Intestinal infections are very common among children. And this is not surprising, because kids love to taste the world, and as soon as they acquire the ability to grab various objects with their pens, the first thing they do is start to drag these objects into their mouths. The well-known children's doctor Yevgeny Komarovsky tells about how to prevent unpleasant consequences, how to treat a child with intestinal infection and what you should know about it in general.
What it is
Intestinal infections are not a separate ailment, but a whole large group of diseases that are united the same symptoms - diarrhea, vomiting, fever. Bacteria and viruses can cause diseases. The disease does not develop immediately, but only 10-45 hours after the pathogenic microorganism enters the body... The most dangerous are salmonellosis, dysentery, staphylococcus, cholera. Among viral infections, the leaders in terms of the incidence of enterovirus and rotavirus infections.
Sometimes a disease caused by one or another pathogen from the outside is complicated by the fact that opportunistic bacteria that live in the intestine, for example, hemolyzing Escherichia coli, begin to "rebel". While the child is healthy, she does not manifest herself, but the organism weakened by the infection becomes not a home for her, but a battlefield, and the microorganism begins to parasitize, worsening the child's condition.
Doctor Komarovsky about the problem
There is nothing to be ashamed of, says Yevgeny Komarovsky. Even with the cleanest mother, even if she chooses only the best products for her child, the baby may well get an intestinal infection. According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, a huge number of children fall ill with these diseases every day on the planet. More than 2 million babies under the age of 5 die every year from just such infections. But there is also a comforting figure among the official statistics - 90% of all cases of intestinal infections among babies can be quickly and effectively cured without the use of any medication on their own at home.
Most parents are well aware of the symptoms: diarrhea (loose stools), nausea, vomiting, complaints of pain in the abdomen. It is precisely on the localization of pain that Evgeny Olegovich recommends paying attention first.
If bacteria or viruses hit the stomach, then the child has gastritis. If inflammation develops in the small intestine, it is enteritis, and if the large intestine is affected, then we can talk about colitis. But here, too, not everything is simple, and often children have mixed diagnoses - enterocolitis, gastroenteritis.
Despite the fact that intestinal infections are popularly considered "a disease of dirty hands", Evgeny Komarovsky claims that it would be too easy. After all, children can play in the same sandbox, eat the same apples, bought in the same store, but one child will get sick, and nothing like this will happen to the other. The main risk is not even dirty hands, says the doctor, but a combination of three most important factors for the development of intestinal infection: the child's environment, the food he eats, and the liquid he drinks.
If there is a person in his environment who is a source of infection, common toys, household items, the slightest physical contact are enough for infection to occur. When it comes to food, it is easiest for families with many children - food is not stored there for a long time, which means that the risks of bacterial growth directly in food are reduced tenfold. High-quality water is a common problem in many regions of Russia. Therefore, parents should carefully monitor what the baby drinks, and if the tap water is not very good, it is better to boil it even before brushing your teeth.
The younger the child, the more likely he is to get an intestinal infection. Komarovsky recalls that gastric juice performs an important function - it destroys most bacteria and viruses that enter the body through the mouth. However, in young children, the juice is less acidic than in adults, and therefore bacteria and harmful agents of viral origin have a much higher chance of surviving in the children's stomach.
The antibodies that a child's body produces in response to the penetration of a pathogen do not remain for life, as happens with chickenpox. Bacterial infections (staphylococcal or salmonellosis) alone cannot be defeated with antibodies to the corresponding pathogens; drug treatment is required. But viral intestinal infections (the most common among which is rotavirus) can stimulate the appearance of specific antibodies that will protect the child from similar pathogens for a long time. Long, but not always.
Treatment
In the treatment of acute intestinal infection, according to Komarovsky, the main thing is not even medicines, which parents want to deal with pathogens as soon as possible. It is much more important to create favorable conditions for the baby's immunity to work. There are very few infections that require treatment with serious antibiotics. In most cases, no special treatment is required, the doctor emphasizes. The child just needs to be helped to "hold out" for 3-5 days until his immune defense cope with the causative agent of the disease.
Dr. Komarovsky will tell you how to treat intestinal infections in the next video.
The main danger these days is the risk of dehydration. In severe cases, they die not from infection, but from dehydration, Komarovsky emphasizes. Therefore, drinking plenty of fluids should be the main treatment.
And in order not to replenish the sad figures of the statistics mentioned above, parents should remember the alarming symptoms like twice two and know the possible situations when self-medication should be completely ruled out. You should go to the doctor, to the hospital of the infectious diseases hospital, and as soon as possible, if:
- The baby is too small or has very intense vomiting, as a result of which the child cannot be given water to drink.
- In feces or vomit, you notice blood impurities, even the smallest.
- If diarrhea and vomiting are accompanied by a very high fever. Severe intoxication, the appearance of excessive pallor, rash on the skin.
- If there are signs of dehydration. These include dryness of the skin and mucous membranes, the absence or small amount of urine that the baby excretes, and dry tongue. If a child does not pee for more than six hours in a row - this is a very alarming symptom, if he cries without tears - this is also a sign of dehydration. Outwardly, sunken eyes are noticeable, and in babies up to a year, the fontanelle on the head also sinks.
High body temperature during intestinal infection performs an important task - it stimulates the production of interferon, which is involved in immune defense. And if it is usually not recommended to reduce it for these reasons without extreme need, then with an intestinal infection, the attitude to the heat should be somewhat different.
Evgeny Komarovsky emphasizes that at high temperatures, the child sweats more, breathes through the mouth, and this leads to drying out of the mucous membranes, he breathes more often, the heart beats faster in heat. All this contributes to additional fluid loss. Fever becomes an unnecessary burden on the already exhausted body of the child. Usually Evgeny Olegovich advises to lower the temperature after 38.5, but in the case of intestinal infections, the reason for taking an antipyretic agent (such as "Paracetamol") should be a thermometer reading at 37.5.
In matters of the use of sorbents for intestinal ailments, doctors cannot come to a consensus in any way. The World Health Organization does not advise doing this, but no one has yet succeeded in proving that sorbents harm the child's body. Dr. Komarovsky recommends that parents decide this issue on their own or consult with their doctor, who knows the child better, but emphasizes that moderate use of sorbents is more likely to be beneficial. Sorbents are "Baktistatin", "Polysorb", "Enterosgel" and the well-known activated carbon.
The child should be soldered with vomiting and diarrhea with special preparations for oral rehydration. If during the flu it is enough to give a baby sweet tea or fruit juice to drink, then in the case of an intestinal infection, during loose stools and vomiting, the child loses a large amount of not only important liquid for him, but also mineral salts, without which he also cannot live.
That is why it is better to leave compotes for later. And give the child in large quantities solutions of "Regidron", "Hydrovit", suitable for replenishing the water-salt balance and "Humana Electrolyte" and "Maratonik". All of these drugs are sachets with glucose and mineral salts, which can be simply dissolved in water and given to the child to drink. It tastes not too good (salty!), But very healthy and important.
Feeding a child during the treatment of intestinal infections, according to Komarovsky, is far from useful... Dairy, meat food only worsens the baby's condition, slows down recovery. However, when it comes to skinny children, with a deficiency in body weight, then such a child should definitely not starve, it can be deadly. It is necessary to feed such a child in the same way as before an intestinal infection, with the products he is used to, not limiting him in food. If the toddler is not stunted, then it is better to temporarily limit food, giving preference to liquid (broth, jelly). For children over a year old, it is best to give meals that will not contain meat and fatty components. Milk, eggs, meat products are banned. It is best to boil porridge in water.
Tips
- If your child has an acute intestinal infection, it is important to watch out for dehydration. If with older children you can control the amount of drunk and allocated, then with babies everything is different. To determine how much a crumb has pee, Komarovsky advises mothers to use electronic scales. They need to weigh the used diaper. This will give more or less accurate data on the amount of fluid released.
- Do not panic if your child suddenly has more liquid stools. If there are no accompanying symptoms, then we are most likely not talking about an intestinal infection as such. It has several symptoms together. Komarovsky recommends not to sound the alarm and not to start self-treatment of "that, I don't know what" with folk remedies or medicines.
- Drink actively a baby with an intestinal infection with high fever is also needed because the most common complication of intestinal upset is, oddly enough, pneumonia, says Komarovsky. If there is enough moisture, the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx, bronchi, trachea and lungs will not dry out, and the risk of pneumonia will be minimized.
- If financial resources do not allow you to buy a sufficient number of sachets of oral rehydration mixture, Komarovsky advises you to prepare the solution at home yourself. The recipe is not an initiative of some home-grown traditional healers, it is officially approved by the World Health Organization. For cooking, you need a liter of water, two tablespoons of sugar, and one teaspoon of baking soda and table salt.
- Drinking for a child should not be cold or hot. Ideally, it should fully correspond to body temperature, only then the rate of absorption of such a solution will be maximum, which is very important in the treatment of intestinal infection.
- During an illness, an intestinal disorder against the background of a decrease in appetite in children quite often produces enzyme deficiency... Therefore, as soon as the baby feels better and asks for food, you should not give him too much food or fatty foods, since there are not enough enzymes in the body.
- The best prevention is hygiene. The child should wash hands more often, and the mother should properly store food and give the child clean or boiled water.
