Diarrhoea kills children by drying them out, not by the diarrhoea itself. The treatment is fluid and zinc, both cheap, both available at any health centre, and both frequently skipped in favour of something that does not work.
The two things that actually treat it
- Oral rehydration salts. One sachet in the stated amount of clean water, no more and no less. Give small sips often. After every loose stool: a quarter to half a cup under two years, half to a full cup over two.
- Zinc, for ten to fourteen days. 10 mg a day under six months, 20 mg a day above. It shortens the episode and makes the next one less likely. Keep giving it after the diarrhoea stops.
Keep feeding
Keep breastfeeding, more often rather than less. Keep giving food to a child who eats food. Stopping feeds was old advice and it makes children weaker and the recovery longer. Offer an extra meal a day for two weeks afterwards.
Go now if
- Sunken eyes, or no tears when the child cries.
- Skin stays pinched when you lift it on the belly.
- Very little urine, or a dry nappy for many hours.
- Drinking poorly, or not at all.
- Blood in the stool.
- Vomiting everything.
- Floppy, drowsy, or a fit.
- Fever with the diarrhoea in a child under five.
What not to give
- Antidiarrhoeal tablets that stop the gut. They trap the infection and are dangerous in children.
- Antibiotics without a reason. Most childhood diarrhoea is viral and they do nothing.
- Sugary soft drinks or sweetened juice as the main fluid. They pull water into the gut and make it worse.
- Homemade sugar-salt water when a sachet is available. The concentration in a sachet is what makes it work.
Stopping the next one
Safe water, soap at the latrine, rotavirus vaccination on schedule, and exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months. Those four prevent most of what this page treats.
