What to do if you have diarrhea? How to avoid diarrhea

During the acute diarrhea period, those who are too dehydrated should replenish water. After the condition improves, patients can be given soft and oil-free rice soup, porridge, noodles, light tea, juice, etc. Chronic diarrhea, due to the long duration, is prone to cause a lack of multiple nutrients in the body, which makes the intestines in a state of pathological changes, so nutritional supplements must be carefully prepared. The diet should be semi-liquid food with less greasiness, less residue, high protein, high heat energy, and high vitamins.

There are two types of diarrhea: acute and chronic. Acute diarrhea is related to bacterial or viral infection, improper diet, and food poisoning. Chronic diarrhea is mostly caused by functional or organic intestinal lesions, and a small number are related to systemic diseases.

What should I do if I have diarrhea?

1. Fluid rehydration is the first step

Once diarrhea occurs, even if the symptoms are mild, it is not recommended to take oral antidiarrheal drugs on your own. You must seek medical attention in time to receive timely and correct treatment. The first priority for patients with diarrhea is to replenish fluids. After diarrhea, the body loses the most fluids and electrolytes. Once the body is dehydrated, it is likely to cause kidney failure and even death. Children need to replenish water after diarrhea.

Diarrhea can also lead to nutritional deficiencies in the body, so even if you have diarrhea, you still need to supplement your nutrition. You can eat some soft, easily digestible, nutritious foods, such as egg custard, oatmeal porridge, rice porridge, noodles, etc.

2. Maintain hygiene

Trouble comes from the mouth, disease comes from the mouth. Whether you have diarrhea or not, you should pay attention to hygiene. Many bacteria and viruses can invade the human body through the mouth, so try to keep it clean, especially the food and dining area. Vegetables and fruits can be soaked first, then washed before cooking. It is best not to eat cooked food, braised dishes and cold dishes when you have diarrhea. Various fresh aquatic products are prone to death due to lack of oxygen in hot weather. Eels, turtles, crabs, shrimps and other aquatic products are very easy to deteriorate after death, so do not eat them.

3. Keep warm

During diarrhea, keep the abdomen warm, especially for babies with diarrhea. If the baby's limbs are cold, you can use a hot water bottle to keep them warm, but be careful to prevent burns. Keep the room well ventilated. If there are patients with respiratory infections at home, do not contact the baby with diarrhea to prevent cross infection.

4. Boil apples in water

Cooked apples are indeed effective in relieving diarrhea. Apples contain tannic acid and pectin. Tannic acid is an intestinal astringent that can reduce the amount of water in the stool, thereby stopping diarrhea. The pectin component of apples also has astringent and antidiarrheal effects after being cooked. Both the flesh and peel of apples contain tannic acid, with the content being richer in the peel, while pectin is distributed near the skin in the flesh. Therefore, do not peel the apples when boiling water to avoid the loss of effective ingredients. It is important to remind everyone that cooked apples can stop diarrhea, but eating them raw has the opposite effect. Eating apples raw may aggravate diarrhea.

The method of boiling apples in water is very simple: take an apple, cut it into small pieces with the skin and core, put it in water and boil it for 3 to 5 minutes, and eat it after it is warm. Eat it 2 to 3 times a day, about 30 grams each time. When eating boiled apples, do not add sucrose for the taste, because sucrose will aggravate diarrhea. However, in order to avoid excessive pectin, tannic acid and stomach acid interacting to form a jelly that blocks the intestines and causes abdominal distension, it is not advisable to eat too much each time.

5. Drink carrot soup

Carrots are alkaline foods. The pectin they contain can form stools and absorb pathogenic bacteria and toxins in the intestines, making them a good antidiarrheal and antibacterial food.

The method of making carrot soup is as follows: wash the carrots, cut them to remove the stems, cut them into small pieces, add water and boil them until they are soft, then filter them with gauze to remove the residue, then add water to make a soup (500 grams of carrots to 1000 milliliters of water), and finally add sugar and boil. Take 2-3 times a day, 100-150 milliliters each time, and stop taking it after the diarrhea improves.

6. Eat fried rice porridge

Since rice itself has the effect of strengthening the spleen and nourishing the stomach, after being fried, the starch in the rice is easier to gelatinize, which not only does not burden the stomach and intestines, but also can nourish the stomach and intestines. However, this dietary therapy is only suitable for physiological diarrhea or common intestinal discomfort, and may not have a significant effect on viral or bacterial diarrhea.

Take about 400 grams of rice (four servings, usually two to three times a day), wash the pot, and dry it on fire. No oil should be seen. Pour the rice into the pot and stir-fry slowly over medium-low heat until the color of the rice begins to turn yellow, then turn to low heat. Continue to stir-fry until the rice turns brown or coffee color. Add water to 100 grams of fried rice (usually the same amount of water as for normal thick rice porridge), bring to a boil over high heat, then turn to low heat and simmer until it becomes sticky.

7. Cook mung beans with brown sugar

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that mung beans have the effect of clearing away heat and detoxifying, and can help relieve symptoms of gastrointestinal congestion. However, mung beans are cold in nature, so adding brown sugar and tangerine peel, which are mild and warming to the stomach, can reduce the coldness of mung beans. Tangerine peel can also increase appetite. Therefore, the combination of tangerine peel, mung beans, and brown sugar can relieve the symptoms of gastrointestinal colds.

The general method and dosage are: take 150 grams of mung beans and 10 grams of tangerine peel. Wash the mung beans, put them in a pot with the tangerine peel, add 1000 ml of water, boil over high heat, then simmer for 30 minutes over low heat. When the mung beans are ripe, add 25 grams of brown sugar and mix well. Take it every morning and evening for 3 consecutive days.