Diarrhea in a newborn can be a sign of a serious medical condition. But before starting treatment, you need to be sure that it is really diarrhea. Loose stools may be normal for babies.
How to tell normal stool from diarrhea
The composition and consistency of feces depends on what a person eats. Considering the fact that the child receives breast milk or milk formulas for food, then, accordingly, his feces will be liquid.
The stool of a child in the first months of life is very liquid. Parents should not be intimidated by the color of the stool, if it is green-yellow, brown, yellow with white lumps. A small amount of mucus is considered normal.
If your baby is bottle-fed and the stool turns green or blue when you change the formula, talk to your doctor. Some formulas for children with intestinal colic contain broken down protein that affects the color of the stool. In this case, the parents do not need to do anything. When the baby returns to his usual formula, the stool will return to normal.
Up to 4 months of age, inclusive, the child's intestines can be emptied up to 10 times a day. If the baby is eating normally, gaining weight, then the frequency of stool discharge should not scare you.
If in the stool you find a large amount of mucus, blood clots, foam, and all this is accompanied by abundant gas, this is diarrhea. The child may also vomit, the temperature may rise. In this case, the help of a doctor is urgently needed.
What can cause diarrhea
Any illness can cause diarrhea in a newborn. Most often, diarrhea is caused by poisoning. In this case, the child's temperature rises, and blood and mucus will be present in the stool. These symptoms indicate the presence of an infection in the baby's body.
If a child has persistent diarrhea, while the baby is gaining weight poorly, and rashes are present on the skin, then this may indicate dysbiosis, allergies or lactose deficiency.
The period of teething is very often accompanied by diarrhea. This is normal if there are no other diseases, and the intensity of stool removal does not threaten the child with dehydration.
How to help your child before the doctor arrives
It is strictly forbidden to give the baby tea, juice, other drinks, boiled milk, rice broth, chicken broth to drink. All these measures will only aggravate the child's condition. If the baby is breastfed, it should be applied to the breast as often as possible to avoid dehydration.
You can also buy a special solution at the pharmacy and give it to your baby. If for some reason the solution could not be bought, you can prepare it yourself. To do this, you need to dissolve 1 teaspoon of salt and 5-6 teaspoons of sugar in 1 liter of boiled water.
Remember, the baby should not be given medications. The correct drug treatment, taking into account the age and weight of the child, should be prescribed by a doctor.
