For children, diarrhea, vomiting, fever and sweating are all possible ways for the body to lose water when experiencing acute gastroenteritis. Because children are small, have large relative body surface area, high water requirement ratio and fast metabolism, after several rounds of vomiting and diarrhea, they can lose a lot of water, resulting in mild dehydration. Children in the course of the disease often do not take the initiative to drink water because of physical discomfort, and the vicious circle makes the degree of dehydration deteriorate rapidly.
When a child begins to dehydrate, his body will start a self-protection mechanism to maintain vital signs. If it continues to deteriorate, the body's self-protection mechanism will fail, the child's blood pressure will drop, the blood supply to the brain and important organs will be insufficient, and the electrolyte in the body will be disordered, which will eventually lead to shock, organ failure and even death.
Many parents, because they don't understand their children's physiological characteristics, mistakenly use the dehydration speed of adults to estimate their children's condition, or miss the dehydration signal sent by their children's bodies, or use the wrong hydration method, thus delaying the best period of dehydration treatment, which not only threatens their lives and health, but also increases unnecessary medical expenses.
Below, the author will give you a detailed introduction to the different signals sent by the body when the child is dehydrated. Parents can refer to these signals to judge their children's physical condition. It is worth noting that these signals should not be used as the only criterion for judgment. When you are uncertain, you should seek medical advice in time to avoid delaying your child's treatment.
How to prevent children from dehydration correctly and how to carry out effective rehydration treatment for children with mild to moderate dehydration at home?
1 oral rehydration therapy
Oral rehydration therapy, also known as oral rehydration therapy (ORT), is a method to prevent diarrhea and dehydration in children introduced by the Centers for Disease Control in the United States. This therapy has been widely used in the world, and its effectiveness and safety have been proved by many clinical research results, which is very reliable. In this therapy, the liquid supplement used is not pure drinking water, but a special rehydration oral liquid prepared by a team of doctors, including sugar, salt and various electrolytes needed by the body. Parents should buy oral liquid in pharmacies or hospitals when rehydrating their children, and don't mix it at home to prevent improper adjustment of rehydration and electrolyte, which will cause irritation and harm to children's health.
Oral rehydration therapy is divided into two stages. The first stage is: rehydration stage, which quickly replenishes the water lost in the body (within 3 to 4 hours). The second stage is: maintenance stage, including loss, replenishment, and ensuring proper diet and energy intake.
When children have mild dehydration symptoms, they should be given 10 ml/kg body weight rehydration after each diarrhea or vomiting (for example, children's body weight 15 kg, and children should try to drink 150 ml rehydration after each diarrhea or vomiting).
When children have mild to moderate dehydration symptoms, 50- 100 ml/kg rehydration should be quickly added within 2-4 hours each time (if the child weighs 15 kg, 750- 1500 ml rehydration should be added). Parents can use a small spoon to feed rehydration to their children several times to avoid vomiting caused by a large dose of oral rehydration at one time. If the child can't drink rehydration, or frequent vomiting can't keep rehydration in the body, parents should send the child to the hospital for treatment in time to prevent frequent vomiting and accelerate dehydration.
When the child has symptoms of hypertonic dehydration, parents should send the child to the hospital for emergency treatment in the shortest time. At this point, the child can no longer rehydrate by oral administration, but needs intravenous drip to quickly relieve dehydration symptoms. At this stage, any delay may have very serious consequences!
2 Uninterrupted nutrition supply
Many parents believe that when children have acute gastroenteritis, they should eat less on an empty stomach and give the stomach time to repair. However, this understanding is incorrect. The sooner the child's normal diet is restored, the more it can reduce the osmotic imbalance caused by intestinal inflammation, shorten the course of disease, and lay a good foundation for the recovery of the body after illness.
Therefore, the US Centers for Disease Control suggests that for infants, the supply of breast milk and formula milk should be the same as before illness, and children who drink formula milk do not need to change milk powder for the time being. For children who have added complementary food or older children, there is no need to change their daily diet during illness.
However, it is worth noting that if children's daily diet includes a lot of spicy, fried and other foods, they should be avoided temporarily, but the consumption of lean meat, eggs and milk need not be avoided to ensure that children consume enough energy. When preparing food for sick children, parents should follow the principles of fresh and hygienic ingredients and nutritious and healthy dishes, avoid spicy taste, serve as usual, and don't blindly let children eat on an empty stomach, causing follow-up problems caused by nutritional deficiency.
3 zinc supplementation
When a child has acute gastroenteritis, in addition to timely supplementing liquid and nutritious diet, parents can also consider supplementing zinc to their children in the short term. According to the recommendation of the World Health Organization, children under six months can be supplemented with 10 mg zinc every day, and children over six months can be supplemented with 20 mg zinc every day for 10- 14 days. Zinc supplementation can promote the formation of protein, cell growth and differentiation, enhance intestinal immune function, and regulate the transport and proportion of water and electrolyte in the intestine. Studies have shown that zinc supplementation can effectively shorten the course of diarrhea in children and make children recover faster [2].
4 Probiotics
About the benefits of probiotics, the author made a detailed introduction in some previous articles. Probiotics are also good for relieving children's diarrhea and recovery. While taking antibiotics to kill bacteria, normal probiotics will also be destroyed to a certain extent, thus aggravating discomfort. Timely supplementation of probiotics can help children rebuild healthy intestinal flora. Not only can it effectively relieve gastrointestinal discomfort, improve immunity and shorten the course of disease in a short time; In the long run, it can also ensure children's gastrointestinal health, enhance their ability to resist infection, and reduce the chance of suffering from acute gastroenteritis again.
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When a child has diarrhea, parents should carefully observe the characteristics of the child's excrement. When blood, mucus, carbon black excrement is found, or diarrhea lasts for more than 3 days, children should be taken to the hospital for physical examination in time to rule out other pathological causes that may cause gastrointestinal discomfort (black feces may sometimes be caused by upper gastrointestinal bleeding, such as stomach; Slightly red blood may be caused by lower gastrointestinal bleeding, such as large intestine). After getting the doctor's accurate diagnosis, take care according to the doctor's advice. Don't be afraid to seek medical treatment, or blindly diagnose yourself and delay your child's treatment.
Although oral rehydration therapy is recommended for diarrhea at all ages and for any reason.
However, it is worth noting that when the child is in a state of shock, oral rehydration should be absolutely avoided to prevent choking and blocking the respiratory tract, thus causing dyspnea. In addition, for children who have just had intestinal obstruction surgery, oral rehydration can only be considered after the doctor determines that the bowel sounds have recovered.
Acute gastroenteritis in children is a common disease in children's growth. In most cases, it will not adversely affect the long-term health of children. However, if the diarrhea symptoms caused by it are not properly cared for, it will easily lead to the potential threat caused by dehydration, and will also prolong the child's physical discomfort and recovery period, thus affecting the quality of daily life. Learning scientific nursing can not only effectively reduce children's physical discomfort, but also increase parents' confidence in nursing sick children.
Article Min Min Si Nuo
Proofread Yin Xin, Haoran
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refer to
King CK Management of acute gastroenteritis in children. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2004. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwr html/RR 5216a1.htm.
[2] Zinc supplementation for diarrhea. Who. Available in: http://www.who.int/elena/titles/bbc/zinc_diarrhoea/en/. Visit 20 15.