"There are many choices of children's diarrhea medicines, but make sure to choose one that is safe, especially for children aged 2 years. Some choices of safe children's diarrhea medicines are ORS, zinc, probiotics, and fever reducers."
Diarrhea is a digestive problem as well as a health disorder that is most prone to occur in infants and children. If this condition is not immediately treated properly, of course this will be very dangerous. The reason is, this can increase the risk of dehydration in the baby. So, mothers need to immediately give children diarrhea medicine to overcome these health problems.
The thing you need to pay attention to when a child has diarrhea is to try to keep him from getting dehydrated. Therefore, mothers must ensure that the little one's body remains hydrated by providing fluid intake, even giving more to drink. Meanwhile, mothers can also give children safe diarrhea medicine so that the symptoms disappear quickly.
Choice of Safe Children's Diarrhea Medication
There are lots of children's diarrhea medicines that you can get at the pharmacy. However, it turns out that the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Indonesia does not recommend that parents give generic diarrhea drugs to their children.
This is because these types of drugs can trigger harmful side effects. Not only that, diarrhea drugs in generic form are also said to be unable to prevent the risk of dehydration when children have diarrhea. The drug also cannot help improve the nutritional condition of your little one. So, it would be better if the mother first asked the doctor or took the child to the hospital with diarrhea.
Generally, doctors will only recommend a few choices of children's diarrhea drugs, including:
1. ORS
The drug that people often use for first aid to treat and prevent dehydration in children with diarrhea is ORS. This is because there are various compounds contained in ORS, including:
- Potassium chloride or CaCl2.
- Sodium bicarbonate.
- Sodium chloride or NaCl.
- Anhydrous glucose.
The combination of all these minerals is believed to be able to restore body fluids and electrolyte levels in children who are lost due to diarrhea for 8-12 hours after consumption.
You can make ORS yourself or buy it directly in powder form, dissolve it in boiled water. However, there are also types of ORS that children can consume directly.
Mothers should also, mothers do not give ORS solution as a child's diarrhea medicine only when diarrhea during the first 6 hours. Combine it with giving breast milk, formula milk, mineral water, or soupy foods with enough calories to help restore your little one's energy.
2. Zinc
The next child diarrhea medicine recommended by the Ministry of Health is zinc or zinc. A study from the Indian Journal of Pharmacology said that this supplement can help relieve diarrhea symptoms as well as help your little one recover.
The study shows that giving zinc supplements along with ORS can reduce the duration of diarrhea in children. Not only that, UNICEF and WHO also advise parents to give children zinc supplements of 20 milligrams for 10-14 days to treat diarrhea for 10-14 days.
Meanwhile, for children who are less than 6 months old, mothers can give zinc supplements of 10 milligrams every day while their little one has diarrhea. In addition, providing zinc supplements helps prevent diarrhea in children from recurring for the next two or three months.
3. Probiotics
Mothers can also give probiotics which can help restore the existence of good bacteria in the intestines, which may have been used up because they were defeated by the bacteria that cause diarrhea. The presence of good bacteria is certainly very helpful for the body's immunity to expel bad bacteria in the intestine that cause infection.
Giving probiotics can also help increase the body's immunity in children who experience diarrhea. Mothers can give probiotics to their little one in many forms, either from syrup, powder or capsules.
However, the amount of probiotics in each form may differ. So of course the mother needs to ask the doctor first before giving it to the baby.
In addition to supplements, mothers can also provide probiotics in foods and drinks that have gone through a fermentation process, one of which is yogurt. For children who are one year old and over, give about 60-180 milliliters of yogurt twice a day.
While giving yogurt to children who are not yet one year old, ask the doctor again.
4. Heat reduction
When a child has diarrhea, usually cramps and pain in the stomach are the first symptoms that your little one feels. Furthermore, the next symptom is fever.
So, when the child has a rise in body temperature, the mother can give medicine to help relieve fever.