What to do if your baby has rotavirus diarrhea?

The peak period for rotavirus diarrhea is from October to February of the following year. Because the local immunity and intestinal digestive system of infants and young children are not fully developed, they are prone to rotavirus diarrhea during this dry and cold season, causing acute intestinal diseases. So what is rotavirus diarrhea? What should I do if my baby has rotavirus diarrhea?

Rotavirus is also called autumn diarrhea. Main mode of transmission: Mainly through fecal-oral or oral-oral transmission, and can also be transmitted through water sources or the respiratory tract. Rotavirus diarrhea in adults often presents as water-based outbreaks. Because rotavirus is relatively stable in the environment and is not easy to die naturally, it can also be transmitted through daily contact. Neonatal rotavirus infection mainly comes from maternal infection, birth canal infection and hospital infection. Rotavirus infection can be spread in hospitals by nursing staff. Incubation period: The incubation period of rotavirus diarrhea is generally about 3 days. Clinical manifestations: Rotavirus diarrhea ranges from asymptomatic, mild illness to severe, fatal gastroenteritis, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance. Symptoms of rotavirus diarrhea include fever, vomiting, abdominal pain, and bloodless watery diarrhea. The diarrhea is white rice soup-like or yellow-green egg drop-like watery stool with a foul odor and does not contain blood or mucus. Symptoms may last 3-9 days. In addition to gastrointestinal symptoms, recent studies have found that rotavirus can cause many other diseases. In some cases, liver function damage may occur to varying degrees. Rotavirus can even pass through the gastrointestinal barrier and cause viremia. What should you do if your baby has rotavirus diarrhea? First: keep warm. Parents can use a hot water bottle to apply heat to their child's abdomen, or rub their child's belly to relieve the child's abdominal pain. Second: adjust your diet. During the acute phase of diarrhea, you should reduce your food intake, but you don't have to fast. You should eat some porridge such as rice porridge and noodle soup. Do not eat fish or meat during the acute phase. You can gradually resume normal diet after the condition improves. Third: Drink oral rehydration salts. When feeding children oral rehydration saline, you should be patient and feed them in small amounts and multiple times, every 2 to 3 minutes, 10 to 20 ml each time with a spoon; this way, small amounts will add up to a lot, and dehydration can be corrected in about 4 to 6 hours. If your child is intolerant to oral rehydration or if diarrhea worsens, you should take your child to see a pediatrician for intravenous rehydration.

Infants and young children aged 6 months to 2 years old have not yet fully developed immune and intestinal digestive systems, so infants and young children of this age group may be easily infected with rotavirus and develop diarrhea due to contact with contaminated hands and toys. So, what should we do if our baby has rotavirus diarrhea? In addition to following the doctor's instructions to restrict the diet, parents should also make sure to give the baby more salt water to prevent physical exhaustion.