Children with diarrhea should eat salt porridge?

The article was professionally consulted by Dr. Ho Thi Hong Tho - Neonatologist - Pediatrics - Neonatology Department - Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital

When you have diarrhea, your child's digestive system works less well. Therefore, liquid dishes, simmered with high nutrition are preferred, including porridge. Porridge is a food that is easy to eat, easy to combine and good for the digestion of food to help children recover quickly.

Children with diarrhea often lose large amounts of water, salt and electrolytes. If not compensated in time, children can suffer from severe dehydration, exhaustion, acute kidney failure, malnutrition leading to death. Therefore, parents need to help their child recover quickly during and after diarrhea and avoid malnutrition with nutritious, and appropriate foods for the child in a timely manner.

Eating porridge helps children easily digest, absorb, and not irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa Porridge is a nutritious and easy-to-combine food. Mothers can combine many other foods such as vegetables, fruits, lean meat. Eating porridge is an effective way to rehydrate children, so mothers should note that cooking porridge is a little thinner than usual.

Ingredients:
Rice: 50g Salt: 3.5g Filtered water: 1000ml How to cook:
Put the above ingredients in, boil until soft, then filter the water.

Ingredients:
Roasted rice: 50g Water: 1000ml How to cook:
Put the roasted rice in water, cook until soft, then filter the water for children to drink.

Ingredients:
Banana or sapodilla: 5 fruits Table salt: 1 teaspoon Cooking method:
Grind or crush banana or sapodilla with a liter of boiled water to cool with a teaspoon of table salt, give it to the child to drink gradually.

Ingredients:
Carrots: 500g Table salt: 2 teaspoons Sugar: 8 teaspoons Cooking method:
Carrots + 1 teaspoon salt + 8 teaspoons sugar cook up in a blender simmer, then sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt, bring to a boil again, let children drink it gradually.

Children under 6 months of age have diarrhea, the mother continues to breastfeed normally and increases the number of feedings. For children over 6 months old, in addition to breast milk, children need to eat other nutritious foods such as meat, eggs, fish, milk, ripe fruit or ripe fruit juice such as banana, orange, lemon, mango, papaya. (to increase potassium). It is possible to add a little oil and fat to increase the energy of the diet as well as to help absorb fat-soluble vitamins, especially the precursors of Vitamin A, to help heal the intestinal mucosa after diarrhea.
Food for children with diarrhea should be cooked thoroughly, cooked more dilute than usual, to ensure hygiene, to reduce the risk of superinfection. It should be reheated before feeding if pre-cooked foods are to be given to children.
During this time should avoid giving your baby foods with a lot of fiber that are difficult to digest or low in nutrients such as raw vegetables, whole grains (corn, beans...). Do not use foods with a lot of sugar such as industrial soft drinks because they can increase diarrhea.

Parents should encourage children to eat as much as possible, an average of 6 times per day or more. Return to normal diet if after 5 days the child's diarrhea has subsided. To help children recover quickly and avoid malnutrition after diarrhea, one meal a day should be given for two weeks in a row. For children with persistent diarrhea, parents should give the child one more meal a day and last for at least one month.
If the child eats less or vomits, feed less and increase the number of meals. If the condition worsens when the baby drinks cow's milk, replace it with 10% soy milk or lactose-free milk, yogurt made from mixed milk.
Besides, parents also need to supplement their children with essential micro-minerals such as zinc, lysine, chromium, selenium, vitamin B1, ... to fully meet the nutritional needs of children. The addition of these essential vitamins also supports digestion, enhances nutrient absorption, improves anorexia, and helps children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. Combining many types of functional foods at the same time or changing many types in a short time can make the baby's digestive system unable to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.