Oral rehydration salts save more children’s lives than almost anything else in this library, and they only work at the right concentration. Half the value is lost to mixing it wrong or giving it wrong.
Mixing
- Use the whole sachet in the exact amount of water printed on it, usually one litre. Never part of a sachet.
- Use clean water: boiled and cooled, or treated.
- Stir until fully dissolved.
- Do not add sugar, salt, juice or milk to it.
- Make it fresh each day. Throw away what is left after 24 hours.
Giving it
- Small amounts, often. A spoon every one to two minutes for a small child.
- After every loose stool: a quarter to half a cup under two years, half to a full cup over two.
- If the child vomits, wait ten minutes and start again more slowly. Vomiting is not a reason to stop.
- Keep breastfeeding alongside it.
- Keep going until the diarrhoea stops, and give zinc for ten to fourteen days.
If you have no sachet
Until you can get one, mix six level small spoons of sugar and half a level small spoon of salt in one litre of safe water. Taste it: it should be no saltier than tears. Too much salt is harmful, so if in doubt make it weaker. This is a stopgap, not an equal. Get a sachet.
Go to a health centre if
- The child cannot keep anything down.
- Sunken eyes, no tears, or skin that stays pinched.
- Very little or no urine.
- Blood in the stool, or a fever.
- The child is floppy, very sleepy, or has a fit.