Food poisoning - what to do at home?

Every person at least once in a life has been exposed to food poisoning. Doctors distinguish two types of poisoning. The first type is the use of poisonous mushrooms, plants, berries, which are not suitable for oral administration. The second group is the ingestion of spoiled, infected or dirty foods that lead to intoxication of the body. It is with such poisoning that we are faced most often. Food poisoning often lies in wait for us if we dine in dubious catering establishments. Poisoning often occurs when hygiene is not observed - unwashed fruits and vegetables can be dangerous. The risk of food poisoning also depends on the state of the digestive tract. If the intestines are weak, it responds to the slightest changes in the diet. In addition, they distinguish the type of infection - poisoning with simple bacteria takes several days, and, for example, salmonellosis is much more difficult to treat. In this article, we will try to understand food poisoning - we will consider its symptoms, find out how to act in case of poisoning and how to be treated at home.

Symptoms of Food Poisoning

Symptoms of food intoxication may not always be characteristic, sometimes the absence of vomiting and diarrhea leads the person to other diagnoses, the patient may associate weakness and poor health with a cold and other pathologies. How poisoning can occur, let's try to figure it out.

Most often, poisoning is accompanied by pain in the gastrointestinal tract of various localization - in the stomach or intestines, it can even stab a side.

A feeling of nausea appears, in some cases vomiting occurs.

In most cases, a person develops diarrhea, but it does not always happen. By the way, the absence of vomiting and diarrhea is much more dangerous, because toxins do not leave the body, their concentration increases more and more.

Often, the patient's stomach swells, develops strong gas formation, flatulence.

Intoxication makes itself felt - there is weakness, poor health, dizziness. In children, this is especially pronounced - the baby is constantly lying, even if by nature he is very active and mobile.

With severe poisoning, temperature can rise, there is a fever, chills, aching joints, fog may appear in front of the eyes.

With obvious dehydration, when a person is suffering from diarrhea and vomiting, an acetone smell appears from the mouth. In such a situation, you need to urgently consult a doctor.

Poisoning can occur within an hour after consumption of a spoiled product. The maximum time after which signs of food poisoning appear is a day.

First aid for food poisoning

If you have been poisoned by low-quality, dirty or spoiled foods, it is very important to correctly act in the first hours. As soon as you suspect poisoning, analyze what you have eaten recently. If you are not sure about the freshness or sterility of the prepared dishes, it is better to do a gastric lavage for yourself. This will help cleanse the body of the remains of spoiled food that has not yet been absorbed into the walls. Remember, the less toxins in the body, the faster you will recover. The residues of these toxins can be removed using a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Make pale pink water, drink at least two glasses of the solution, after which the body itself will experience the urge to vomit. As soon as you empty your stomach, you need to drink and vomit again. This should be done until the food stops coming out of the stomach and the water remains clean.If there is no urge to vomit, drink more water and press your fingers on the root of the tongue - the contents of the stomach will very quickly come out.

In difficult cases, in a hospital, not only the stomach, but also the intestines are washed. To do this, make a cleansing enema to rid the intestinal wall of toxins that have penetrated beyond the stomach. After washing the gastrointestinal tract, it is necessary to take sorbents. The simplest option is activated carbon, which should be taken in a dosage of one tablet per 10 kg of weight. That is, if your weight is 60 kg, you need to drink at least 6 tablets of coal at a time. Instead of this sorbent, you can drink what you have at hand - Filtrum, Polysorb, Enterosgel, Smecta, etc. If vomiting occurs after taking the sorbent, repeat the procedure after half an hour, do not be afraid of an overdose. Try to at least a little restrain vomiting, after a few minutes the sorbent will begin to act and nausea will pass.

The best medicine for food poisoning is starvation. In no case should you eat in the first hours after intoxication, even if you want to. Doctors say that fasting is much more beneficial, even than following a diet, although not all of them can withstand. If you don’t eat anything during the day, the body will be able to cope with poisoning faster, there will be no trace of the disease. But eating is an additional burden. This should be known to compassionate mothers who are trying to feed their baby during the poisoning period, with the words "He will not have the strength to fight the disease."

You can’t eat, but you can and even need to drink. Abundant vomiting and diarrhea lead to dehydration, which is very dangerous, especially for young children. The fact is that the baby can have physiological stool in the amount of 10-12 times a day, this is normal. In such a situation, the mother does not immediately notice that the baby has diarrhea. Mucus or blood in the stool, an unusual color of emptying should alert the mother. Dehydration is a very dangerous condition, in a child it can occur in an unrealistically short time. Therefore, you need to solder the baby. In order not to cause vomiting, it is necessary to give the crumbs water on a teaspoon every 5 minutes, from large portions of the liquid the baby will have the urge to vomit. During the period of poisoning, breastfeeding helps a lot - this is a natural protection against dehydration. However, do not allow prolonged application - a large portion of milk can cause the baby to vomit again. It is better to put the baby to the chest more often, but not for long.

It is possible to restore the water-salt balance in adults and children using a special Rehydron solution. If it is not at hand, you can prepare the composition yourself - add half a teaspoon of salt and the same amount of baking soda to a liter of water. Drink as often as possible - the liquid flushes the remnants of toxins from the body. After all the above measures, you can go to rest, because the patient feels weakened.

Diet for food poisoning

As noted, the best diet is fasting. However, not many people can withstand daily starvation, especially if their health has already returned to normal. But this does not mean that you need to eat dubious foods, fatty foods and stale fruits again. In the first days after poisoning, only lean and light meals are allowed. This is chicken and rabbit meat, steamed, simple cereals, crackers, dried, bananas, baked apples, biscuits. Rice has a very good effect - it perfectly fixes, relieves diarrhea. Oatmeal is recommended for pain in the stomach - it gently envelops its walls, relieves spasm, it is a light food that will not bring discomfort. It is very good to drink jelly, tea, herbal decoctions. Acceptable light vegetarian dishes, without a lot of salt and spices. You should exclude baking, heavy meat, fatty, smoked, spicy and fried foods from the diet.

After the acute period of the disease has passed, some patients note that their stool has not yet recovered. This occurs against the background of a violation of the normal intestinal microflora. To correct the situation, you should take a course of probiotics - Linex, Hilak Forte, Acipol, etc. You can improve the condition of the intestines if you drink fermented milk products with live bacteria.

Folk remedies in the fight against poisoning

There are a lot of recommendations in the piggy bank of home medicine recipes that will help get rid of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Cinnamon. Cinnamon powder perfectly absorbs all unnecessary, it is an excellent natural sorbent. A teaspoon of spices should be poured with boiling water, let it brew and cool, drink in small sips throughout the day.

1. Ginger. This is a great way to combat nausea. Grate the root and add together with the tea leaves to the teapot. But remember, nausea can only be suppressed if the stomach is completely empty.
2. Marshmallow. The root of this plant perfectly detoxifies and stops diarrhea. A tablespoon of crushed root should be poured with a glass of boiling water, let it brew and drink 50 ml three times a day.
3. Dill. From the seeds of dill you need to prepare a decoction - this is an excellent tool in the fight against flatulence, bloating and increased gas formation.
4. Rosehip. Rosehip broth has a lot of acids and vitamin C, which is so necessary for poisoning and dehydration. Drink the broth in small portions half an hour before meals.

Home treatment recipes perfectly restore the body after poisoning, but you should not always rely only on yourself. In some cases, certain categories of patients should not remain at home in case of poisoning - only being in a hospital under the supervision of doctors. These patients include children under three years of age, pregnant women, the elderly. If the poisoning does not go away, and the symptoms only worsen, you should definitely consult a doctor at any age. You should also consult a physician or infectious disease specialist if the poisoning keeps a high temperature, if a rash appears on the skin, if blood appears in the stool, vomiting does not stop, or the patient loses consciousness. If poisonous mushrooms or plants are ingested, an ambulance crew should be called immediately.

How to protect yourself from poisoning

We all know that we need to wash our hands after the toilet and before any meal. But, unfortunately, this rule is not always true, especially if we are talking about children. Here are a few more tips to help you protect yourself from poisoning.

You need to eat only in proven places. Questionable food outlets where the seller takes money with one hand and the other holds a hamburger bun can be dangerous.

You need to wash your hands before and after cooking, especially if you kept raw meat or poultry.

Every 2-3 days, do an audit in the refrigerator, do not let the food stale. Do not consume expired foods. If you notice that the shelf life of the product will end soon, prepare something from it for dinner. For example, sausage can be added to pizza, you can bake a cupcake from soured kefir, etc.

Do not leave foods open on the table - cockroaches and flies can crawl on them, after which you eat contaminated food.

Keep the cutting board for raw meat, fish and poultry separate from the household.

Thoroughly fry meat, fish and eggs.

After opening condensed milk or other canned food, it is necessary to transfer the contents to glass or porcelain dishes, food in a metal container oxidizes when exposed to air.

Do not leave cooked soups on the stove overnight; be sure to put all the cooked food in the refrigerator. If you didn’t eat the soup right away, but left it for tomorrow, try reheating it carefully when eating again, i.e. boil.

Well, of course, buy only fresh and high-quality products, use filtered or boiled water for drinking and cooking.

We can say that food poisoning is a minor disorder that quickly passes, the body recovers in a few days. But sometimes something more serious, such as salmonellosis or botulism, may be hidden behind food poisoning. Therefore, if you can not cope with the poisoning yourself, do not experiment, go to the hospital as soon as possible. After all, any disease is treated more successfully if you seek help in time!

Video: what to do with food poisoning in a child