Nutrients’ Importance for Children with Diarrhea

 

Diarrhea can be caused by many reasons. If a child is afflicted with diarrhea, the child should be treated immediately to prevent it from becoming worse. Children should be given proper nutritional supplements recommended by pediatricians immediately to help with the discomfort faced by the child and also to shorten the period of diarrhea. The question now is what nutrients should the child take?

 

To address this problem, it is necessary to understand the physical changes that occur during diarrhea. Diarrhea caused by either bacterial or viral infection will usually trigger symptoms such as vomiting and watery stools with a sourish smell. As a child is bound to lose water through constant purging, parents need to ensure that the child is given enough fluids to keep from getting dehydrated.

 

Other than dehydration, a child loses electrolytes. A lack of electrolytes in the body may cause cramps, shock and other serious symptoms. Consult a pediatrician on the best way to treat your child for this.

 

The next thing you should be concerned about is eating. A common belief is that diarrhea should be followed by fasting so as to give the intestines time to rest, but current research shows that even with acute diarrhea, the intestines can absorb up to 60% of various nutrients. Eating food recommended by pediatricians would help stimulate the intestinal digestive system, absorbing various nutrients and vitamins and help speed up the recovery process.

 

Therefore, children should continue drinking/eating even with diarrhea. The choice of food during diarrhea is crucial to the restoration of health. Foods that contains lactose should be avoided because during diarrhea, the intestinal mucosa experiences water erosion, which will cause damage to the cell and reduced lactase activity. Therefore, the child will be unable to absorb the nutrients from lactose-containing food.

 

In order for the child to obtain nutritious food, the child can continue on a routine diet like breast-fed milk or drinking formulas that are lactose-free or soy-based products, like Isomil Plus. A child who recovers from diarrhea is encouraged to continue taking lactose-free or soy-based products for 6–8 weeks to let the intestinal wall and digestives enzymes be completely repaired.

 

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