Rotavirus infection in a child sometimes becomes a real “strength test” for children and parents: it is so difficult to tolerate and is accompanied by the appearance of several aggravating syndromes that it is sometimes difficult to understand where to start treatment.
The disease usually appears in children of a younger age group, it is more difficult to tolerate by babies of 1-3 years of age. The virus is transmitted through dirty hands, when eating food from the same dishes with the patient, when playing with toys alone, after which hands are not washed. You can get infected by drinking unboiled water, less often - dairy products. Adults are especially dangerous as "distributors": they almost do not get sick or their illness manifests itself only in catarrhal phenomena, but they actively spread the virus into the environment. It is also enough just to get infected from a child or an adult whose diarrhea is not particularly pronounced, but the virus is in the environment. Wednesday is excreted in feces for up to two months or more.
Rotavirus infection in a child appears after a fairly short incubation period of 12 hours to 2 days.
In most children, the illness starts like this:
- body temperature rises, usually to high levels, which is quite difficult to bring down;
- a runny nose appears, there may be redness and sore throat;
- headache, refusal to eat, weakness;
- vomiting occurs, which is repeated 2-3 times in a few hours, then becomes less frequent;
- diarrhea appears: stools of normal color, liquid, fetid, often frothy, sometimes with a small admixture of blood. When a rotavirus infection develops in a child, stools can occur up to 20 or more times a day, leading without proper therapy to fairly rapid dehydration.
There may be a different combination of symptoms and their appearance in time. So, the first signs of the disease can be a runny nose and cough, then vomiting and diarrhea develop. The disease can proceed only with vomiting and without catarrhal phenomena at all; diarrhea can be of different frequency (from 3-4 to 20-30 times a day) and duration (2-3 days or longer). It is possible to develop a relapse of the disease, when the baby's condition has just begun to normalize, but suddenly the temperature rises again, vomiting or diarrhea appears. Therefore, it is important to treat the disease together with an infectious disease doctor, follow all his recommendations and not rush to expand the diet.
How is the diagnosis made? Is it possible toto diagnose at home?
Analysis for rotavirus infection can be done at home. This will help you distinguish it from a bacterial intestinal infection. To do this, you need to buy a "Cito Rota Test" (rota test) in a pharmacy and perform it according to the instructions, taking some of the child's feces from a clean pot in which it has not mixed with urine. Two strips will indicate that the child has a rotavirus infection.
What should I do if my child develops a rotavirus infection?
- Don't panic, contact an infectious disease specialist.
- Buy at a pharmacy: Acetone test, Laferobion candles, 500 thousand units each (for children over 2 years old) or 125 units each for those younger, about 10 bags of Humana Electrolyte, a few bags of "Smecta" or "White Coal" in powder, "Bifilakt-Extra" - 1-2 plates or a package of "Enterogermina", candles "Cefekon" and syrup "Nurofen" or "Efferalgan".
- Actively feed the baby. He must drink at least his daily allowance (for example, for a child weighing 10 kg - this is about 1 liter of liquid) plus he must be given the liquid that he has already lost with diarrhea, vomiting and fever, plus the one that he continues to lose.
You need to drink with rice water, water in which Humana Electrolyte is dissolved, chamomile broth. It is also advisable to give up to 50 ml of Borjomi per day, from which gas has been previously released.
- "Smecta" or "Coal" - in the age dosage 4-5 times a day.
- Candles "Laferobion" or "Viferon" - in the rectum at the agedosage.
- We actively measure acetone in the urine and monitor its amount. Urine should be no less than 2 ml / kg / hour, and the level of ketone bodies, checked with a litmus test from the Acetone Test - by one "+" or "0".
- We bring down the temperature with candles "Tsefekon" (or "Efferalgan"), syrup, wiping with cool water and alcohol. It is important to ensure that you do not exceed the daily dosage of the drug.
If you see that:
- baby sleepy;
- loses a lot of fluid through diarrhea or vomiting;
- you can't lower the temperature;
- it is impossible to drink the baby due to constant vomiting;
- acetone urine more "+";
- there were convulsive twitches of limbs, -
call an ambulance and go to the infectious diseases hospital.
Those mothers whose children had rotavirus infection leave rather negative reviews: a very small number of parents were able to cope with the disease at home, many needed hospitalization, some children ended up in the intensive care unit for 1-3 days. Given all this, I want to say: when you see diarrhea in a baby, do a rota test. If it is positive, do not expect complications, go to the infectious diseases hospital, the child will feel good - leave, no one will keep you. But you will get medical help and will be warned about what to pay attention to next time.
