Children can suffer now and then from diarrhoea. Often there might be a harmless reason, e.g. the child ate too much fruits, ‘ate something wrong’ or is teething. But when the diarrhoea persists and the child even vomits as well, this can quickly became a serious situation.
The biggest danger of diarrhoea is dehydration, as children tend to lose liquids faster than adults.
Signs of dehydration include: dry lips, dry mouth and tongue, thirst, lethargy, irritability, sunken eyes and an untypically small amount of urine. A sign of particularly high dehydration is if you pinch the skin of, for example, the lower arm and the skin wrinkle doesn’t immediately disappear. In the event of high dehydration, your child has to get i.v. fluids at the hospital.
Of course, it’s very important to refill the lost fluids. Keep your child drinking a lot, but not just water, as this can lead to an imbalance of the electrolytes. Sugar – or, better yet, glucose – in tea and salt sticks are an easy way to rebalance the electrolytes. Juice diluted with water is a good alternative, too. You can also get oral rehydration products easily in pharmacies. Usually there is no need for a strict diet, although of course ‘light’ food and sensible nutrition is recommended. Some ways you can help your body protect itself against harmful germs include:
- Good hand hygiene is the most important prevention. Before eating, after using the toilet, after time in the playground, after handling pets etc. As children ‘easily’ forget how and when to wash their hands, why don’t you wash them together while singing a little wash song or rhyme?
- Good and healthy nutrition including plenty of fruit and vegetables. Yogurts with live yogurt cultures are preferred e.g. bifidobacterium and L. acidophilus.
- There is an optional Rotavirus vaccination for children up to six months old.
