×
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
  • Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
  • The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
  • P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
  • Email: [email protected]

How to prevent food poisoning in children

Parenting

If you want to travel, you might carry more baggage for your child than for yourself. Already, items such as clothing, diapers, wipes etc take up a lot of space but throw in her feeding and sterilising equipment and it’s a different story.

The trouble is that baby’s food and drink also makes the perfect home for any passing germs. It’s likely that you will get at least one tummy upset every year due to contaminated food; babies have the added problem that they are more prone to infection, anyway, and are less able to handle it once it has arrived.

Both bacteria and viruses are responsible for stomach upsets. Some of these are present in fresh food - for example, the bacterium salmonella is often found in chicken carcasses. Others get in during handling, more often in the home than in the shop or factory.

Bacteria loves things nice and warm, the reason food is best kept in the fridge. Boiling kills them off and so, usually, does freezing but some hardy germs can withstand chilling and others can even survive brief moments in the microwave.

Food poisoning causes diarrhoea, vomiting and stomach cramps. Most sufferers treat themselves or go to the chemist so it is difficult to know the number of people who suffer from this problem or what germs cause their trouble. More is known about those who have to be admitted to hospital, many of them children. The most common germ,  called rotavirus, can be passed from one child to another on their hands or even in droplets on their breath.

The germs can get into food or milk because the bugs concerned may be on our hands or on cutlery and work surfaces-particularly if uncooked meat and warm cooked food come into contact.

We should all be careful about keeping food and food containers uncontaminated and the best way to do that is to keep our hands scrupulously clean particularly after any contact with excreta-our own, a baby’s or a pet’s. But nobody suggests sterilising everything we drink so we come back to the question, what’s so special about babies.

Better than cure

Quite simply they do not get a full set of the body chemicals which deal with infection until they are about six months old so they can’t fight off germs in the way the rest of us do. Also, the major danger from food poisoning (technically called gastroenteritis), is dehydration. The younger you are the quicker this happens. The best treatment is prevention, so all bottles should be sterilised, all food thoroughly cooked, all water boiled and, if you’re not breastfeeding, all milk pasteurised.

What if your baby is unlucky enough to get gastroenteritis? Usually it lasts just a day or two and all that is needed is for the baby to drink plenty to avoid dehydration.

Salt, sugar and water mixtures are often prescribed and all food and milk stopped. Just occasionally the germs leave the bowel and invade the blood stream. Salmonella, in particular, has a habit of doing this resulting in a rise in the number of babies suffering this infection. The baby will have a high fever and she may become very unwell. This is the only reason for giving antibiotics in gastroenteritis. If your baby suffers this problem, how do you know if she is dehydrated from loss of body fluids in diarrhoea or vomit?

A dry mouth and tongue, sunken eyes or soft spot, floppiness and apathy, and dry nappies are all danger signs.

If you suspect any of these consult a doctor. It’s well worth being careful with sterilisation until your baby is five or six months and don’t give unpasteurised milk even to older infants. And, for the time being at least, no egg unless it’s well cooked.

Related Topics