What are the characteristics of rotavirus when it is almost cured?

Rotavirus is generally more prevalent in spring and autumn. Generally, when the patient has a fever and it lasts for about 3 days, the baby will have diarrhea, and in more serious cases it may cause dehydration. During this period, the patient will also experience vomiting, loss of appetite, and watery stools like egg drop soup. The baby must be well cared for during the illness and must be isolated because rotavirus is contagious.

What are the symptoms of rotavirus diarrhea?

1. Mild upper respiratory tract symptoms

2. Fever

3. Persistent vomiting

4. Persistent diarrhea

5. Abdominal cramps

6. Severe dehydration, shock, or even death

Rotavirus gastroenteritis is an illness that ranges from mild to severe, with symptoms such as vomiting, watery stools, and a low-grade fever.

When children are infected with this type of virus, there is an incubation period of about two days before symptoms develop. Symptoms usually begin with vomiting, followed by four to eight days of heavy diarrhea.

When the above symptoms are relieved or alleviated, it means that they are under effective control. With careful treatment and care, the baby can recover.

Care after contracting rotavirus

1. Replenish lost water in time

Treatment for severe rotavirus infection is not specific and includes symptom control and, most importantly, rehydration. Without treatment, children can die from severe dehydration. Depending on the severity of the diarrhea, treatment may include oral administration of either plain water or water with salt and sugar.

2. Proper electrolyte supplementation

When diarrhea occurs, not only water is lost, but also a lot of electrolytes. Simply replenishing water will not solve the problem. On the contrary, due to the "water diuresis", it will forcibly take away more electrolytes, thereby breaking the body's compensation and causing severe hypotonic dehydration.

Therefore, oral saline solution (ORS) is definitely needed. Oral saline solution (ORS) is the first choice medical therapy for children with mild or moderate dehydration. Early administration of oral saline solution can reduce complications and the number of clinical examinations and hospitalizations.

Special tips :

Improper use of oral saline solution may aggravate the condition and even lead to adverse consequences. The reason is that the digestive tract mucosa of patients with indigestion and acute gastroenteritis has inflammatory edema and poor absorption function. Taking a large amount of rehydration salt quickly in a short period of time is not only difficult to absorb, but also will accelerate gastrointestinal motility, causing diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance.

"The rule for supplementing rehydration salts: replenish gradually in small amounts and frequently."

3. Don’t fast! Also, don’t force feed.

In autumn diarrhea, vomiting is often only obvious on the first 1-2 days of onset, and then gradually improves as the diarrhea begins to worsen. For children with diarrhea and/or vomiting, the correct dietary guidelines are as follows: eat as much as they can (but please don't force them to eat); do not add foods that are difficult to digest, such as eggs and meat, for the time being, feed your child more easily digestible foods, and babies over six months old can drink more salty noodle soup (or rice soup with an appropriate amount of salt).

4. Don’t blindly give your child anti-vomiting or anti-diarrhea medicine

For babies with autumn diarrhea, stopping vomiting and diarrhea at the beginning of the illness is of no benefit. Instead, it may aggravate the condition and even lead to complications. In the acute phase of viral or bacterial enteritis, vomiting and diarrhea can both play a self-protective role of "detoxification and stress relief". Blindly stopping vomiting and diarrhea may disrupt the body's compensation and make it impossible to excrete "toxins" in the intestines, thereby worsening the disease and the occurrence of complications.

5. Don’t abuse antibiotics

Babies' autumn diarrhea is mainly caused by rotavirus infection, so using antibiotics to treat it is pure drug abuse. Blindly using antibiotics for babies' autumn diarrhea is not only ineffective, but can also lead to an increase in the number of drug-resistant bacterial strains. It can also cause secondary intestinal flora imbalance, fungal enteritis, etc., affect nutrient absorption, and cause prolonged diarrhea, endangering life.

6. Use probiotics to correct intestinal flora imbalance and protect (repair) intestinal mucosa

Dr. Cui Yutao's nursing advice for rotavirus gastroenteritis is: In the early stages, fluids containing certain electrolytes should be replenished in a timely manner, such as oral rehydration salts; in the later stages, due to lactose intolerance, breast milk + lactase can be insisted on or lactose-free formula powder can be selected. Probiotics also have a certain effect in shortening the course of the disease.