Food poisoning: how to give yourself first aid

Remedies for spasms in children are antispasmodic drugs (antispasmodics). Antispasmodics for children are a group of drugs that can eliminate excessive contraction of smooth muscle cells, that is, they can eliminate spasm. Spasms are quite common during early childhood. As a rule, they manifest themselves in pain, as a result of which the baby begins to cry. The severity of pain varies. Children can often be restless during the day and especially at night.

What is rotavirus?

Rotavirus is a virus that infects the tissues of the oropharynx, stomach and intestines. It is also called stomach or intestinal flu. It is very viable and can survive in water and on the surface of vegetables and fruits for up to 8 weeks. Easily transmitted from person to person. This is the reason why rotavirus infections are in second place after classic acute respiratory viral infections.

There are many ways to become infected with rotavirus:

• From person to person, including from asymptomatic carriers;
• With water - while swimming in bodies of water of any size, or when drinking unsafe water;
• With food - most often the cause is poorly washed vegetables and fruits or foods prepared by an infected person;
• In case of contact with the surfaces of objects - if you traveled on public transport and then did not wash/disinfect your hands before eating.
• Immunity to rotavirus is very short-lived, so the likelihood of re-infection is high.

ARVI and immunity

According to the World Health Organization, ARVI ranks first in the structure of morbidity among young children. There are a large number of viruses that cause ARVI. These include: influenza viruses, parainfluenza, respiratory syncytial viruses, adenovirus, ECHO viruses, Coxsackie viruses, rhinoviruses, reoviruses, coronaviruses. The high incidence of ARVI is associated with unstable immunity in children after previous ARVI, as well as the high prevalence of these viruses. In unfavorable environmental conditions, acute respiratory viral infections predetermine even greater changes in immunity, especially in young children. This can lead to significant changes in the formation of the baby’s immunity, as well as contribute to the development of chronic diseases of various systems of the child’s body at an older age. Considering the high prevalence of ARVI, the issue of treating children with this pathology remains relevant. We will approach the treatment of colds from the point of view of modern protocols for the treatment of ARVI in children, which were developed by the Russian Union of Pediatricians. Before moving on to considering children's medications for colds and flu, it is necessary to understand the main manifestations of ARVI in children.

It is important to monitor the child’s condition and contact a pediatrician at the first symptoms of a cold.

Symptoms of rotavirus

The disease manifests itself 2–3 days after infection. Typical symptoms include:

• Pain in the stomach and intestines, rumbling in the abdomen
• Nausea and vomiting (especially common on the first day of illness and in severe cases of the disease)
• Diarrhea (it can last 3–5 days, and repeat every hour or a little less often up to 15 times a day)
• Constant urge to defecate
• Heaviness in the stomach and loss of appetite
• General weakness
• White coating on the tongue and swelling of the larynx
• Increase in temperature to 37–37.5 * C (appear more often with severe manifestations of the disease)
• The infection may be accompanied by damage to the upper respiratory tract - rhinitis, inflammation of the nasopharynx and tonsils.

Symptoms of spasms in children

As mentioned above, the most common cause of spasms in children is pathology of the gastrointestinal tract.

Below we consider the main symptoms of gastrointestinal diseases accompanied by spasms in children:

• Intestinal colic. This pathology is characterized by sudden and severe bouts of crying in the baby. Colic appears during the neonatal period. Intestinal colic is associated with immaturity of the nervous regulation of intestinal activity and increased gas formation against the background of intestinal dysbiosis.
• Functional diarrhea and constipation. Spasms in these pathologies are not the main symptom. They can only appear periodically. The diseases are functional disorders of young children, which are accompanied by diarrhea or constipation, respectively. At the same time, an in-depth examination does not reveal any other pathology.
• Acetonemic syndrome. Often occurs in children, especially during early childhood. As a rule, the cause of its development is an error in diet. Other reasons include ARVI, harmless excitement (birthdays, etc.), stress. In this case, the pain is no longer caused by spasm, but by irritation of the mucous membrane with ketone bodies (those substances that cause acetone syndrome). Characteristic symptoms of this disease are the smell of acetone in the exhaled air, nausea, vomiting, lethargy, and drowsiness.
• Biliary dyskinesia, inflammation of the gallbladder . Dyskinesia is a functional disorder of the gallbladder and bile ducts, which may be accompanied by spasms in these organs. As a result, children experience pain, often in the right hypochondrium. In addition, children feel heaviness in the right hypochondrium, bitterness in the mouth, and yellowness of the skin and eyes appears.
• Gastritis and peptic ulcer. The causes are often Helicobacter pylori. Children experience: nausea, often vomiting, abdominal pain, heartburn, tendency to constipation, bad breath.

With gastritis, children often experience nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

• Malabsorption syndrome . Among the pathologies in this group, it is worth highlighting celiac disease and lactase deficiency. Celiac disease is a gluten intolerance that is accompanied by a variety of symptoms, including abdominal pain. Lactase deficiency is an intolerance to dairy products, after consuming which occurs bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhea.
• Inflammatory bowel diseases. These include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. It is most often characterized by the appearance of blood in the stool and abdominal pain. Subsequently, symptoms intensify and other signs appear.
• Intestinal infections. Acute intestinal infections are manifested by fever, often vomiting and diarrhea, which is characterized by persistent progression. As a rule, it can develop after eating bad foods or after contact with a sick person.

In addition to pathology of the gastrointestinal tract, other diseases can lead to the development of spasms and pain. Urinary tract infections are quite common, especially in girls. This is due to the short and wide urethra, through which pathogenic bacteria can quickly penetrate. The development of cystitis is accompanied by the appearance of symptoms such as pain when urinating, pain, frequent urination, burning and pain in the urethra and bladder. Teenage girls often develop dysmenorrhea, which is characterized by pain and heaviness in the lower abdomen.

How to treat rotavirus

No specific medications have been developed for rotavirus infection, so there is no point in running to the pharmacy for a magic pill. The most important treatment methods:

• Drink plenty of fluids. It is important to drink a lot of water - pure and mineral (potassium-sodium) - throughout the day. You can use Regidron to reduce the risk of dehydration.
• A gentle diet. In the first couple of days, it is recommended to refuse food, then include in the diet boiled rice and rice “broth”, mashed potatoes with water, crackers and dryers, boiled soft white meat. During treatment, you should exclude all foods that cause fermentation from your diet - berries, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, sweets and baked goods.
• Adsorbent preparations - activated carbon, polysorb, enterosgel - and multienzyme preparations to improve the absorption of nutrients from food.

Under no circumstances should you take antibiotics! They do not have any effect on the virus, but at the same time they destroy the natural intestinal flora, which protects our immunity.

In most cases, a person recovers on his own without medical intervention if he follows the recommendations described above. But with a clear decrease in the body’s immune functions, complications are possible - bacterial damage to the intestines, damage to the nervous system, dehydration.

An increase in temperature to 38 * C or higher, uncontrollable vomiting and diarrhea, a serious loss of strength is a reason to urgently consult a doctor. If the condition does not improve on the third day after the onset of the disease, medical intervention is required. In some cases, the doctor may insist on hospitalization of the patient.

First aid: normalize water balance

“For the first three days after poisoning, we recommend maintenance therapy: it is important to prevent dehydration and ensure sufficient calorie intake,” says Alexey Golovenko.

With vomiting and diarrhea, we lose a large amount of fluid that needs to be replenished. When losses are not very abundant, just drinking water is enough.

Drink small sips, but often - this will help cope with nausea without provoking the gag reflex. If you can't drink, you can start by sucking ice cubes.

With excessive fluid loss, signs of dehydration begin to appear: dry mouth and dry skin, weakness, dizziness, decreased amount of urine or its darkening, increased heart rate or breathing rate. In this case, you will need to replace the glucose and electrolytes that have left the body - potassium and sodium necessary to maintain the water-salt balance.

“You can prepare a solution according to a simple recipe: dilute half a teaspoon of salt and 6 teaspoons of sugar in one liter of water and drink a glass. If you don’t have anything suitable on hand, sweet sodas or sports drinks with electrolytes, but without caffeine, will do,” the expert adds.

The most reliable solution would be to buy rehydrating preparations at the pharmacy - powders that contain all the necessary microelements in a balanced composition. You can purchase any ORS (oral rehydration salt preparations), or ORS, oral rehydration solution, if you are abroad.

For children, special solutions are sometimes replaced with apple juice diluted twice - with this treatment it will be easier for the child to drink more liquid.

“We advise you to follow a simple principle: as much liquid comes out, so much should return. Therefore, you should drink a glass of water after each episode of loose stools or vomiting. If the malaise continues for more than a day, it is better to replenish fluid in a larger volume. It is especially important to pay attention to the child’s well-being: children become dehydrated faster and it is more difficult to force them to drink, so if the condition worsens, medical intervention and perfusion therapy may be required,” comments Alexey Olegovich.

What medications are needed

In the first hours after poisoning, any enterosorbents will be useful: they help remove toxins and quickly cleanse the intestines of bacterial waste products. If more than a day has passed since the poisoning, there is no need to take these drugs.

Important! It is better to refrain from the usual activated charcoal: it turns stool and vomit dark, which can mask traces of blood and prevent you from seeing a doctor in time.

Another important rule: do not take antiemetic or antidiarrheal medications without consulting your doctor. Firstly, by blocking vomiting or stool, we prevent the body from eliminating toxins, and secondly, these drugs have a number of serious side effects. Antidiarrheal drugs, for example, can make some types of diarrhea worse and even cause damage to the intestinal wall.

“Most intestinal infections are of viral etiology. Therefore, running for antibiotics for indigestion is not only wrong (only a doctor can prescribe these drugs), but also pointless,” the expert warns.