Diarrhea examination items for children

Children are the treasures of every family. Parents are particularly pampering to their children and let them eat whatever they want. Improper diet can easily lead to diarrhea. Once a child suffers from diarrhea, parents should not worry too much and should take the child to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. So what examinations should be done for children with diarrhea? Let's learn about the examination methods below.

Common Symptoms Causes

(1) Mild diarrhea: The main symptoms are increased frequency of diarrhea, from several times to 10 times a day. The diarrhea is thin, sometimes with a small amount of water, yellow or yellow-green, mixed with a small amount of mucus. The amount is not much each time, and small white or light yellow pieces are often seen, which are soap blocks composed of calcium, magnesium and fatty acids. Occasionally there is a small amount of vomiting or galactorrhea, loss of appetite, normal body temperature or occasional low fever, slightly pale complexion, good spirits, and no other systemic symptoms. Weight does not increase or decreases slightly. Body fluid loss is less than 50ml/kg, and clinical symptoms of dehydration are occasionally obvious. The prognosis is good, and the course of the disease is about 3 to 7 days. In children with rickets or malnutrition, although the diarrhea is mild, it is often 3 to 7 times a day, yellow in color, often with mucus and a foul odor. A small amount of white blood cells can be seen in the stool. The characteristics and frequency of diarrhea are unstable. The longer it lasts, the worse the nutritional status is, and secondary infections of the urinary tract, middle ear or other parts are often caused.

(2) Severe diarrhea: It can be aggravated from mild. The patient may defecate dozens to 40 times a day. When the disease begins to become severe, the stool contains more water and occasionally mucus. The stool is yellow or yellow-green, has a fishy smell, and is acidic. If the diaper is not changed in time, the skin of the buttocks is often corroded, and the epidermis peels off and becomes red. As the disease worsens and the food intake decreases, the stool odor decreases, the feces disappear, and the stool becomes watery or egg drop soup-like, and the color becomes lighter. The main components are intestinal fluid and a small amount of mucus, which is alkaline. The amount of stool increases to 10-30ml each time, and can reach 50ml in some cases. Under the microscope, fat droplets, swimming bacteria, mucus, and occasionally red blood cells in severe cases can be seen. The number of white blood cells can reach about 10 per visual field. The child has a poor appetite, often accompanied by vomiting and irregular low fever. In severe cases, the patient has a high fever and rapidly loses weight, and becomes obviously emaciated. If fluid is not replenished in time, dehydration and acidosis will gradually worsen. A few severe cases develop rapidly, with high fevers of 39 to 40 degrees Celsius, frequent vomiting, watery diarrhea, and rapid onset of water and electrolyte imbalance. In the past decade or so, severe diarrhea has been significantly reduced due to early diagnosis.

Laboratory tests for diarrhea in children:

1. Routine stool examination, intestinal flora analysis, stool acidity, reducing sugar and bacterial culture.

2. Duodenal fluid examination: analyze the pH value, trypsin, chymotrypsin, enterokinase and serum trypsinogen to determine the protein digestion and absorption function, measure the lipase and bile salt concentrations in the duodenal fluid to understand the digestion and absorption of fat, and also perform bacterial culture and parasite egg detection.

3. Small intestinal mucosal biopsy is the most reliable method to understand the pathophysiological changes of chronic diarrhea. If necessary, protein, carbohydrate and fat absorption function tests, X-ray, colonoscopy and other examinations can also be performed for comprehensive analysis and judgment.

During diagnosis, pay attention to finding the cause and exclude diarrhea caused by infection outside the digestive tract. First, understand the feeding situation, history of unclean food, history of disease contact, and disinfection of food and tableware from the medical history to distinguish infectious from non-infectious diarrhea. Secondly, pay attention to the season and region of onset. Diarrhea in northern my country from March to July is mostly caused by Escherichia coli, while cases from August to December are mostly caused by viruses. If conditions permit, stool culture, electron microscopy or virus isolation should be performed.

What examinations should be done for pediatric diarrhea? You may all know that some children do not pay attention to their diet, so diarrhea is very likely to occur. In fact, there are many reasons for diarrhea, and the symptoms of diarrhea are also various. Therefore, only by finding out the cause can we give the child effective treatment. Finally, I hope that the children can grow up healthily.