Diarrhea is classified by doctors as repeated bowel movements, accompanied by intensive excretion of liquid feces. This condition can be especially dangerous for babies, due to the rapid dehydration of the body. Parents need to familiarize themselves with what to feed their children with diarrhea in order to help the child with the disorder.
Causes of Diarrhea
A small family member may experience diarrhea due to excessively intense intestinal motility, when its contents simply do not have time to be absorbed properly. The reason for the increased activity of the organ can be covered in overeating, nervous overexcitation or food poisoning. In infants, these disorders are due to teething. In older children, a food lump may wander in the intestines due to insufficient digestion of carbohydrates.
Among other provoking factors, infectious diseases, digestive failures, and improper nutrition are noted. Regardless of the reasons, the stool can be porridge or watery.
Diarrhea is dangerous!
Such conditions can deplete the body of the child and cause serious dehydration. If the baby has a fever and is constantly sick, this is a reason for immediate medical intervention. Dark stools and bloody inclusions may indicate internal bleeding. It is important to understand how to feed children with diarrhea and how to properly organize a drinking regimen.
Symptomatology
With the slightest deterioration in the well-being of the child, parents should be kind to the problems that concern him. The main signs of diarrhea are as follows:
- The baby complains of abdominal pain.
- In the intestines one feels rushing, rumbling.
- Characteristic frothy bowel movements with a fetid odor.
Dietary Principles
The main recommendations regarding how to feed children with diarrhea are given by the doctor, based on the actual condition.
General rules are as follows:
- Dairy products should be excluded from the diet.
- The gastrointestinal tract needs rest and recovery, so you should abandon heavy, fatty foods (depending on the degree of manifestations of diarrhea, the period of abstinence is 1-5 days).
- Drink plenty of water to compensate for fluid loss.
- When identifying fermentation processes, it is necessary to limit the intake of carbohydrates, giving preference to protein foods, for example, fish, eggs, lean meat.
- With putrefactive diarrhea, a protein menu is excluded. Jelly, potatoes, dry cookies, rice porridge are introduced into the diet. With diarrhea of this type, sugar can be consumed.
As the baby's condition improves, the assortment of dishes expands, but raw foods are consumed only after complete 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 to eat, it is recommended to exclude products characterized by a laxative effect or initiating high production of bile. These are vegetables, mushrooms (for children over 12 years old), pastries, fatty meats, smoked meats, milk.
With diarrhea, it is better to switch to food, which was brought to readiness for a couple. Cereals should be cooked in water, excluding coarse fiber. Crackers are considered very useful.
Body recovery
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 goods, whole milk.
If a baby is sick
Immediately after the onset of diarrhea and vomiting, you must call a doctor. Prior to the arrival of the brigade, it is better to adhere to these recommendations:
- An infant should be offered a mixture or breast milk more often than usual.
- With diarrhea in a child, the nature of the mixture can not be changed.
- After each episode of diarrhea, the baby is given a drink, for which you can use a syringe without a needle or a teaspoon.
- If the baby vomited after drinking, you need to drink it again. The liquid can be given in small portions every 15 minutes.
Teething unstable
Why does diarrhea develop in infants? If his teeth erupt, a similar condition is often accompanied by diarrhea. This is due to the fact that the child has intense salivation: he swallows a lot more saliva than usual. As a result, intestinal motility increases dramatically. Diarrhea with teeth (teething) is always watery. The duration of the disorder does not exceed three days with an episode of 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 burden 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
For children over three years old, as a fixing agent, you can give drinks with astringent properties, 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. The serving size should be small so that the weakened digestive system does not experience overload.
The main drink should be represented by warm boiled or mineral water, tea.
How to understand that the actions taken are effective?
According to medical observations, with all the recommendations, diarrhea passes within 1-3 days. The first signs of recovery are improved appetite, stable activity. All symptoms of the disorder are quickly minimized.
Parents need to carefully monitor the state 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, which requires the patient to be moved to a hospital.