Vomiting in Children

Vomiting in Children

Signs and Symptoms

Vomiting in children is sometimes accompanied by one of the following:

1. Abdominal cramps or pain.

2. Diarrhea.

3. Fever, weakness, and fatigue.
Headache.

4. Loss of appetite.

What to do now

If you think your child might have severe food poisoning or chemical poisoning:

1. Trained specialists can help you determine the possible source and whether your baby needs a medical treatment.

If your child have mild vomiting and diarrhea:

1. Don’t give your baby antinausea or antidiarrhea medication for 24 hours after his or her symptoms develop, unless a doctor recommends it. Vomiting and diarrhea are the body’s way of expelling whatever irritant or infectious agent may be causing the problem. (Medication may be necessary for children, who become dehydrated more quickly.)

2. Once your child can keep fluid in his or her stomach, drink clear liquids for about the next 12 hours. Then, for a full day, eat bland foods-such as rice, baked potatoes, and clear soups - if your stomach can tolerate them.

3. Make sure your child gets plenty of rest until symptoms are gone. Because your child can lose lots of fluid from repeated vomiting. Dehydration is a potential danger, especially in children. Symptoms include dry mouth, sticky saliva, dizziness or weakness or weakness, dark yellow urine, and sometimes excessive thirst.

4. If your child cannot keep liquids down and are becoming severely dehydrated, you will need to take him or her to a hospital for intravenous fluid replacement.

When to call a doctor

1. If, along with vomiting and abdominal pain, your child experience blurred vision, muscle weakness, difficulty speaking or swallowing, or muscle paralysis. These may be signs of botulism, a rare but sometimes fatal type of bacterial food poisoning.

2. If your child have symptoms of chemical food poisoning-vomiting, diarrhea, sweating dizziness, excessively tear eyes, great amounts of saliva mental confusion, and stomach pain- about 30 minutes after eating. This is often caused by pesticides or by eating food kept in tainted containers, and can be life-threatening.

3. If your child vomit blood or anything that looks like coffee grounds.

4. If your child have bloody or tarry stools; this can signal internal bleeding.

5. If your baby have intense pain or swelling in the abdomen, rectum, or anus; you may have a serious abdominal disorder.

6. If your child develop signs of dehydration-dry mouth, sticky saliva, dizziness or weakness, dark yellow urine, and sometimes, excessive thirst. Dehydration is extremely serious in infants.

7. If your baby’s symptoms recur after treatment; he or she may have an underlying problem such as an intestinal parasite.

8. If your baby’s vomiting and diarrhea are severe and last longer than two or three days.

9. If your baby have a fever of 100.00 or higher.

How to prevent it

To avoid catching viral stomach flu:

1. Make sure your child wash his or her hands frequently.

2. Keep your baby’s immune system strong with plenty of rest, exercise, and a healthy diet.

To prevent food poisoning:

1. Don’t defrost frozen meat at room temperature. let meat melt in the refrigerator, or defrost it quickly in a microwave oven and cook it immediately. Be sure that frozen food (especially poultry) is completely defrosted before cooking, so that it will cook all the way through and any bacterial will be killed.

2. Outside your house, be especially careful not give your baby moist foods that have been out in the sun long enough to become warm. Avoid uncooked, marinated food a raw meat fish, or eggs. Cook all such food well.

3. Using soap and hot water, carefully wash your hands and any countertops, cutting boards, and utensils touched by uncooked meat fish, and poultry.

4. Refrigerate perishable items immediately. Set your refrigerator at 37 degrees, and never eat diary products or cooked meat if they have been out of a refrigerator more than two hours.

5. Be sure that all members of your household wash their hands with soap and water after using the toilet and before preparing food or eating.

6. Don’t eat any food that looks or smells spoiled, or any food in bulging cans or cracked jars-a signal that the contents have gone bad.

7. Make sure that your child don’t eat wild berries, mushrooms, or other plants unless you are sure of what they are.

Posted in: Health Tips