Diarrhoea In Infants: Treatment, Precautions, How To Prevent Dehydration - Expert Explains

Toddlers and infants are unable to express when they are facing physical discomfort, so it's extremely important to make sure they are not getting dehydrated if they have contracted diarrhoea

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The summer season brings with it several health problems for children and diarrhoea being one of them. For infants and toddlers, parents have to be extra cautious because children can't communicate clearly and it this means they are unable to express clearly what's bothering them. Dr Saurabh Khanna, Lead Consultant, Neonatology and Pediatrics, CK Birla Hospital in Gurgaon, shares, "Make sure that your child is not getting dehydrated because if they have diarrhoea, children can go into dehydration very quickly, and they won't be able to tell you whether they are feeling dehydrated or not. So first of all, you have to see what are the signs of dehydration."

Key Signs Of Dehydration

Dr Saurabh Khanna says the following are key signs of dehydration:

1) Your kid is not passing urine for 8 to 10 hours
2) They are not consuming liquids adequately
3) They are passing loose motions plenty of times in a day
4) They not feeling eager to drink water
5) They are having sunken eyes or dry mouths

The above are some main signs of dehydration. "In such cases, you have to rush the child to the emergency and meanwhile, you should start giving plenty of ORS. Roughly, it is said that in one loose motion, if it is small in quantity, there's 50ML water loss and in a large motion, there is around 100 to 200 ML water loss. If you are not replacing this loose stool with ORS adequately, then the kid might go into dehydration.

Loose Motion In Infants: How To Treat Them

Doctors say we have to make sure that the baby is kept well-hydrated. For infants who are up to the age of 1 year, obviously, the mother's milk is the best which can be offered. There is no indication that the mother's milk needs to be stopped in case of loose motion. If the child is over six months, you have to give ORS to keep the baby well-hydrated, says Dr Saurabh Khanna.

"Then there are certain probiotics which help. Probiotics are good bacteria that reduce the intensity and the frequency of loose motion and also the duration of the loose motion. So, there are recommended probiotics that can be given to you by the pediatrician," shares Dr Khanna, adding, "The third thing is making homemade ORS. In case you are not getting  ORS which is a ready-to-use one, then you can prepare ORS at home using salt and sugar water. Apart from that. you can give shikanji as well as coconut water."

Zinc supplements are also prescribed by doctors as they help in improving gut immunity. Depending on the age the doctor will prescribe a dose and then there are antibiotics, which will be determined depending on the diagnosis.

When To Say No To Milk

If the child is more than a year, Dr Khanna says it's best to reduce milk intake in case of diarrohea, especially if there are other sources of nutrition available. "Lactose intolerance is also one of the very common causes of loose motions. Whenever one gets infected, there is an entity called secondary lactose intolerance, which sets in. In case somebody is giving milk very frequently and in large quantities to kids with loose motions, they can end up with more loose motions because our body is not able to digest the lactose which is there in the milk," shares Dr Khanna.