Food poisoning in a child
Food poisoning is a digestive disorder that is usually caused by the ingestion of pathogenic bacteria, chemicals, toxins from poisonous fungi and plants.

Causes of food poisoning in children

There are two main types of food poisoning (PTI, poisoning). These are infectious, caused by the penetration of pathogenic microorganisms into the body, and non-infectious, caused by the use of various toxic products.

Most often, infectious poisoning of children is provoked by pathogenic bacteria that produce toxins. It:

  • staphylococcus;
  • clostridia;
  • protei;
  • klebsiella;
  • coli (enterotoxigenic strains);
  • citrobacters.

These pathogens are ingested, where they multiply and thus enter the body. The contamination of food and the development of PTI usually occurs when sanitary and hygienic rules are violated during food preparation, storage and sale. Externally, products that are dangerous may not show signs of spoilage or have an unpleasant aftertaste, an atypical smell.

Food contamination can occur from kitchen workers suffering from intestinal disorders or infectious pathologies (tonsillitis, skin lesions). Polluted water, insects can become a source of PTI. Most often, such poisoning occurs when drinking unboiled water, meat, fish dishes, sausages, salads, and home-made canned food.

Usually isolated cases or outbreaks in the family, children’s team are recorded. Especially often this happens in summer and autumn, when the air temperature is high, the products quickly deteriorate.

Food poisoning of non-infectious origin occurs if a child consumes poisonous plants and berries (wolfberry, elderberry, nightshade, dope, henbane, hemlock), edible mushrooms collected in dangerous places or poisonous, which are confused with edible ones. In addition, poisoning is possible when eating fruits treated with pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals.

Symptoms of food poisoning in a child

Food poisoning is most often associated with poor personal hygiene. The infection is transmitted from dirty hands, unwashed fruits and vegetables, shared toys, dishes.

The most common cause of poisoning in children are intestinal infections such as dysentery, salmonellosis, escherichiosis and others. After bacteria enters the body, the release of toxins begins, intoxication develops, the symptoms of which are fever, headache, and weakness. The first symptoms of poisoning develop within a few hours (usually 4-6 hours) after ingestion of poor-quality food. The main symptoms of food poisoning include:

  • repeated vomiting;
  • loose stools with an admixture of mucus, undigested food;
  • stomach ache.

These symptoms are accompanied by an increase in temperature to 38 ° C and above. The child becomes lethargic, weakness, headache, loss of appetite appear. The loss of large amounts of fluid with vomiting and diarrhea leads to dehydration, which is extremely dangerous in children.

A child with these symptoms should be seen by a doctor immediately. It is important to remember that fluid loss of about 10% of an infant’s total weight before 1 year of age can be fatal.

Treating food poisoning in a child

At the first sign of food poisoning in a child, you should immediately consult a doctor. In severe poisoning, hospitalization may be necessary. Before the arrival of the doctor, it is necessary to begin treatment, give more fluids, which will prevent dehydration.

First aid at home

The fluid lost by the child’s body must be replenished by giving plenty of fluids in the form of saline solutions, fruit drinks, tea, glucose solution.

In order to remove toxins from the child’s body, enterosorbents are used – drugs that absorb harmful substances that have entered the intestines. These include Smecta, Enterosgel, Polyphepan, etc.

If the child is breastfed it is necessary to temporarily stop feeding and give the child chilled boiled water to drink. After the normalization of the child’s condition, you can return to the usual feeding regimen.

If the child is on artificial feeding it is necessary to pause for 8-12 hours, after which you can feed the child with sour-milk mixtures, you can add rice water. You can switch to the rest of the food (vegetable and fruit purees, cereals, meat) on the third day after the normalization of the stool.

With food poisoning in older children, it is also necessary to follow a sparing diet on the first day. A child can be given rice porridge on the water, kefir, crackers, mashed potatoes without milk, vegetable soups. It is necessary to eat in small portions and at regular intervals.

In case of chemical poisoning, the symptoms depend on the action of the toxins themselves and may include disorders of the nervous, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Poisoning with home-made canned food can be especially dangerous, since botulism bacteria can multiply in them, releasing dangerous botulinum toxin. This toxin has nerve-paralytic properties. If medical care is delayed, the consequences can be most fatal. Treatment of botulism is carried out in the infectious diseases hospital, where the child will be injected with anti-botulinum serum in the very first hours after admission.

Treatment of victims of poisoning with poisonous mushrooms and plants is aimed at the rapid removal of the poison from the body, while it has not yet had time to be absorbed into the blood. It is very important to provide first aid even before the doctor arrives. To do this, it is necessary to wash the stomach by giving the child up to 3 glasses of saline, and then by pressing with two fingers on the root of the tongue, induce vomiting.

Prevention of food poisoning in children

Prevention of food poisoning in a child consists in observing the basic rules of personal hygiene – washing hands before eating, after using the toilet. It is important to carefully process vegetables and fruits before eating. You should pay attention to the shelf life of products, and immediately throw out the spoiled ones.

In the warm season, it is better not to cook for the future, because after a few hours any dish contains a large number of bacteria and can become the culprit of the disease.

Children should not be allowed to pick mushrooms and berries on their own, but do this only under the supervision of adults. Children under 5 years of age should not be given food from mushrooms – stuffed pies, pancakes, pizza, etc. The child’s body does not yet produce enough enzymes to digest such food.

Care should be taken when bathing children in bodies of water. Infectious agents, such as dysentery, can be in the water for a long time.

Popular questions and answers

We discussed with pediatric gastroenterologist Olga Semenyuk the main questions that relate to food poisoning are whether it is possible to increase the temperature, when the first signs of the disease appear, what you can eat and what diet should be followed.

How long does it take for a child to get food poisoning?

Usually, the first signs of food poisoning occur within a few hours – 2-6 hours after eating hazardous food.

Can a child have a fever with food poisoning?

Yes, the temperature may rise. It is associated with intoxication and irritation, an inflammatory process in the intestines. But fever is still more typical of intestinal infections.

What should be the diet for a child after food poisoning?

Unfortunately, poisoning in children is a fairly common phenomenon. The reasons can be very different. But most of all, the children’s body is susceptible to food poisoning. In such cases, proper nutrition after poisoning of the child is the basis for a quick recovery from illness.

The first 3 days the body recovers after poisoning and therefore these days it is necessary to strictly adhere to the following nutritional rules:

• boil or steam food and serve it warm;

• dishes to do liquid or in the form of mashed potatoes;

• you can not overload the stomach, which means that the daily diet should be minimal (about 1000 kcal);

• give food often, but in small portions;

• it is necessary to give a lot to drink and not only water.

What can a child eat with food poisoning?

It is recommended to use the following products:

• weak broth;

• boiled pureed meat (low-fat);

• decoctions of rice and buckwheat;

• applesauce and grated carrots;

• crackers and wholemeal bread;

• broccoli and celery.

From the diet should be excluded:

• spicy, salty, fatty, smoked and sweet foods;

• marinated, fatty dairy and fried foods.

In case of poisoning, the digestive organs are the first to suffer – the mucous membranes become inflamed, vomiting and diarrhea appear, and at this time the body loses a large amount of fluid. Therefore, on the first day, it is necessary to make up for its loss. Babies need to be given decoctions of dried fruits, strong tea (preferably green), as well as non-acidic fruit and berry juices (in the form of heat).

In this period of time, first courses, such as chicken broth, rice soup with vegetables, broccoli soup, or light noodle soup, will be useful.

A day after the poisoning, when the child’s condition improves, the diet can be supplemented with second courses. For their preparation, you need to choose healthy and easily digestible products. For meat dishes, use chicken breast, rabbit meat and sea fish. For garnish, cook boiled beets, carrots, boiled potatoes, beans, cauliflower or broccoli and celery.

Proper nutrition after poisoning a child includes the use of various cereals: oatmeal, buckwheat, rice porridge with milk. Porridge remarkably restore protein metabolism, so that children have an appetite and increase activity.

As the condition of the crumbs improves, the diet should be expanded, gradually bringing it to the child’s usual nutrition.

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