What are the symptoms and treatment of alcohol poisoning in children?

In family life, it is inevitable to encounter many situations involving children. Once symptoms that are difficult to treat are encountered, it is really troublesome. Parents need to pay more attention to these issues, especially when encountering the problem of children being exposed to alcohol, because childhood alcohol poisoning is not a small problem. Severe cases may endanger the child’s life safety. Parents should not let their children come into contact with alcohol at ordinary times, but if a child suffers from alcohol poisoning, parents must also understand the treatment methods. This is the only way to help the child escape from life-threatening danger. In daily life, you should not use alcohol to amuse children. Let’s take a closer look at the symptoms and treatment of alcohol poisoning in children.

The earliest stage to appear, patients in this stage have bloodshot eyes, flushed or pale face, dizziness, euphoria, irritability, and unpredictable laughter and crying. Sometimes they act innocently; sometimes they are rude or talk too much and incessantly; they may also vomit or become lethargic.

If a child develops the above symptoms and continues to drink more alcohol, he or she will fall into a deep sleep, often accompanied by slow breathing, loud snoring, pale complexion, cold and clammy skin, rapid heartbeat, decreased blood pressure and body temperature, or vomiting and incontinence.

If you find that your child has alcohol poisoning, you should quickly stimulate the throat with your fingers or a tongue depressor to induce vomiting to reduce the absorption of alcohol in the stomach, and then go to the hospital for treatment immediately. Generally, 1% sodium bicarbonate or clean water is used for gastric lavage. After gastric lavage, strong tea, lemon juice or coffee is taken orally or injected through a gastric tube to further neutralize the residual alcohol.

For children with hypoglycemia, profound respiratory depression or cerebral edema, timely symptomatic treatments such as high-sugar supplementation, sedation, and reduction of intracranial pressure can reduce brain damage.

The central nervous system stimulant naloxone hydrochloride can relieve the inhibition of alcohol on the central nervous system and respiratory center, and has the effects of prompting patients to wake up, improving oxygen supply to the cerebral cortex, and resisting shock. It also has the advantage of rapid onset of action and is more effective in treating alcohol poisoning. For children with severe poisoning, hemodialysis therapy can also be used. That is, the child's blood is drawn into a special instrument, the toxic components are filtered out and then injected into the body, so as to directly and quickly excrete the alcohol absorbed into the blood.

Infants with alcohol poisoning caused by alcohol baths should wash their skin with clean water as soon as possible to remove residual alcohol. Parents are role models for their children and should avoid drinking heavily and frequently. Schools and society should also educate children about the harmful effects of drinking and prohibit them from drinking. Parents should not induce ignorant children to drink to avoid unnecessary tragedies.

The above content is about the symptoms and treatment of alcohol poisoning in children. We see the seriousness of alcohol poisoning in children, but this requires parents to actively correct their drinking habits. As long as the children are not influenced by their parents, alcohol poisoning generally will not occur. Therefore, the problem of alcohol poisoning in children needs to be taken seriously by parents.