Vomiting and diarrhea in a child are always symptoms of a disease. And especially in such cases, parents of young children who do not know how to explain what else besides the indicated manifestations of the disease bother them.
But it is especially dangerous that vomiting and diarrhea in a 2-year-old child cause severe dehydration of the baby's body, and incorrect actions by parents can lead to a deterioration in his condition.
We will talk about how to behave in case of diarrhea, vomiting and fever in children, as well as the causes of these symptoms later in the article.
Causes of diarrhea in a child
As pediatric practice shows, vomiting, fever and diarrhea in a child are most often signs of acute infection. Further we will give only a few of the most common infectious diseases with similar symptoms.
- Adenovirus infection. The stool becomes like gruel, there are attacks of nausea and vomiting. In addition, the child is concerned about dry cough, runny nose and manifestations of conjunctivitis. The most severe such infection occurs in babies up to 6 months.
- Dysentery. With this infection, the child has green diarrhea, with an admixture of mucus and a lot of fluid. The tongue of the baby, as a rule, is covered with a white coating, there is a headache and pain in the stomach. Appetite is markedly reduced. At the beginning of the illness, the baby is also concerned about the high temperature (up to 39 ° C). By the way, quite often it turns out that about a day before the onset of the disease, the child consumed milk.
- Salmonellosis. With the development of this disease, the onset is usually rapid. He is accompanied by repeated vomiting, severe abdominal pain and bloating. The stool becomes green, slimy, and offensive. Infection occurs from eating undercooked meat or eggs from ducks and geese.
- Escherichiosis. This infection is manifested by repeated vomiting, bloating, as well as a specific condition of feces - it becomes mucous, orange, with whitish inclusions in the form of lumps. The child has severe dehydration.
How does an infection enter a child’s body?
If a child is one year old, diarrhea and vomiting become a serious test for his body. Yes, and older children can hardly tolerate this condition.
Most often, bacteria, viruses or fungi enter the body with unwashed vegetables and fruits or with raw water, which, for example, is in the baby’s mouth when he baths in a pond. Crumbs, whose teeth are cut, generally try to drown out the severe itching in the gums with any object sent to the mouth.
As you can see, there is nothing new in this information. However, infectious diseases with diarrhea and vomiting do not become more rare. And hygiene still has not turned into an unshakable rule.
Year old child: diarrhea - what to do?
Depending on what caused the digestive upset, diarrhea that appears in one-year-olds and older ones looks different.
- It can be liquid stool, similar to gruel, with a splash of mucus, blood, pus and a sharp unpleasant odor.
- Sometimes it acquires a heterogeneous consistency, and pieces of undigested food are visible in it.
- And sometimes feces become greasy and shiny, poorly washed off the skin of the child and from the walls of the pot.
Turning to a specialist, be sure to tell him what the baby's feces looked like, so that the doctor can make the correct diagnosis. Indeed, for example, if a child is a year old, fever and diarrhea mixed with blood can indicate the presence of a lesion of the large intestine with dysentery or Escherichia coli - which is very dangerous for the health of the crumbs.
The combination of symptoms can tell a lot
In a one-year-old toddler and older children, the chair already, as a rule, looks thick and quite decorated. However, single manifestations of indigestion should not greatly disturb parents, especially if the baby does not have a fever, and diarrhea itself lasts no more than 3 days.
But if your child is a year old, has diarrhea, vomiting, fever and abdominal pain - this is a reason for a serious examination and treatment. After all, even just diarrhea in combination with abdominal pain can signal that the baby has appendicitis or renal colic. By the way, the same symptoms can occur with pancreatitis or in the early stage of intestinal obstruction.
In which cases it is imperative to take action
The quick reaction of parents can sometimes dramatically change the course of the baby’s disease. If the diarrhea in a child of 2 years or a little older is manifested in the following situations, contacting a doctor should be immediate:
- you suspect poisoning by spoiled food or mushrooms;
- together with diarrhea in a child, the temperature rose above 38 ° C;
- diarrhea is accompanied by acute abdominal pain;
- diarrhea appeared during a trip to a country with a warm climate;
- she befell all members of the family;
- the child has severe weakness, it is difficult for him to breathe and swallow;
- significant dehydration is detected (sunken eyes, the baby cries without tears, he has very dark urine or none at all);
- the skin and mucous membranes of the eyes have turned yellow;
- weight loss joined the diarrhea.
Once again, the symptoms listed above are very serious symptoms that require immediate medical attention!
General Rules for Bowel Disorders
Regardless of who is affected by the disease, a one-year-old, two-year-old baby or child of 3 years old, diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms of malaise require the same action on the part of the parents.
The first thing that should concern you is the fight against dehydration, which is especially dangerous for babies in their first years of life. And keep in mind that the smaller the weight of the crumbs, the faster it comes. So, be sure to ensure the flow of fluid into the body. To do this, use ready-made solutions available in pharmacies ("Regidron" or "Gastrolit"). Or make them at home.
To do this, pour a teaspoon without a pile of salt into a liter of boiled water and add from 4 to 6 tsp. sugar (this solution is stored no more than a day).
Before the doctor arrives, do not give your child a remedy for vomiting, so as not to distort the manifestation of the disease and not interfere with the accurate diagnosis.
What should not be given to a child with diarrhea?
Diarrhea in a child of 2 years or another age does not allow giving him sweet tea, fruit juices, soda as a drink. Boiled milk and chicken broth are also unacceptable.
In no case do not give enzyme preparations such as "Festal". This can increase diarrhea, especially if the child has a viral infection. Do not drink it with potassium permanganate - under its influence, a plug is formed from feces, which prevents the contents of the intestine from leaving, which can be dangerous.
Antibiotics may also cause diarrhea.
Modern mothers have long understood that it is not worth giving antibiotics to a child without really good reasons. Since they, bringing obvious benefits, can cause many unpleasant consequences. Indeed, together with pest microorganisms, they destroy beneficial bacteria, for example, those that are involved in the digestion process. This leads to manifestations of dysbiosis.
The diarrhea that appeared in a child after antibiotics becomes a new test for the body, preventing it from recovering properly from the disease and weakening it more and more.
The fact is that with feces in such cases, a lot of minerals, vitamins and other useful compounds are excreted, which cannot but affect the metabolic state of the child. By the way, dysbacteriosis in response to taking antibiotics in children develops much more often than in adults, and this is due to the immaturity of their digestive system.
How to deal with the problem?
What to do if a child has diarrhea after antibiotics? In the fight against this symptom, a few simple rules will help.
- Provide the baby with proper nutrition, eliminating carbonated drinks from the diet, as well as raw vegetables and fruits, fatty foods, sweets and milk.
- Give him as much fluid as possible to restore her loss.
- Great help you can have decoctions of herbs of St. John's wort, fennel, mint or immortelle. They will stop diarrhea and help relieve inflammation of the intestinal mucosa.
And for the future it is necessary to remember that it is unacceptable to start taking antibiotics, as well as abruptly stop it or change some drugs to others without the advice of your doctor! By the way, the combination of taking antibiotics with probiotics (Hilak-forte, Linex, etc.) will help to avoid dysbiosis and populate the intestines with beneficial microorganisms.
What does green feces in a child mean?
But if your baby did not take antibiotics, and his stool is liquid, and even greenish, what should be done in this situation? What are the causes of diarrhea in a child in this case?
Quite often, such a condition is not fraught with any danger. As mentioned above, in young children the digestion process is still not well formed, and this leads to the fact that any change in the usual diet can cause intestinal upset. Its color often depends on the products that were on the baby’s menu. So, nettles, salads, sorrel, spinach, broccoli can stain your baby's feces, at the same time changing its consistency. And if the baby is calm and cheerful, do not worry.
If the child has green diarrhea accompanied by vagaries, refusal to eat, restless sleep, you should definitely be examined by a doctor. Especially dangerous is the condition in which blood stains appear in the feces, and its smell becomes putrid at the same time.
How to understand whether the prescribed treatment helps?
Diarrhea in a child of 2 years or another young age, as you already understood, requires medical attention. But the treatment prescribed by him requires your control.
If the baby becomes more active, his appetite improves, and vomiting and diarrhea occur much less frequently or completely disappear, then the treatment helps.
In the event that there are no signs of a decrease in diarrhea and vomiting during the day, and the baby has become lethargic and sleepy, treatment does not go well for him.
Once again on how to defeat a baby’s diarrhea
Once again, I want to repeat that the manifestations of the disease that the child suffers (1 year old) - diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, are always an occasion to see a doctor. In this situation, parents of both one-year-old crumbs and older babies should remain calm and prudent.
- Do not try to treat it yourself (especially with antibiotics), do not stop diarrhea at all costs.
- Diarrhea is a reaction of the body aimed at getting rid of harmful substances, and the main thing is to prevent the body from losing fluid.
- Only especially liquid and watery diarrhea is stopped, but only after consulting a doctor.
Be healthy!