How to help your child deal with digestive problems

All children must have had distressing digestive problems, with parents being only able to provide the child lots of comfort, reassurance and cuddles. Parents can definitely do and not do certain things to help the little prevent stomach bug and recover fast.

It would be right to say that common and extremely contagious digestive problems show up as diarrhea with 3 or more watery stools, vomiting, pale lips and face and stomach pain. Most children with digestive problems can be treated at home by offering sips of water to make sure the child is not dehydrated; you could also offer rehydration fluids that contain a mixture of salts and sugars that would help the child’s body to retain more water.

Consult a general practitioner in case of dehydration that shows up with the child being irritable and drowsy with a dry mouth and urinating lesser than usual. The eyes of the child would look deeper than normal and would be sunken into the head, with the child having heartbeats that are faster than normal. Some children stand at a risk of getting dehydrated more than other.

Children that stand a risk of getting dehydrated are:

• Below 1 year of age, especially below 6 months.

• Babies those are very small at birth.

• Babies who have stopped breastfeeding after the stomach upset/digestive problem

• Babies vomiting more than 3 times or having 6 or more watery stools in 24 hours

• Babies who refuse to drink

It would be best here to take into account the new guidelines that have been produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), an independent body that advises the government about health care. The guidelines are aimed at parents of children under 5 and have been compiled together by consultants, GPs, nurses, and patient representatives.

The guidelines are:

• Children with digestive problems, with no signs of dehydration should be encouraged to drink a lot of water, but avoid fizzy drinks and fruit juices.

• Consult your GP to recommend rehydration drinks for dehydration; doctors should check on children who have signs of dehydration and suggest drips only in emergency cases. It is also best to continue with breast or formula feeds.

• Medicines for diarrhea are dangerous for children and most children recover on their own; antibiotics should be prescribed by doctors only in confirmed cases of infection like salmonella or amoebic dysentery.

Normal diarrhea in children lasts only for 5 to 7 days and generally stops in 2 weeks, while vomiting lasts for 1 or 2 days and stops by 3 days; consult your doctor only if things get worse or not better.

As a conclusive note digestive problems/stomach upsets that are quite common in childhood can be avoided by regular washing of the hands with soap and warm water and drying them after using the toilet, changing the nappy and handling food. You could prevent the spread of germs by not sending your child to school 48 hours after recovery. Children should avoid using the swimming pool until 2 weeks after a bout of diarrhea; all this goes to dealing and preventing stomach problem/digestive problems in children. 

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