What to give your child if he has food poisoning. Further treatment at home

Signs, symptoms and treatment of food poisoning in children.

Food poisoning is no joke. If there are symptoms of food poisoning in a child, parents should first stop panicking and take the necessary measures. Let's talk about the causes, symptoms and measures to prevent food poisoning in children of different ages.

Causes of food poisoning in children of different ages

Food poisoning is a digestive disorder that occurs as a result of eating poor quality foods, as well as poisonous mushrooms and plants.

Food poisoning occurs for many reasons:

Bacteria and infections on products
Eating food that has been stored at the wrong temperature
Eating foods that have expired
Toxicity of some mushrooms, plants and their seeds
Incorrect cooking of food

The peak of intestinal poisoning is summer. During this time, it is sometimes difficult to keep food at low temperatures.

The most “unsafe” products:

Unboiled milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream
Cakes and pastries with cream
Raw water
Sausage products
Unwashed vegetables and fruits
Raw eggs, which may contain salmonella
Sometimes vegetables that were stored in the basement. Their peel may contain an infection carried by rodents

Food poisoning in a child

Signs of food poisoning in children

Signs of poisoning appear suddenly. The most characteristic signs of food poisoning in a child are:

Nausea
Vomit
Abdominal and muscle pain
Diarrhea

In severe cases of poisoning, vomiting can occur up to 15 times a day. The child's stool may become watery, and the discharge may contain blood and mucus.

Important: Food poisoning is dangerous due to dehydration of the body. Dehydration occurs as a result of frequent diarrhea and vomiting. If you see that the child is pale, his mouth is dry, his pulse and breathing are rapid, and the child begins to urinate rarely, immediately seek medical help.

Signs of mushroom poisoning:

Dizziness
Pale skin
Increasing headache
Blue lip color
Nausea
Stomach ache

Mushroom poisoning is extremely dangerous and requires urgent medical attention.

Mushroom poisoning is very dangerous and should not be self-medicated

Can children have a fever due to food poisoning?

Elevated temperature (over 37.5°) is also one of the frequent companions of food poisoning. It may appear some time after signs of poisoning. A baby with a high temperature becomes lethargic, weak, and capricious.

Poisoning is almost always accompanied by fever

Treatment of food poisoning in children

Mild food poisoning can be treated on its own. Parents must provide first aid to the child. Children with severe poisoning, the symptoms of which do not go away after a few days, and dehydration of the body are subject to hospitalization.

Important: If a child has been poisoned by mushrooms or has inadvertently eaten the fruits or seeds of a poisonous plant, contact an ambulance immediately. Before she arrives, put the child to bed, warm his feet and no medications. Treatment for such poisoning is only inpatient.

First aid for poisoning:

Gastric lavage. Vomiting is the body's defense reaction to harmful bacteria. This is how the body tries to get rid of toxins. If possible, have the child drink a large amount of water, then press your finger on the child's tongue. This will make you gag
Detoxification. After rinsing, it is necessary to help the body get rid of the remaining toxins. Enterosorbents will come to the rescue. Give your child only the drug that is appropriate for his age. Follow the correct dosage

Well-known enterosorbents are activated carbon, smecta, enterosgel, polysorb. Enterosorbents absorb toxins and leave the body naturally.

Fighting dehydration. Give your child drinks often. This can be not only water, but also a weak rosehip infusion, tea, or rice infusion.

Important: Some give milk to the child, considering it an assistant in the fight against toxins. This is a wrong opinion. During food poisoning, the body has no time to digest milk; it intensively fights harmful bacteria.

First aid for food poisoning - taking enterosorbents

Antibiotics for food poisoning in children

Antibiotics for food poisoning are prescribed extremely rarely. Parents should never self-prescribe antibiotics. Along with harmful bacteria, antibiotics can also destroy beneficial ones.

Levomycetin is prescribed for certain pathogens that are detected in the laboratory.

Is it possible to feed a child with food poisoning?

If your child doesn't want to eat, don't force him. If the child does not mind eating, follow a gentle diet. In case of poisoning, it is important not to give up drinking, at least one or two sips, but more often.

Dietary rules for poisoning:

Food should be liquid or pureed
Portions are small
Meals can be up to 8 times a day, but in small portions
The diet should be followed for some time after recovery

Diet for food poisoning in children

In case of poisoning, avoid:

Fatty foods
Fresh bread
Sweets
Milk
Freshly squeezed juices

Suitable food:

Vegetable soups
Porridge on the water
Yesterday's bread or crackers in small quantities

Rose hip decoction
Weak tea
Dried fruits compote
Still water

After recovery, follow a gentle diet for two weeks. Do not prepare fried food for your child; give preference to boiled or steamed food. Be careful with fresh vegetables and fruits, sweets, and fatty foods.

If you have food poisoning, you can eat light vegetable soups

How and how to treat food poisoning in a child: tips and reviews

Inna: “Food poisoning is scary. I myself have encountered this several times. Muscle pain, stomach upset, vomiting - you wouldn’t wish it on your enemy. And when a child has this, it’s a nightmare. My two-year-old daughter drank raw water from a well when we were visiting the village. Almost immediately, loose stools appeared, temperature 37.5. It's good that I had a first aid kit with me. I immediately gave her smecta, went on a diet, then enzymes to normalize the microflora.”

Marina: “We ended up in an infectious disease with signs of poisoning. The child had a fever, vomiting, lethargy, and weakness. My first aid didn't help. They called an ambulance and they took us to the infectious disease ward. They placed IVs, prescribed medications, and took tests. It turned out to be a rotavirus.”

Anastasia: “Mommies, watch the foods your child eats, especially in the summer. And most importantly, wash your hands. You often see children chewing something on the street in the summer. It is not known what can happen to hands after the sandbox and contact with other children.”

Prevention of food poisoning in children. Video

It is unbearable to watch children suffer. To avoid the problem of food poisoning, follow preventive measures: wash your hands before eating, after contact with animals, after a walk; avoid contact with people with an intestinal infection; handle products carefully; Store food in the refrigerator, and after the expiration date, throw away food without regret.

Video: Child food poisoning

Poisoning in children is an acute infectious or toxic lesion that occurs as a result of eating low-quality foods that contain pathogenic bacteria and toxins. The first signs of poisoning: diarrhea, vomiting, fever, intoxication and dehydration.

Thanks to timely diagnosis, it is possible to find out a presumptive epidemiological history: it is necessary to identify the pathogen in the blood, feces, vomit and food samples that the child has eaten over the past 24 hours.

To consolidate the effect of gastric lavage, you need to give the victim “Smecta” or activated charcoal. If the child develops diarrhea after taking these medications, then warm drinks and rehydration aids will need to be given.

If your temperature suddenly rises, give an antipyretic. Don’t even think about giving antibiotics; it’s better to wait for the doctor and find out his opinion.

What to do if poisoning is detected in a 2-year-old child?

It is very difficult for those parents who discovered poisoning in their two-year-old child. At this age, the child cannot yet independently talk about what is bothering him, so several signs that the mother should pay attention to can indicate poisoning of a 2-year-old child:

drowsiness;
uncontrollable vomiting;
streaks of blood in the vomit;
dyspnea;
decreased amount of urine;
increased or decreased temperature;
dark color of urine.

All these signs should indicate to parents that their children are poisoned; the symptoms for each person, of course, will be different, but if you suddenly notice at least one of these signs, consult a doctor immediately. The age of up to three years is the most difficult, and the course of the disease is very difficult, because the body’s protective functions have not yet been formed, and the body itself cannot fight toxins; it definitely needs help.

What to give a child if poisoned? This is the main question that worries many parents.

The first thing to do is an enema with cool water and sorbent. For a one-year-old baby you need 70 ml of water, for a 2-year-old child - 150, and so for each added year increase by 100 ml. Be sure to give activated carbon, calculated at 500 mg per 1 kg of body weight. Drink a lot of boiled water and give Oralit, Regidron or Humana Electrolyte solutions.

Diagnosis of poisoning

A pediatrician or a pediatric infectious disease specialist can diagnose poisoning in children. The diagnosis is facilitated by epidemiological history; the typical picture indicates a group infection of people who have eaten the same product.

Special diagnostic tests will help to quickly isolate the pathogen from culture of stool, vomit and gastric lavage. In cases where there is even the slightest suspicion of a generalized form, a blood culture is performed.

If a massive toxicological infection is detected in a children's institution, then all employees of the institution are examined. Express methods are of auxiliary value.

Treatment of poisoning in children

We have already written above in the article what to give to a child in case of poisoning as soon as the first symptoms appear. But you also need to figure out how to treat this disease, because first aid will help alleviate the condition, but will not completely cure it.

Treatment of poisoning in a child begins with desoldering. Drinks should be given every 10 minutes; these can be glucose-saline solutions, compote, tea or 5% glucose solution.

If the baby has diarrhea, then you need to give Smecta, Polyphepan or Microsorb. If there is mucus, greens or blood in the stool, then in such cases an antibiotic is prescribed, but only this should be done by a doctor.

Mushroom poisoning

Very often, in many children, the cause of poisoning is mushrooms. In this case, every parent who knows what their child ate will be able to recognize the cause of poisoning.

If your child is breastfed, then you need to pause between feedings and start drinking boiled water. Once the condition improves, you can return to your normal feeding regimen. If your baby has a mild form, then you can get help at home. Symptoms of this form: lethargy, pain in the abdomen and head.

But if botulism is detected, immediately go to the infectious diseases hospital, because untimely assistance can lead to death. Only in a medical institution will they be able to administer anti-botulinum serum, which neutralizes the toxin.

Poisonous plants: poisoning

Very often, children, because of their ignorance, eat unknown grass or berries, and after this the child is poisoned. Vomiting is the first thing you need to induce in your child in order to remove as much toxin as possible from the body.

If you cannot induce vomiting, then try giving your child potassium permanganate. Try by any means to reduce the amount of toxin in the body. After this, go to the hospital or call a doctor at home so that he can prescribe treatment and diet.

Diet for poisoning

If suddenly, due to circumstances beyond our control, food poisoning occurs in a child, treatment - This is the main thing to do in the first minutes. But even after it, you also need to spare the child’s body for several days and keep him on a diet. After the symptoms have subsided a little, you will need to feed the baby. You shouldn’t overload it, because the body is weakened, all organs are also affected by the effects of toxins, so start feeding with light food.

So, in case of poisoning, what can a child be given to eat so that the weakened body can gain new strength. It is very good to prepare fresh chicken or vegetable broth, although any liquid food will do: porridge, vegetable and fruit dishes. Soufflés made from fish and meat will also be useful. If the child is very small, then he can be given his usual food. In order for recovery to proceed faster, and for the liver, damaged by toxins, to recover better, you need to give your child fermented milk products.

Since fermentation in the intestines will not go away immediately, it is better to give the child less carbohydrates in the first few days. And be sure to ask your doctor what foods he can eat and what he should avoid, since the diet directly depends on the severity of the poisoning and the consequences it caused.

Prevention of poisoning

Most poisonings in both children and adults are mild or moderate in severity and usually end with complete recovery. Its consequences can be various kinds of disruptions in the functioning of internal organs. So, with food poisoning, dysbiosis manifests itself in the intestines, and if poisoning occurs after a child has eaten poisonous mushrooms, then the outcome may be kidney and liver failure.

If the form of poisoning is severe, then multiple organ failure may even develop, which will require intensive care.

Prevention of poisoning depends only on the attentiveness of parents, who should buy only high-quality products from trusted places. The child should drink only boiled water, wash fruits and vegetables before eating, and wash their hands before lunch.

Try to introduce your beloved child to all the poisonous mushrooms, berries, and herbs so that he knows them. Explain that under no circumstances should you follow the lead of friends who want to persuade or argue to force you to eat poisonous berries.

It is best to prevent poisoning in a child than to later treat its consequences, which can lead to very serious complications. If it has already happened that the child has been poisoned, then it is important to sound the alarm and call a doctor, and not hope for chance. Any delay in treatment can lead to serious consequences, even death.

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Poisoning is a typical pathological condition in a child caused by intoxication of the body when certain bacteria, viruses, substances and other agents enter it. In this case, it is important not only to contact a pediatrician in a timely manner (and in some cases, call an ambulance), but also to organize the correct first aid procedures in order to alleviate the condition of the little patient and minimize the risks of complications.

Symptoms of intoxication in a child

Symptoms of negative conditions in children are generally not specific - certain types of manifestations directly depend on the pathological agent affecting the body.

As modern clinical practice shows, food poisoning most often occurs. Much less often it is associated with the unintentional use of potentially dangerous substances or prolonged direct contact with them. What all of the above cases have in common is a strong characteristic severity of symptoms that manifest themselves more intensely than in adults.

The general clinical picture may include:

What to do if a child is poisoned and has severe vomiting, what can be given, what medications are allowed to be taken and how to restore the baby’s body, in which case it is necessary to consult a doctor - you will find answers to these and other important questions further in our article.

First aid for a child in case of poisoning

First aid to a child should be provided taking into account his condition and the potential pathogen that caused intoxication. Thus, if aggressive chemicals, phosphorus compounds and a number of heavy metals that can react with water are swallowed, gastric lavage is prohibited.

In case of obvious respiratory failure, severe symptoms of kidney or liver failure, suspected internal bleeding or collapse of the cardiovascular system it is necessary to transport the child to the intensive care unit as quickly as possible the nearest hospital, including on the transport itself, if the ambulance team is delayed.

The basic procedure includes:

Calling an ambulance to your home;
. It is better to use a soda solution (1 tablespoon per 1.5 liters of water). It is necessary to give the child a liquid to drink, and after 1-2 minutes induce artificial vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. Repeat the procedure until clean wash water appears;

Sorbents. After gastric lavage, you need to supplement the procedure by taking an enterosorbent - for example, activated carbon at the rate of 1 tablet per 10 kilograms of the child’s body weight;
Drink. If there is excessive vomiting and diarrhea, it is worth giving your child small portions of water every 15-20 minutes to avoid rapid dehydration.

Medicines for poisoning in a child

Modern medicine recommends treating children with drugs for food and other poisoning only under the supervision of a qualified specialist, preferably in a hospital or outpatient setting. However, if this is not possible, and the poisoning is mild or moderate, the following groups of drugs can be used at home:

Antiemetics. They are a symptomatic type of drugs intended to relieve severe vomiting (blocking the reflex) when there is a threat of dehydration. It is worth understanding that they do not treat a small patient, but are intended only to reduce the likelihood of the body losing a large amount of fluid very quickly. Typical representatives are Cerucal and Atropine;
Antispasmodics. Necessary to eliminate spasms of smooth muscles and relieve pain in the epigastric region. Typical representatives are Drotaverine and No-Shpa;
Normalizers of gastrointestinal motility. Used as an addition to therapy, nausea, heartburn, and bloating are eliminated. Typical representatives are Motilium and Espumisan;

How to treat poisoning in children: proper nutrition and drinking

The process of intoxication of a child’s body causes a serious blow to the child’s digestive system, so a special diet is mandatory for the child:

Fractional in small portions. Up to 5-6 times a day;
Prepared exclusively by boiling or steaming. Raw and fried foods are prohibited.
Calorie restriction. During the acute period of toxicity, a child must limit the calorie content of meals - no more than 1500 Kcal/day;
Balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Approximate values for these parameters per day are 150 grams of carbohydrates, and 60 grams of proteins and fats;
The total duration of a strict diet is from 3 to 5 days, after which relaxations are possible.

Light poultry broths are allowed, mucous soup on rice or semolina, pureed porridge (buckwheat, rice), stale bread. After the condition has stabilized, lean meat, dairy products, potatoes, compotes, etc. are introduced into the diet.

Anything fried, heavy porridges (including oatmeal, barley, egg), rich borscht and soups, marinades, sauces, pickles, spices, any vegetables and fruits that change the acidity of the stomach, baked goods, chocolate, canned food, cheeses, mushrooms are prohibited.

The drinking regime includes drinking at least 2 liters of liquid throughout the day, taken in small portions.

It is optimal to use clean water, as well as Regidron or Hydrolyte solutions. When the condition has stabilized, it can be supplemented with diluted natural juices, compotes, rosehip decoction and light tea.

In what cases is it necessary to consult a doctor?

Below are possible situations when calling a doctor or ambulance in case of poisoning of children must be made:

Folk remedies

Traditional medicine offers dozens, if not hundreds, of different recipes to combat the symptoms, causes and consequences of poisoning. It should be understood that the vast majority of them are intended for adults, only as part of an addition to the main therapy and after mandatory consultation with the attending physician.

You can use them outside these strict limits, especially for a child, only at your own peril and risk, clearly aware of the potential danger to the child’s body.

Recipes for treating poisoning in a child at home:

Restoring a child’s body after poisoning

After the end of the acute period of poisoning, the little patient’s body requires restoration. In the absence of complications of toxicity, the following measures are applied:

Progressive diet. Limiting calorie intake, eating small portions of food, but 5-6 times a day. Strict restrictions on food consumption are gradually lifted from 3-4 days after the onset of poisoning - jelly, crackers, liquid mashed potatoes, rolled oats, neutral fruits, eggs, milkweed and fermented milk products are introduced;
Restoration of microflora. It is recommended to take probiotics and prebiotics - the former restore beneficial microflora in the gastrointestinal tract, while the latter create the prerequisites for its development and protect from destruction. Typical representatives are Linex, Bifiform, Duphalac, Lactusan;
Hepatoprotectors. Almost always, after poisoning, the child’s liver also suffers. As additional measures to restore it, you should start taking hepatoprotective drugs, for example Essentiale, Heptral, FanDetox.

toxicoinfection, food toxicoinfection, food intoxication

Toxic infection is an acute disease that occurs as a result of eating food contaminated with toxins from bacteria and microbes. Food poisoning in children and adults is characterized by severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting.

Foodborne illness is caused by pathogenic microbes and bacteria that colonize spoiled food and leave poisons in it. The causative agents of the disease can be toxins of streptococci, staphylococci, various types of E. coli, salmonella, clostridia and many other representatives of “fauna” invisible to the human eye. Under favorable conditions - high humidity and temperatures ranging from 5°C to 60°C - bacteria multiply at a rate that is difficult to imagine. In one hour, an entire enemy legion can grow from one bacterium. Symptoms of food poisoning in children usually appear suddenly, shortly after ingesting the suspect food.

Types of food poisoning

There are three main types of poisoning.

Poisoning when chemicals enter the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Requires specific treatment and emergency care.
Poisoning by poisonous plants, mushrooms, animals, fish. It also requires specific treatment and emergency care.
Microbial poisoning from spoiled, contaminated products. This is actually food poisoning.

How to distinguish food poisoning from acute intestinal infection

Table - Comparative characteristics of diseases

Characteristics	Intestinal infection	Food poisoning
Principle of infection	Penetration of bacteria and microbes into the body	Poisoning of the body with toxins of dead bacteria and microbes
Transmission routes	Contact, airborne, fecal-oral	Food route only: through expired, raw foods
Incubation period	Depends on the pathogen: from a day to a month or more	Short: half an hour to 48 hours
Duration	Depends on the pathogen, the disease lasts for at least a week, complications are possible	It begins suddenly and ends just as suddenly; fast recovery
Symptoms	The high temperature lasts for several days; profuse and frequent diarrhea; in severe forms, rapid intoxication and dehydration	Vomit; the temperature does not always occur, does not exceed 38 ° C, and lasts for a day; diarrhea occurs once and goes away quickly

First symptoms

There is no person who has not experienced food poisoning at least once in his life. Toxic infection is more common in children. This is explained by the physiological immaturity of the body, low protective functions, and failure to comply with basic rules of personal hygiene and sanitary standards. The signs of food poisoning in children are familiar to many parents firsthand, but from their own experience.

Nausea . It all starts with nausea. In this way, the body signals that toxins have entered the gastrointestinal tract.
Vomit . Next, the body makes a wise decision - to get rid of toxins. Vomiting begins.
Stomach ache . They may manifest themselves in the form of pain or spasms. In everyday language this is called “twists in the stomach.” The pain may be accompanied by bloating and rumbling in the stomach.
Diarrhea. Diarrhea usually appears after abdominal cramps. Can be single or multiple.

The first symptoms of poisoning in a child occur within two days after eating a suspicious dish. It depends on the type of toxin, its quantity, and metabolic rate. Within half an hour, the child may begin to feel nausea and vomiting. This means that the stomach has reacted. If the reaction occurs after 4 hours or later, the toxin has entered the intestines and the liver and pancreas respond. The faster the body reacts, the less intoxication there will be.

Principles of home care

How to treat poisoning in children? Two main points are taken into account: getting rid of toxins and eliminating the risk of dehydration. The child’s body will do the rest itself.

Artificially induce vomiting

It is advisable to do gastric lavage at the first suspicion of poisoning, when the child begins to feel sick. To speed up and facilitate the process, the baby should be given two glasses of warm boiled water to drink (or as much as he can) to stretch the stomach as much as possible and induce vomiting. If the child is old enough, he can put two fingers in his mouth and induce vomiting. If the baby is unable to do this on his own, you can help him by lightly pressing on the root of the tongue with a spoon. Why is it so important to induce vomiting early in poisoning? Toxins will not have time to be absorbed into the blood, then the malaise will end quickly. The next morning the child may be completely healthy.

Give activated carbon

Activated carbon is the main and safest medicine against poisoning for children and adults. This universal sorbent neutralizes toxins in the gastrointestinal tract. The dose is calculated according to the formula: per 1 kg of weight 1 g of activated carbon. If you get more, it won’t hurt the child.

Hunger pause

An important point in therapy. The first sign of poisoning is refusal to eat, loss of appetite. You cannot force a child to eat if he does not want to. It is useful to fast on the first day of poisoning or at least skip several meals. As a rule, children themselves, when they feel better, ask for food. The appearance of appetite is a symptom of recovery. It is important to know that fasting breaks are not suitable for infants, especially low birth weight and premature babies.

Drink plenty of fluids

If food intake should be limited, then the opposite is true with drinking. Children should be offered liquids as often as possible. If toxins have managed to be absorbed into the blood, they need to be “washed out” from the body. More fluid means urination more often. How and what to give your child something to drink?

Liquid temperature. It is important that the drink is at body temperature. This ensures rapid absorption of fluid into the blood.
Reception frequency. Soldering a child in case of poisoning is a troublesome task that requires time and attention. It is necessary to offer a drink every 10 minutes, or even more often.
Fractional drinking. Within an hour, the child can drink two glasses of liquid, but not in one gulp, but in small sips. This is the essence of fractional drinking. This principle allows the liquid to be quickly absorbed, does not stretch the walls of the stomach and does not cause vomiting.
Rehydration solution. If a child is poisoned, you need to give him special electrolyte solutions. The most famous commercial names of the drugs are Regidron, Hydrovit, Trihydron, Reosolan, Oralit and others. These remedies will help restore the water-salt balance in case of acute diarrhea and vomiting. They are sold in pharmacies without a prescription in powder form, which must be diluted according to the instructions.
How to prepare a solution at home? In 1 liter of boiled (cooled) water, dilute 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of soda.
What can replace the solution? There are situations when a child completely refuses to drink a rehydration solution. You need to offer him what he wants. And be guided by the principle: something is better than nothing at all. You can replace the solution with compote, chamomile decoction, weak unsweetened tea, juice, water. Even carbonated drinks can be used, as long as the child drinks.
What to do if you can’t get drunk? This is, rather, not a medical question, but a pedagogical one. Parents can solve this problem in different ways: through coercion, blackmail, threats, promises. What is important to know? Long persuasion and lost time can lead to dehydration due to acute diarrhea and vomiting. If parents are powerless and unable to help their child at home, they need to call an ambulance. There is no other way out.

Do not self-medicate

The task of parents is to correctly provide first emergency aid. Medicines for poisoning in children are prescribed by a doctor. It is strictly forbidden to give your child antibiotics, antiemetics, antidiarrheals, or painkillers on your own. Firstly, it can harm your health and complicate the process. Secondly, the symptoms will disappear, by which the doctor can determine the true cause of the disease and make an accurate diagnosis.

Diet features

The diet for poisoning in children is similar to the diet for all intestinal infections with acute diarrhea and vomiting.

Primary requirements

Mashed, chopped food.
Fractional portions.
Increasing the frequency of doses up to 6 times a day.
Cooking technology: boiling, stewing, steaming or oven.
Feeding on demand: Give food as desired, but do not overfeed.

Approximate power supply diagram

First day . When a child is sick and vomits, he has no time to eat. The benefits of a fasting break were mentioned above.
Second day . In mild forms of poisoning, the next morning the patient from yesterday may be like a cucumber. His appetite returns with a vengeance. But this does not mean that he should eat everything. The diet after poisoning in children should be followed with the same strictness as at the time of poisoning. You can offer: porridge with water (buckwheat, rice, oatmeal), pureed soups, mashed potatoes without milk and butter.
The third day . You can add crackers, biscuits, baked apples, fermented milk products (low-fat cottage cheese and biokefir).
Fourth day . Includes protein foods of animal origin: dishes from lean fish, turkey, rabbit, veal.

Diet after poisoning

What can a child eat after poisoning? It often happens that children refuse the food they were poisoned with: and do not eat fish, meat or eggs for a long time. Children should be offered other food options, but culinary experiments should not be carried out. You need to go on a diet for a week.

Food should be light and freshly prepared. The best option is a variety of cereals.
Fried, fatty, spicy, smoked, pickled foods are not allowed.
All types of canned foods are excluded.
You can and should offer fermented milk products to restore intestinal microflora.
Juices, fresh fruits and vegetables are given as a last resort, in small quantities.
It is better to dry fresh bread, and temporarily exclude sweets.

In general, the diet after poisoning should be vegetarian so as not to burden the digestive system. To restore the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, the doctor may recommend taking enzymes. Taking them will facilitate the digestion of dairy products and foods of animal origin.

Under what conditions should you seek medical help?

An experienced pediatrician will say that for any seemingly mild course of food poisoning in children, you should seek medical help. The most harmless situation can result in unpredictable consequences. But there are a number of signs and conditions under which the help of a doctor is necessary without doubt or hesitation. When does this happen?

Prevention: 5 main principles

To prevent poisoning, you need to adhere to basic rules. Which ones?

Food poisoning is much more common in the summer, during vacations, vacations, and travel. Preventive measures at this time must be observed with particular rigor.

What to do if a child is poisoned? The principle of treatment at home is simple: rinse the stomach and give it water to prevent dehydration. It is also important to know under what circumstances medical and emergency care is needed.

A disorder of the digestive tract that occurs due to eating poisonous or poor-quality foods is called food poisoning. Food poisoning in children is common. The child is capricious, the temperature has risen significantly above normal, vomiting and diarrhea have begun? It is possible that the baby was poisoned.

Unlike an adult, a child’s body is less resilient and even vomiting three times is already a serious problem. Dehydration occurs very quickly and the child needs immediate help. Today we will figure out what symptoms indicate that a child has food poisoning, how to help the baby at first, and what treatment will be effective in the future.

Food poisoning in a child: symptoms and treatment

Childhood food poisoning is often confused with an infection called “dirty hand disease.” The baby gets an intestinal infection by licking his fingers, which he previously touched objects or foods contaminated with germs. Poisoning occurs differently - problems in the intestines can occur due to low-quality, expired or spoiled products. Often these are fermented milk drinks (yogurt, fermented baked milk, kefir), cottage cheese, ice cream. In the heat, microbes multiply at lightning speed in sweets (cakes, pastries), and eating such a dish leads to toxic food poisoning.

Products can be contaminated with salmonella (more often - eggs, meat products, vegetables, berries and fruits that are carelessly washed). If a child has tasted raw milk or water from a dubious source, symptoms of poisoning will also not be long in coming. Most often, food poisoning is caused by the following foods:

pates, jellied meat, cutlets;
raw eggs or those, or those purchased with cracked shells and cooked;
seafood, river fish;
dairy products;
confectionery products decorated with creams;
mushrooms;
root vegetables, greens.

Salads, and indeed any ready-made dishes purchased in public catering, supermarkets, or bought in cafes, pose a great danger. Not only can they be prepared in violation of hygienic and sanitary standards, but they are accessible to a large number of people who may not be very healthy. It is also not uncommon for rodents or birds carrying the infection to “walk” through store products.

Any ready-made meals purchased in catering establishments, supermarkets, or purchased in cafes are dangerous

Of course, excluding the above foods from a child’s diet is impossible and even absurd. But every parent must monitor the freshness and purity of the food that the baby eats, and also pay attention to the child’s personal hygiene - if it is impossible to wash your hands before eating, you need to wipe them with antibacterial wipes, use gels or sprays, which are now available in a large assortment.

Table 1. How not to confuse infection with poisoning

	Food poisoning	Intestinal infection
Symptoms	Vomiting, fever, diarrhea	Prolonged nausea, repeated vomiting, diarrhea, fever does not subside for several days
How does infection occur?	Poisoning of the gastrointestinal tract by toxins of dead microbes and bacteria	Penetration of foreign harmful viruses and bacteria into the body
Duration of illness	Within three days	At least a week
Transience of manifestation	From 30 minutes to a day	From a day to a month
Transmission routes	Food route – stale or low-quality products ingested	Food route, airborne droplets, contact.

Food poisoning: symptoms

Once a foodborne infection or poisoning agent enters a child’s body, toxins are released in different parts of the gastrointestinal tract, causing an inflammatory process and intoxication. As a result, the baby vomits, the stool becomes liquid, and water quickly leaves the body.

The acute onset of the disease is characterized by food poisoning - the child complains of pain in the abdomen, profuse repeated vomiting, diarrhea, and fever occurs. In severe cases, the number of vomiting exceeds 10-15 times per day. Liquid stool in case of poisoning can have a specific color; it contains inclusions of food, mucus, and streaks.

With severely progressive poisoning, the child turns pale, the tongue and oral mucous membranes become dry, breathing and pulse quicken, and blood pressure decreases. In case of severe poisoning, the urine takes on a dark tint, the child urinates rarely and in small portions.

Important point! Rapidly growing symptoms and a state of shock in a child are a reason to immediately consult a doctor; in half of the cases, serious poisoning requires hospitalization.

Mushroom poisoning is considered the most severe for a child, as well as for an adult. These do not necessarily have to be inedible, poisonous mushrooms. Thus, stale, old mushrooms, in which the process of protein breakdown has already begun, can cause severe intoxication. If the process of preparing mushrooms is disrupted or in a sealed jar, in the absence of oxygen, a strong toxin develops that gets into the mushrooms from the soil, such dishes are very dangerous.

Eaten poisonous mushrooms, which contain toxins themselves, manifest severe symptoms within half an hour or an hour. The child complains of dizziness, worries, and indicates abdominal pain. Later, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and profuse sweat are added to this condition. The child is in a semi-conscious state, may be delirious, the pulse is rarely palpable, the reaction of the pupils to light is weak. These and the above symptoms require immediate medical attention. However, there are cases when parents can provide first aid themselves - either to relieve the condition, or to wait for a doctor or to get to the hospital on their own.

There is a special page on our portal where we talk in detail about the first signs of poisoning by false honey mushrooms.

Child poisoning: emergency care

An already weak child’s body, additionally weakened by toxins, cannot cope with poisoning on its own. If parents are sure that the baby has been poisoned by a specific product or are expecting medical help that cannot arrive immediately, they need to act independently.

We wash out the stomach

To quickly remove remnants of the source of poisoning, you need to rinse the stomach. If parents know that the baby has eaten something wrong, the body needs to be freed of toxic substances. At home, an acceptable method is this: you need to give the baby warm water (about two liters) and then induce vomiting.

It is not difficult to provoke vomiting - you need to press your fingers on the root of the child’s tongue. You should not remove your hand until it becomes clear that a reaction has occurred. It is necessary to repeat the procedure until the child vomits only clean water. You can add a couple of drops of potassium permanganate, diluted in a glass of water, to the water, achieving a barely noticeable pinkish tint. Potassium permanganate must be diluted separately, and do not pour crystals of the substance into the water for gastric lavage, but drop drops of an already diluted pink solution. If you are not sure that you can achieve the desired concentration, it is better to use clean boiled water.

Important point! Many people mistakenly believe that milk and dairy products can neutralize toxins. This is an incorrect and dangerous judgment! An exhausted body is unable to digest any food, and time spent waiting for the “effect” can even cost the child his life.

Gastric lavage should not be performed on children under five years of age. For newborns and slightly older patients, the stomach is emptied of its contents strictly in the hospital, using a tube. Therefore, if there are any signs of poisoning in your baby, call an ambulance, and before the medical team arrives, place the child on either side and make sure that he does not choke on vomit.

We give enterosorbent

When the stomach is cleansed, you need to reduce the concentration of toxins in it. To do this, the child can be given one of the drugs belonging to the class of enterosorbents: “Smecta”, “Polysorb”, “Enterosgel” and the like. If the drug comes in tablets, it must be crushed between spoons and given to the child with a small amount of water.

Carefully read the instructions for use of the medicine; if in doubt, you can consult with the ambulance operator about the advisability of taking the drug, dosage and other nuances.

Table 2. Features of drugs from the sorbent group

Drug name	Photo	Characteristics
Polysorb		Fine powder based on silica, soluble in water. The resulting solution must be drunk immediately, and the positive effect occurs within 30 minutes. It is considered one of the most effective modern sorbents.
		The powder is mixed with water before ingestion. The drug is created on the basis of medicinal clay. Interacts with proteins, binding mucus inside them.
Enterosgel		The medicine is in the form of a hydrogel, the active ingredient is methyl silicic acid. Binds and removes toxins from the body, has a high sorption capacity, is easy to use for children - the gel is easier to give, it does not spill past.
Polyphepan		Powder based on lignin fibers (obtained from coniferous trees). The drug can be used by pregnant and lactating women and is safe for children.
		It is available in tablets; in case of poisoning, you need to take 20-30 grams; due to the release form, it acts more slowly than powders or gel preparations.

Fighting dehydration

Dehydration is the worst consequence of poisoning. If a child refuses to drink on his own, you must persuade him or give him water by force, for example, through a syringe without a needle. Every ten minutes the baby should receive one or two sips of water. You can feed your child with children's fruit drinks, compotes (unsweetened), and give them a "Regidron" solution, which restores the water-salt balance in the body.

Calming the child

After you have carried out all the necessary manipulations, which are far from pleasant for the baby, your task is to calm him down. If the child has fallen asleep, it is better not to disturb him until the doctors arrive. If the baby is awake, but at the same time cries, is capricious, and breaks out of his arms, this only aggravates his condition.

Engage your child with toys, show a book or tell a fairy tale. It is important to achieve a calm state, since otherwise a rise in temperature and vomiting will be provoked.

Food poisoning in a child: treatment

In case of uncomplicated poisoning, treatment will proceed as we described above. According to the scheme, the child needs to be given enterosorbents, adding probiotics as soon as the vomiting stops. Next comes the drinking regime. If food poisoning is serious, treatment is prescribed by a doctor.

As a rule, it also includes antidiarrheal drugs; in case of severe dehydration, IV drips with supporting disorders may be included, and intestinal antibiotics may be added.

An important task of a parent is to simplify the child’s path to recovery by providing him with the correct diet indicated after food poisoning. As a rule, the first day of illness is indicated by hunger (drinking is mandatory), then you need to adhere to some rules.

Video - Food poisoning of a child

Food poisoning: therapeutic diet

The first time after the exacerbation is relieved, the baby should receive fractional but frequent meals - up to eight times a day in small portions. Food should be pureed, in a semi-liquid form. Purees and liquid porridges are acceptable. For several days you need to give up dairy, bread and sweets. Fats should be reduced to a minimum.

While the body is recovering, the child should only be offered boiled or steamed foods for food. Water-based porridge, vegetable-based soups, lean boiled meat and chicken are the basis of the diet. After a week, you can introduce familiar and favorite foods to the menu, but don’t rush into sweets, freshly squeezed juices, or fast food.

How to prevent poisoning?

To ensure that a child never learns the unpleasant symptoms of food poisoning, it is enough to follow simple rules and teach the child to pay attention to them if he is already old enough. There are five principles for preventing food poisoning.

Tip #1. Observe the terms and conditions of storage of products.

Be sure to pay attention to the expiration dates of the product; before purchasing or eating food, you need to look up to what point you can consume this or that food and drink. The refrigerator must be set to the correct mode so that food is stored at the required temperature.

Tip #2. Carry out the necessary heat treatment.

Meat, mushrooms, and eggs must be thoroughly cooked. Fruits, vegetables and berries can be doused with boiling water before giving to the child.

Tip #3. Maintain hygiene.

Before each meal, be sure to wash your hands and the product itself (its packaging), if possible. Do not allow your child to drink and eat at the same time as other people (drink from the same bottle, take a bite from the same piece).

Tip #4. Do not eat questionable foods.

If you are not sure of the quality of the food that is offered to you, refuse it and teach your child the same. Food prepared in unsanitary conditions is especially dangerous.

Tip #5. Develop attention and intuition.

Tell your child that before eating food you should examine it and smell it. An unappetizing appearance, an unpleasant smell, foreign inclusions, and a specific color should alert you. By nature, it is inherent in a person to intuitively refuse spoiled food, and this point needs to be developed.

Let's summarize

If you notice shiny eyes and red cheeks in a child (signs of fever), he has diarrhea or vomiting - this is a reason to call an ambulance. Even if you are sure that the baby could not have eaten anything bad, the intervention of a qualified physician will not be superfluous. At a minimum, appendicitis can have symptoms similar to food poisoning.

Before the doctor arrives, analyze what could have caused such unpleasant symptoms, be prepared to list everything that the baby ate and talk about the dynamics of fever, increased frequency of diarrhea and vomiting. Parents should understand that with mild symptoms, hospitalization most likely will not be required, but the doctor will conduct a competent examination and explain how to stop the poisoning. If the disease has taken a serious turn, then the most correct decision would be to go to the hospital, under round-the-clock medical supervision.