Children with diarrhea due to the virus are increasing

In September 2005, Children Hospital 1, Ho Chi Minh City received 6.168 cases of gastrointestinal disorders and acute diarrhea, but increased to 7,350 in October. At Children's Hospital 2, the figures in two months were 2,886 and 3,660 patients respectively.

Most are caused by viruses

Doctor Hoang Le Phuc - head of the Department of Gastroenterology Children's Hospital 1 - said the World Health Organization (WHO) classifies diarrhea according to the nature of the stool including two types: bloody diarrhea, often caused by human cause infection and blood-free diarrhea, which can be caused by germs, toxins or viruses. In Vietnam, the proportion of patients with bacterial diarrhea accounts for a significant amount, but is probably still less than viral diarrhea.

Doctor Nguyen Thi Phuong Hue - Deputy Head of Pediatric Hospital Examination 2 - said that children with viral diarrhea often have high fever, fatigue, start with vomiting, then watery diarrhea, odorless. Usually the disease will go away in 3-5 days, sometimes even up to seven days. Treatment of children with viral diarrhea is mainly antipyretic, rehydration and good nutrition.

Viral diarrhea is more common in infants but recently BV has seen children aged 7-10 years. Children with viral diarrhea often do not lose strength, fall apart, children still play, eat even though diarrhea is dozens of times.

While children with diarrhea due to germs often show lethargy, fatigue, sunken eyes, dry skin, dry lips, little urination, yellow urine - the symptoms of dehydration are easily seen by the family. Unlike diarrhea caused by bacteria that are spread through the mouth, feces, diarrhea caused by viruses are also transmitted through the respiratory tract very quickly. Prevention is also very difficult, especially for children going to kindergarten or kindergarten.

Things to avoid

According to Dr. Hoang Le Phuc, at present, many mothers with children with diarrhea also have some mistakes, such as fasting, abstaining from drinking or allowing children to drink too quickly while needing to slowly feed. If you put it too quickly, your child will vomit or sometimes make diarrhea worse.

Some mothers have a misconception that taking drugs is more important than drinking water without knowing that water is more important than medicine. When a child has diarrhea, if not rehydrated, he will quickly dry up, causing death.

When drinking water, it must be suitable. It should be noted that Oresol is a medicine used to treat dehydration. To prevent dehydration, children can use all kinds of water, except fresh water. Oresol should only be given to children after liquid consumption. Some mothers mistakenly gave their children Oresol like drinking water every day, while they were not dehydrated, resulting in excess salt, causing poisoning for children ( convulsions, coma ).

Dr. Phuong Hue noted that children should not take medicines with diarrhea. This is not good for children because it will confuse intestinal contractions, make the effect of viral toxins in the intestine more, make the abdomen become bigger, children become more tired .

Most importantly, rehydration

For treatment, children mainly drink more water than usual to prevent dehydration due to diarrhea and to compensate for dehydration. Need to give your child a slow, one spoonful or one sip (if older children). If the child is vomiting, stop for about 10 minutes before continuing to drink but slowly.

If the baby is still breastfeeding, breastmilk is both the best food and the ' water '. Breastfeed as much as possible and feed your baby longer each time. For older children, children need to drink the following types of water: broth, boiled vegetable juice, porridge, soy milk, yogurt, juice like orange juice (without adding or adding very little sugar), coconut water Fresh, ripe water.

Soft drinks such as soft drinks and fruit juices should be avoided as they can make children sicker. Feeding and sucking more often than usual for strength, healing quickly. Feed your child with increased number of meals, less food. Can give children more zinc tablets.

LE THANH HA