Routine examination for diarrhea in children

Diarrhea is a disease that often occurs in daily life. If adults suffer from diarrhea, they can find ways to treat it themselves. However, for infants who cannot express themselves yet, how can we detect their discomfort? Here we will teach you how to self-test for diarrhea in infants and young children.

1. Observe body temperature.

The main temperature response to diarrhea in infants and young children is fever, which is mostly moderate (around 38.5°C). This is common in diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli, Campylobacter jejuni, Shigella dysenteriae, Salmonella, rotavirus, enterovirus, etc. Fever may occur earlier than diarrhea or at the beginning of diarrhea. At the same time, the child may also be unwilling to play, unwilling to eat, annoying, and crying.

2. Observe the mental state.

The main thing is to observe whether the child has symptoms such as mental depression, drowsiness, convulsions, seizures, convulsions, coma, etc. Generally, children with mild diarrhea will not have these symptoms.

If any of these symptoms appear, especially if they precede diarrhea or are at the beginning of diarrhea, you should seek medical attention promptly.

Diarrhea examination:

1. Routine stool examination and stool microscopic examination, pay attention to the presence of pus cells, white blood cells, red blood cells and macrophages, and also pay attention to the presence of worm eggs, parasites, fungal spores and hyphae. Sometimes it takes several repetitions to be meaningful, which helps to diagnose the cause and etiology of diarrhea.

2. Stool culture is important for determining the pathogen of diarrhea. The positive rate of a single stool culture is low and needs to be done several times. Immediate culture of fresh specimens can increase the positive detection rate.

3. The stool latex agglutination test has diagnostic value for certain viral enteritis, such as rotavirus, enteric adenovirus, etc. It has good sensitivity and specificity and is helpful for the diagnosis of Campylobacter jejuni enteritis.

4. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay is highly sensitive and specific to rotavirus, and is helpful in the diagnosis of rotavirus enteritis and other viral enteritis.

5. Polyacrylamide gel (PAGE) electrophoresis test This method can detect rotavirus subgroups and different electrophoretic types, which is helpful for the classification and research of rotavirus.

6. Fecal reducing sugar test: When disaccharide digestion and absorption are poor, the fecal reducing sugar is positive and the pH value is <6.0. The reducing sugar test can be done with modified Ban's reagent or Clinitest test paper for colorimetry. Secondary disaccharidase deficiency is much more common than primary one. Among primary cases, sucrose-isomaltase deficiency is the most common.

7. Fecal electron microscopy has diagnostic value for certain viral enteritis, such as rotavirus enteritis, Norwalk virus enteritis, etc.

8. Blood leukocyte count and classification: The total leukocyte count in viral enteritis is generally not increased, and the total leukocyte count in bacterial enteritis may or may not increase. More than half of the children have increased band nuclei, with the number of band nuclei exceeding 10 percent, which is helpful for the diagnosis of bacterial infection.

9. Blood culture is of diagnostic significance for bacterial dysentery, Escherichia coli, Salmonella and other bacterial enteritis. Positive blood bacterial culture is helpful for diagnosis.

10. For children with severe diarrhea, blood biochemical examination should be carried out in time to check blood pH, carbon dioxide binding capacity, bicarbonate, blood sodium, blood potassium, blood chloride, and blood osmotic pressure, which are of great significance for diagnosis and treatment.

11. For patients with persistent and chronic diarrhea, lactose, sucrose or glucose tolerance test, breath hydrogen test (a quantitative non-invasive method for measuring carbohydrate malabsorption, which can be applied if conditions permit), and fiber colonoscopy can also be performed if necessary.

Through the introduction of the above article, we learned about the methods of testing whether babies have diarrhea. As parents, we should keep the above methods in mind. Once we find that our children have the above-mentioned phenomena, we should treat them in time to avoid delaying the child’s illness.