Diarrhoea

Home Care

Children less than 12 months old

Breast fed babies: Continue breast-feeding and feed more often.

Formula fed babies:

• Continue feeding your baby with his formula milk.
• If diarrhoea persists for more than 10 days, you may consider switching to soy formula or lactose-free formula milk.
• Do not feed your baby water only.
• If your child is persistently vomiting, bring him to see a doctor.

Children more than 12 months old

• Stop solids and offer fluids to your child.
• Ensure that your child continues to take sufficient fluids.
• If your child is not vomiting, ensure hydration by increasing his fluid intake. You may use oral rehydration solution like Pedialyte or Hydralyte. These solutions are best served cold and may even be frozen to 'ice sticks'. Alternatively, you may use rice water or barley water. Fruit juice should be diluted with 1 cup to 4 cups of water.
• When the nature and frequency of the stools improve, you can slowly reintroduce the normal feeds.
• If your child is vomiting, you can give him a trial of small but frequent clear feeds. For example, you may start with 10 ml of fluid every 10 - 15 minutes for one hour. If he can tolerate this, you can increase the volume by 10 ml each subsequent hour.
• If your child is persistently vomiting, bring him to see a doctor.