Patient's question:
My baby is four months old and has been having diarrhea recently. What are the symptoms? How should it be treated?Doctor's answer:
Child diarrhea, the first thing to clarify is the cause of diarrhea. The most common causes of childhood diarrhea include gastrointestinal infections and non-infectious conditions. For gastrointestinal infections, the most common include bacterial and viral infections. If a child has a bacterial gastrointestinal infection, active anti-infective treatment is required. If a child is infected with a virus and only exhibits diarrhea symptoms, antiviral treatment is not necessary. If the child has a non-infectious gastrointestinal disease, common causes include improper feeding, lactose intolerance, or allergies to milk and protein. Most infants younger than a few months old need to be supplemented with lactase or use lactose-free formula based on the corresponding cause. If lactose intolerance occurs, lactase must be added before breastfeeding or lactose-free formula must be used.