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Marianne, 33 years old and baby Sandra, 7 months old, Bern

“Sandra started with bad diarrhea about four weeks ago. She must have picked up an infection from somewhere, and it didn’t get better. The paediatrician told me it’s not my fault. This kind of thing happens. She says Sandra needs special treatment for a while to calm the infection and support the natural healing process.”


Management of Severe or Chronic Diarrhea

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Treatment of diarrhea in infants

Other than acute diarrhea due to pathogens, chronic diarrhea may result from a number of causes including inflammatory bowel diseases, colitis, pancreatic insufficiency, intolerances to lactose or wheat gluten, etc. Once diarrhea is established, it must be treated.

Normally, it only lasts for a few days, but even then, it can be stressful. If it lasts for three weeks, it is defined as chronic and must be treated accordingly with a specific formula that can be well absorbed.

Dehydration is a particular risk for young children. It can result in listlessness, coma and death. So one of the main needs in treating diarrhea is to drink plenty of fluids with sugars and salts to maintain or restore the body’s electrolyte balance.

Severe diarrhea at any age is a serious condition. In a young baby like Sandra, it is even more critical because, being small, she dehydrates faster. She might also have problems of malabsorption of nutrients because the intestine is inflamed and works less efficiently. This is why she needs to be fed on a therapeutic infant formula that provides key nutrients, specially created and formulated to restore normal health as soon as possible.

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