Diarrhea facts for kids
Diarrhea (say "DIE-uh-REE-uh") is when your body produces very watery poop more often than usual. It can happen to people and most other animals like dogs or cats.
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What Causes Diarrhea?
Diarrhea itself isn't a sickness. Instead, it's often a sign that something else is going on in your body. Here are the most common reasons why someone might get diarrhea:
- Viruses: These are tiny germs, like Norovirus, which often causes the "stomach flu."
- Bacteria: Other tiny germs, like E. coli or C. diff, can also cause it.
- Medicines: Sometimes, certain medicines, especially antibiotics, can lead to diarrhea.
- Food poisoning: Eating food that has gone bad or has harmful germs can make you sick.
- Lactose intolerance: This means your body has trouble digesting a type of sugar found in milk.
- Artificial sweeteners: Some sugar substitutes, like sorbitol, found in sugar-free gum and other foods, can cause it.
- Intestine problems: Other conditions that affect your intestines, like Crohn's disease or irritable bowel syndrome, can also cause diarrhea.
Diarrhea and Young Children
In many developing countries, diarrhea is a serious problem for young children. It is the second most common reason why children under 5 years old die. Every year, about 760,000 children under 5 die from diarrhea worldwide.
Diarrhea can also cause children to become malnourished. This means they don't get enough important nutrients from their food.
When children die from diarrhea, it's usually because of dehydration. This means their body loses too much water. Diarrhea is watery, so it takes away a lot of the body's water. It also removes important salts called electrolytes that the body needs to work properly.
Why Diarrhea Spreads in Some Places
In developing countries, diarrhea is often caused by an infection in the intestines. These infections can come from bacteria, viruses, or parasites. They spread easily in some areas because:
- Unsafe drinking water: Germs often get into the water that people have to drink. Anyone who drinks this water can get an infection.
- Lack of clean toilets: When there aren't enough clean toilets, it's easier for germs to spread.
- No clean water for washing hands: If people can't wash their hands with clean water and soap, germs can stay on their hands and spread to others.
How to Help Children with Diarrhea
There are ways to prevent children from dying from diarrhea.
Giving Back Water and Salts
The best way to help a child with diarrhea is to give them back the water and salts they are losing. This is called rehydration.
- At a clinic or hospital: If a child can go to a clinic or hospital, doctors can give them water and salts directly into a vein using a needle. This is called intravenous therapy.
- At home: If a child cannot go to a hospital, they can drink an oral rehydration solution. "Oral" means "by mouth," and a "solution" is a mixture. This special drink contains clean water, salt, and sugar. Some solutions also have extra electrolytes like potassium.
You can buy oral rehydration solutions in packets that you mix with clean water. You can also make a simple one at home. If the water isn't safe, you can boil it first to kill any germs. After it cools, mix in salt and sugar. Drinking this mixture helps rehydrate the child. Adding a banana or orange juice can add potassium.
Breast milk also helps rehydrate babies with diarrhea.
Stopping Diarrhea from Spreading
It's also important to try and prevent diarrhea from happening in the first place. Some ways to do this include:
- Making sure drinking water is safe and clean.
- Improving sanitation, like having clean toilets for everyone.
- Making sure people have clean water and soap to wash their hands.
Related pages
Images for kids
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Poverty often leads to unhygienic living conditions, as in this community in the Indian Himalayas. Such conditions promote contraction of diarrheal diseases, as a result of poor sanitation and hygiene.
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A person consuming oral rehydration solution
See also
In Spanish: Diarrea para niños
