Pediatrician Mom: Dietary considerations for children during illness

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Pediatrician Mom .

With the conscience of a mother with professional medical knowledge, I can speak for the babies and answer questions for the parents.

This is the 4197th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Netizen’s question: Hello, Dr. Yu, my baby is 13 months old and has had diarrhea for a week. Recently, he is particularly unwilling to eat and only drinks milk and eats porridge. I am really worried that he will be malnourished because of diarrhea and not eating well. How can I get my baby to eat more?

Growing children need nutritious food, and the body needs more nutritious food when fighting diseases. However, the function of the digestive system will be affected to some extent during illness. On the one hand, the body needs more nutritious food, and on the other hand, the child can't eat at all. This contradiction really makes countless parents anxious.

Whether it is fever, diarrhea, vomiting, cough, runny nose... During the illness, the child's digestive system function is weakened. The child should be given nutritious food that is easy to digest and easy to accept. Usually there are no special taboos (unless the disease has special taboos). The following principles can be used as a reference:

Liquid and semi-liquid foods should be given priority. Both children and adults prefer liquid foods to ordinary foods during illness. Babies who have not yet started to add complementary foods should drink as much milk as possible, especially breastfed babies should insist on breastfeeding; babies in the complementary food addition stage can increase their intake of boiled water and porridge in addition to milk; older children can also increase their intake of light soups in addition to the above.

Give priority to foods that can prevent dehydration and appropriately increase the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. You can make fruit and vegetable purees according to your baby's needs or even squeeze them into fruit and vegetable juices when necessary. Some babies do not like to take oral ORS solution (oral rehydration salts). To prevent dehydration or mild dehydration, you can try to use freshly squeezed apple juice instead of ORS solution to replenish some water and electrolytes, but it is not recommended to drink commercially available canned fruit juices and drinks with too much sugar. For moderate or above dehydration, you should see a doctor as soon as possible, and the doctor will take necessary measures to replenish fluids.

Give priority to the nutritious food that your baby likes. Pay attention to the food that your child likes and is nutritious. When the appetite decreases due to illness, you should especially respect the child's appetite. Give up feeding your child food that you think is nutritious but he doesn't want to eat, even if the child is only willing to drink some milk and eat some bananas. Don't force your child to eat, even if the child "has not eaten" for 24 hours. The child will eat according to his own needs. Once the body recovers, his appetite will naturally improve gradually. During the period of recovery, he will make up for the "meals" missed during the illness and regain the "nutrition" lost before.

Do not try to add new complementary foods during illness. During illness, the digestive system function is weakened, and the body may be in a highly allergenic state. At this time, new foods are prone to cause allergies and other diseases. Therefore, when the baby is sick during the complementary food addition stage, stop adding new complementary foods temporarily. Of course, during illness, the body is in a highly allergenic state, and foods that were not allergic before may also cause allergies. Parents need to pay attention and observe. But this does not mean that special taboos are needed during illness.

For children who have already started to eat complementary foods, if the disease is caused by a lack of certain nutrients, you can prepare corresponding foods to supplement the relevant nutrients. For example, for iron deficiency anemia, you can add iron-rich foods, such as animal liver, blood products, etc., and you can also take foods rich in vitamin C to promote iron absorption. But this does not mean that special supplements are needed when you are sick.

Eat small meals frequently. It is best to eat about 2/3 of the usual amount of food at a time, and the total amount should be 10% to 20% more than usual. Avoid eating large amounts of food and eating foods that are difficult to digest. Most diseases do not require additional special foods. It is time to give the digestive system a proper rest and adjustment.

Finally, if the child's physical condition allows, appropriate exercise activities can be carried out to promote physical recovery.

This article was originally published in 2013 and revised in 2016

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【Xiami Mommy】Pediatrician, well-known public welfare popular science author, author of "Xiami Mommy Parenting Canon". Graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Master of Child Health. Studied and worked in Shanghai Key Laboratory of Environment and Child Health, Shanghai Children's Hospital, and Shanghai Children's Health Center. The most trusted pediatrician mother by parents in the media, one of the top ten medical influencers on Sina Weibo (Sina Weibo: @Xiami Mommy), and the best self-media person in the medical industry on Sohu (Sohu self-media: Pediatrician Xiami Mommy).

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