Treating Diarrhea and Vomiting
Diarrhea and vomiting are usually caused by a virus or bacteria that infect the intestines. The virus usually invades the tissue of the intestine, causes the area to swell, and prevents food from being absorbed. In addition the virus causes the intestine to secrete fluid thereby causing more diarrhea and sometimes leading to dehydration. Vomiting alone (without diarrhea) can be a sign of the beginning of a gastroenteritis or can be caused by food poisoning. Both viruses and bacteria which cause gastroenteritis are very contagious, and transferred from person to person via touch. Therefore meticulous hand washing is very important after diaper changes or after going to the bathroom.
The most common type of virus which causes diarrhea is called Rotavirus. Diarrhea usually lasts between one day and 14 days and is often accompanied with fever to 40, vomiting and decreased appetite. There are no specific medications against the viruses which cause diarrhea, but as of January 2008, it is possible to prevent Rotavirus in young children by immunizing your infant against this virus in the first year of life. It should be noted that viruses that infect the intestine cause diarrhea whether or not the child is eating.
Treatment
The treatment of diarrhea consists mainly of increasing nursing or formula ( in infants) or increasing fluid intake in children. In mild diarrhea, there is no need to stop giving milk products or to give milk without lactose. When the diarrhea is severe, but the child is drinking, one should encourage to child to drink electrolyte solutions such as HYDRAN or ORSET to prevent dehydration. We do not recommend giving cola, petel, fruit juice, water or tea, these types of fluids may increase the diarrhea and they do not replace the electrolytes that the child loses when there is diarrhea.
If the child is vomiting, one must give the child, small quantities of fluids (about 5-15 cc) every ten minutes until he stops vomiting. Even if the child is hungry, give him no more than this amount of fluid as a larger amount of fluid may cause him to vomit.
If the child vomits even this small amount of fluid, one should stop giving all fluids for one hour in order to allow the stomach to calm down. After the hour, one should try again to give small amounts of fluids. If the child vomits again, he should be brought to a doctor as soon as possible. When diarrhea is accompanied with vomiting, it is not recommended to give milk products until the vomiting has stopped for at least 24 hours. However, if there is diarrhea present without vomiting, then there should be no restriction of foods including dairy products.
In general, it is not recommended to give special anti-diarrhea medicines because they are almost always not beneficial and may cause significant side effects. Even the use of drugs such as anti PRAMIN are not recommended the same reasons.
It is important to be in touch with your personal doctor if the following is present:
- Blood or mucus stool.
- Temperature above 40 degrees.
- Dry mouth or the child cries without tears.
- When the child is not responding or apathetic, even after the child’s fever has been decreased
- When the child does not produce enough urine (up to age one year a baby should urinate at least once every six hours. Children aged one up to seven years should urinate once every eight hours, after the age of seven: once every ten hours.
- When the vomit is a greenish, contact a doctor immediately.
In most cases of diarrhea, it is not necessary to visit a doctor.