous symptoms, the baby needs adequate therapy in stationary conditions.

Treatment

It is necessary to start treating diarrhea in children by introducing additional fluid into the diet, which the child loses in large volumes during diarrhea.

In addition to ordinary water, a small body suffers from a lack of salts, calcium, magnesium and many other important trace elements.

For proper restoration of water balance with diarrhea, it is necessary to give the child together with drinking water, special solutions that you can prepare yourself or purchase ready-made at any pharmacy a drug.

Treatment for diarrhea in children includes the following medications:

1. For rehydration (Cytroglucosolan, Rehydron). The drugs are available in a convenient powder form. Each sachet contains the required amount of medication, which can be dispensed according to the age category of the child.
2. Enterosorbent substances (Enterosgel, Polysorb, Smecta). They are responsible for the elimination of toxins from the body that secrete pathogenic bacteria in the process of life, thereby provoking the development of diarrhea.
3. Antibacterial therapy (Sulgin, Levomycetin, Enterol). It is necessary only if a bacterial causative agent of diarrhea is attached. Only a qualified specialist can establish the exact causes of diarrhea in a child using these laboratory test results. Doctors are trying to minimize the use of antibiotics and are prescribed only in extreme cases.
4. Antidiarrheal agents (Imodium, Loperamide). They are used strictly according to the doctor's prescription. Very dangerous for the child's body. The medication stops diarrhea, while the excretion of toxic substances stops.

An adult can take an antidiarrheal drug without serious consequences, but it poses a serious threat to a child.

The safest way to treat diarrhea in children with the help of Smecta and Rehydron. Observe dietary recommendations for the period of illness. Further actions will be determined upon admission to a hospital or at a doctor's appointment.

The listed groups of drugs are often prescribed for diarrhea, but how to treat diarrhea in a child should be determined by a qualified specialist.

In the case of a specific cause of diarrhea, the baby may suffer from the use of unnecessary medications, not getting the desired therapeutic effect.

What should be the diet for diarrhea

The dietary recommendation for infants under 1 year of age is frequent breastfeeding or formula feeding.

To replenish fluid, a young baby is allowed to give the drug Rehydron, observing the dosage according to the instructions for use.

Children from 1 to 3 years old should be given regular drinking boiled water and saline solution to drink more often. Exclude the use of fermented milk products, fatty fish and meat, laxative berries and fruits from the diet.

In the early days of diarrhea treatment, give preference to meat and fish broths. You can make a not too thick soup with rice and potatoes in meat broth. Replace the bread with rye croutons.

It is recommended to adjust the nutrition of children from 3 years of age and older during diarrhea so that food intake is small, but nutritious.

For breakfast, you can cook oatmeal without milk, unsweetened tea.

Do not add butter, margarine or milk, as these products have a laxative effect on the intestinal system, and can exacerbate the course of the disease.

For lunch, serve soup with rice and small turkey meatballs, tea, a slice of rye bread. For diarrhea in a newborn baby, rehydration is also necessary.

Children under 3 years of age with symptoms of diarrhea should be under hospital supervision. Even full compliance with all nutritional recommendations cannot guarantee an improvement in the well-being of the child.

Situations are possible in which a patient at an early age very quickly loses the bulk of the fluid with diarrhea.

If the parents did not respond in time and did not seek help, serious consequences and death are possible. It is necessary to treat diarrhea only under the supervision of a physician.

Prevention measures

Often there is the development of diarrhea due to the violation of banal rules that any adult can follow. The child needs parental control.

To prevent various digestive disorders in children, you must adhere to a few simple rules:

1. Adequate adherence to the rules of personal hygiene is the main and effective way to reduce the likelihood of digestive disorders. This rule applies not only to the cleanliness of children. Adults also need to be more careful about the utensils used, towels, and baby accessories. All items of daily use must be sterile.
2. When preparing food, meat and fish products must be heat treated. It is not recommended to store perishable food outside the freezer.
3. When a newborn transitions to supplementary feeding or completely artificial feeding, take into account the inability of the child to fully digest new food immediately. Introducing unfamiliar foods should be done slowly.
4. Be sure to regularly clean up toys, teats and bottles.
5. Strengthen the baby's immunity with the help of maximum breastfeeding, exercise and daily walks in the fresh air.

Timely referral to a doctor in the event of diarrhea is also one of the methods of prevention.

Proper treatment will reduce the likelihood of repeated bouts of diarrhea and persistent disturbance of the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract.

Conclusion

It can be very difficult to cure diarrhea in children. The large loss of fluids and important trace elements that diarrhea causes is a big threat.

The most correct solution when diarrhea occurs is to see a specialist.

If it is not possible to urgently provide the baby with medical assistance, it is necessary to carry out treatment mainly with sorbents and saline solutions.

The uncontrolled use of antibiotics can increase the effect of intoxication, and the child will be even more affected.

It is possible to determine whether the treatment is being carried out correctly by the behavior of the patient and by the frequency with which diarrhea recurs.

With the effectiveness of the medications used, the baby has an improvement in well-being, appetite and a reduction in bouts of diarrhea.

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