What should I do if my baby has gastroenteritis?

Gastrointestinal diseases have a long-term impact on the body, especially for babies, gastrointestinal inflammation is prone to recurrence, which brings great damage to the health of the body and causes the baby to have long-term diarrhea and abdominal pain symptoms. This has a great impact on the baby's development. Many babies with gastrointestinal inflammation have malnutrition, which has a very serious impact. Let's take a look at what to do if your baby has gastroenteritis?

1. Clarify the cause of acute enteritis in babies

If it is caused by indigestion, you can adjust your diet and choose light and easily digestible food. You can also take medication, such as taking lactase, yeast tablets, etc.

2. Pay attention to your baby’s dietary hygiene

Be sure to protect your baby's diet, avoid raw and cold food, and keep the abdomen warm.

3. Replenish water and electrolytes in time

Severe diarrhea can cause dehydration in babies, so parents should provide good care to prevent their baby’s gastroenteritis from worsening.

Nursing points:

Measure weight from time to time. When your baby has vomiting and diarrhea, in addition to observing whether the skin and lips are too dry to determine whether the baby is dehydrated, you should also measure the baby's weight from time to time to understand whether the baby's weight changes are too large.

Cleaning the butt after diarrhea

Diarrhea can easily irritate the skin around the buttocks and cause diaper rash. It is recommended to clean and deal with excrement as soon as possible, increase the frequency of diaper changes, use warm water to wash and dry the baby, keep it clean and dry, and avoid wiping hard with wet wipes.

Babies with gastroenteritis, especially those infected with norovirus, should be isolated from other children in the home for 24-48 hours until their symptoms improve.

Daily necessities must be disinfected: the sick child's clothes and bedding should be replaced, cleaned and disinfected as soon as possible; dishes, chopsticks, toys, etc. that the sick child has touched should also be cleaned and disinfected, and it is best to expose them to the sun after washing.

4 warning signs of gastroenteritis, seek medical attention as soon as possible. Regardless of whether it is viral or bacterial gastroenteritis, if the baby has the following four symptoms in addition to vomiting and diarrhea, it is recommended that parents take the baby to the doctor immediately.

Dehydration: Common warning signs include dry skin and lips, less and yellower urine, and no tears when crying.

High fever: The baby has a persistent high fever above 38.5℃, accompanied by poor mental vitality, and even symptoms such as dehydration and persistent vomiting.

Vomiting: If the child still has energy and appetite after vomiting, it means the symptoms are not serious and can be observed first. If vomiting persists for more than 6 hours and you have poor appetite and lack of energy, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible.