How to properly feed children to treat diarrhea? How to relieve diarrhea in a 3-month-old baby?

3-month-old baby has diarrhea? The treatment plan for pediatric diarrhea emphasizes continued feeding first. Traditionally, it is recommended to fast when a child has acute diarrhea, but new concepts encourage continued feeding, unless the child vomits violently or has obvious abdominal distension and diarrhea after eating, then fasting for 4-6 hours can be temporarily given.

When feeding, you should avoid eating vegetables, fruits, high-sugar foods and greasy foods containing crude fiber. Most children with acute diarrhea can eat what they have eaten before. Supplementary foods that they have not eaten should be added after the diarrhea is cured. Early feeders have a faster appetite recovery, physical strength recovery, and weight gain, which can greatly shorten the recovery time after diarrhea and is extremely beneficial to children. Actual experience has also shown that babies who eat early not only do not have worse vomiting and diarrhea, but also recover faster.

What should I do if my 3-month-old baby has diarrhea? How to properly feed the baby to treat diarrhea in children

For general diarrhea, breastfed babies can continue to be breastfed, and non-breastfed babies can continue to be fed formula milk. Infants with chronic diarrhea who are mainly allergic can usually tolerate deep hydrolyzed casein formula milk. If they are still intolerant, amino acid-based formula milk or a complete elemental diet can be used. For children who have already added complementary foods, they can continue to eat the daily foods they are accustomed to, such as porridge, noodles, soft rice, eggs, minced fish, minced meat, and fresh fruit juice. Encourage children to eat. If they eat little, increase the number of feedings appropriately.

Director He Waner reminds parents that dietary adjustments for diarrhea should be based on the specific conditions of the child. Different types of diarrhea require different feeding methods. For example, for sugar-derived diarrhea, which is most common due to lactose intolerance, a disaccharide-free diet should be used for treatment. Lactose-free (or low-lactose) formula milk or soy protein formula milk can be used. For allergic diarrhea, which is more common due to milk allergy, the baby should avoid eating allergic foods, or adopt oral desensitization feeding without restricting foods that have already been tolerated.

Principles of home feeding for children with diarrhea

In principle, the dietary adjustment for children with diarrhea should be from less to more, from thin to thick. Children are encouraged to eat more and gradually return to their normal diet. The adjustment speed and time depend on the child's tolerance to the diet.

For those who are breastfed or milk-fed, if the amount of stool and frequency increase significantly, the stool is watery and has a sour odor, vomiting, abdominal distension, hyperactive bowel sounds, and more serious dehydration and acidosis, the symptoms will be relieved after stopping feeding, and the stool pH is <6.0, and reducing substances are >0.5%. Consider acute diarrhea secondary to lactase deficiency and lactose malabsorption. Feed the baby with fermented milk or lactose-free formula milk (lactose-free) and observe closely. Once the child can tolerate it, he should resume normal diet.

For children with severe dehydration and frequent vomiting, Director He Waner believes that it is advisable to temporarily fast and correct water and electrolyte disorders first, and resume feeding after the condition improves. If necessary, intravenous nutrition should be used for those with severe diarrhea and malnutrition. After the diarrhea stops, a diet rich in calories and high nutritional value should be provided, and it should exceed the usual requirement by 10% to 100%. Generally, an additional meal is added once a day within 2 weeks to compensate for growth and development more quickly and catch up with normal growth.