Help with food poisoning

Help with food poisoning should be provided as soon as possible, depending on the speed of timely and competent actions, not only does the health of the victim depend, but also his life. Food intoxication often occurs in an acute form, the symptoms develop rapidly and are associated with the type of poisoning:

1. Food poisoning - poisoning with food containing microbes.
2. Intoxication with chemicals.
3. Poisoning by poisons of animals, insects or plants.

Assistance in food poisoning is based on four rules:

1. Purification (gastric lavage or infusion therapy).
2. Adsorption and elimination of toxins.
3. Abundant drink.
4. Strict diet.

Independent actions to cleanse the stomach and neutralize poisoning are unacceptable in certain cases: calling for emergency medical care is necessary for such categories of victims:

• Elderly people (over 60 years of age).
• Children aged from birth to 15 years.
• People who have a history of chronic diseases (GI, cardiology, diabetes, nephropathies, neurological pathologies, asthma and others).
• Food poisoning by poisonous plants or mushrooms.
• In cases when the victim shows symptoms of paralysis, a violation of consciousness.

If intoxication is defined as mild, the patient has no life-threatening symptoms (indomitable vomiting, diarrhea with blood, a drop in blood pressure and seizures), you can do the following:

• The victim should drink as much as possible pure water (boiled, purified, mineral water without gas). Soda solutions, chamomile broths and other "folk" ways are not appropriate and can even harm at the first stage of purification. The causative agent and the toxin that caused poisoning are unknown as well as the reactions occurring inside the body. If the patient does not have a vomiting reflex, you can activate it by pressing the root of the tongue (it is best to do this with a clean spoon, not with your finger).
• Soaking up water will not only help to clear the digestive tract, but also make up for the loss of fluid that is removed from the body with vomit and diarrhea. Helping with poisoning is neutralizing dehydration. The injured person should drink at least 2 liters of water per day. It is better if it is a rehydration drug purchased at a pharmacy (Romfalak, Atoxil or Regidron). At home, you can prepare a drink this way: for 1 liter of purified water, add a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar.
• The patient is given to drink an adsorptive toxin drug - Enterosgel or activated charcoal (suspension).

If the symptoms of poisoning after 4-6 hours do not subside, you need to call a doctor, self-medication can aggravate the condition of the victim.

[1], [2], [3]

First aid for food poisoning

This is a clear implementation of already familiar events. For this, it is absolutely not necessary to take special courses, you just need to remember the algorithm of actions: 

1. Emergency elimination of toxins from the digestive tract. This can be done by washing the stomach - taking a lot of fluid and activating the gag reflex. Pay attention, with the help of vomiting the body cleanses the stomach, and diarrhea cleanses the intestines, so do not stop it, at least in the first 2-3 hours after poisoning. 
2. Cupping the spread of toxins. This can be done with the help of sorbents - activated carbon suspension, Polysorb, Enterosgel, Lifferan. 
3. Decreased dehydration or dehydration. This can be done with abundant drinking. Effective pharmaceutical products - Romfalak, Hydrovit, Regidron, Rheosolan, Tourist, Normogidron. You can drink ordinary and purified or boiled water, as well as mineral water without gas. 
4. Providing "rest" to the digestive organs. First aid for food poisoning is hunger in the first day and dietary restriction in the next 5-7 days. The food should be boiled, crushed, enveloping (broth of rice, jelly, light soups-mashed potatoes).
5. Restoration of the function of the gastrointestinal tract. This is done with a two-week reception of enzyme preparations and probiotics. Mezim, Festal, and Enzymthal are suitable as enzymes. Probiotics - Bifiform, Lactobacterin, Probiophore.

Contrary to popular belief, cleansing enemas, taking antibacterial or fixative medications can worsen a patient's condition and distort the clinical picture of food poisoning. These appointments should be made by a doctor. Also, one should not take independent actions with threatening symptoms, the only thing that should be done as soon as possible is to call for emergency help.

[4], [5], [6]

Emergency care for food poisoning

This pathogenetic therapy, which is carried out only by specialists with medical education. Such help is necessary for acute forms of intoxication, as well as when it comes to young children, the elderly or those suffering from chronic diseases (diabetes, bronchial asthma, cardiopathies, neurological diseases). The first thing that an ambulance does is an assessment of the patient's condition and a primary differential diagnosis of the type of poisoning. The question of urgent hospitalization is decided depending on the severity of intoxication and the threat to the life of the victim.

In stationary conditions, the diagnosis is refined with the help of a set of laboratory studies, which are conducted in the "cito" mode. Then the actions are almost identical with those that are carried out at home, however, professional emergency aid for food poisoning involves the use of specific detoxification measures, infusion of saline solutions and symptomatic treatment.

Methods for removing toxins can be used different - from washing the stomach with a probe and applying a siphon enema to forced diuresis and hemodialysis. In addition to detoxification, infusion infusions are administered in parallel to the patient to restore the water-electrolyte balance, and antibacterial therapy. Further, the actions of doctors are aimed at correcting the condition of the victim and excluding all possible consequences of poisoning.

First aid for food poisoning

This is a clear plan of action, which is recommended to read it and remember, as the summer season is not far off, therefore, the risk of food intoxication increases many times.

Symptoms of poisoning that require first aid: 

1. Feeling of nausea, vomiting.
2. Diarrhea, often indomitable, possibly with an admixture of mucus and blood.
3. Increased body temperature to 38-39 degrees, chills.
4. Sensation of dryness in the mouth, shortness of breath.
5. Absence of urge to urinate with a plentiful drink.
6. Falling blood pressure.
7. Cyanosis (cyanotic skin tone).
8. Violation of coordination, dizziness, double vision.

The first actions - to activate, or provoke vomiting with the help of liquid, put the victim on its side, give plenty of drink, on the forehead - cold, on the calves of the feet - the warmer. If the symptomatology subsides, give an absorbent drug and observe the patient's condition. 

Life-threatening signs of poisoning (paralysis, disruption of the CNS, a drop in blood pressure, diarrhea with blood) require an immediate call for an ambulance. If the symptoms subsided, the doctor should be called in anyway to determine the cause of intoxication and to eliminate its possible spread.

[7],

Helping a child with food poisoning

Assistance to the child is most often found in a medical institution under in-patient conditions. It is not uncommon for parents to try to help a sick child on their own, losing valuable time. In children, food intoxication takes place in an acute form, so calling an ambulance is most often inevitable. Especially disturbing are the following signs of poisoning:

• Raise body temperature to 38 degrees. The temperature that lasts more than 2 hours.
• Colic and pain in the abdomen of a growing character. Pain does not go away after vomiting or defecation.
• Indomitable vomiting, diarrhea (danger of rapid dehydration).
• No urination more for 4-5 hours.
• Dry mouth, increased salivation, difficulty swallowing and breathing.
• Cyanosis of the skin, fainting.

Help the child with food poisoning in mild form, you can try to provide a home. To light intoxications include cases accompanied by a disorder of the stool (no more than 3-5 times a day), a slight increase in temperature, periodic vomiting). Actions of parents should be as follows:

1. Even with mild poisoning, you should call your doctor or emergency dispatch service to inform you about poisoning and get good advice and tips for helping your child.
2. Before the visit of a doctor or the arrival of an ambulance the child needs to be washed out of the stomach. Vomiting should not scare parents - so the body tries to remove toxins on its own. In order for this process to accelerate, you need to give your child a drink of clean water at room temperature. The volume of fluid depends on age, and is calculated according to the following scheme:

Age (months, years)	Amount of liquid (ml)
From birth to 1 month	10-15
1 to 2 months	35-70
2 to 4 months	70-90
From 4 to 6 months	90-110
From half a year to 8 months	110-120
8 to 1 year	120-140
From one to three years	150-200
3 to 5 years	200-250
5 to 7 years	250-300
From 7 to 11 years old	300-450
11 to 14 years old	450-500

The table shows the volume of fluid that can be given to the child at a time.

The gag reflex can be activated by gently pressing on the root of the tongue with a teaspoon or with a cleanly washed finger of the hand. Actions need to be repeated until the vomit has been cleared of food remnants. 

3. After vomiting, it is necessary to lay the child each time so that his head is turned on his side (reducing the risk of possible aspiration). 
4. After the gag reflex subsides, it is necessary as often as possible to give the baby a drink to prevent dehydration. 
5. To adsorb toxins during food poisoning, Enterosgel's reception is shown. Children older than 5-6 years can be given a suspension of activated carbon at a rate of 1 tablet per kilogram of weight. 
6. If symptoms of poisoning subsided within 24 hours, from the second day the child is shown a sparing diet. It is advisable to discuss the menu and a set of products with the doctor, who in any case needs to be called.

Food intoxication in mild form with competent and timely actions does not require urgent hospitalization and is treated at home.

What not to do with food poisoning

1. Do not induce vomitive reflex in a patient without consciousness, in pregnant women or in children under 2 years old. Also, vomiting is contraindicated in convulsions or cardiac diseases. 
2. You can not put a heating pad on the abdomen. 
3. Do not give fixing drugs or decoctions for diarrhea. 
4. Vomiting can aggravate a serious condition when poisoning with acid, oil products, alkali. 
5. You can not put an enema on your own, especially young children, the elderly and pregnant women. 
6. Do not give milk, soda water as a drink. 
7. You can not show self-activity - give alkaline drink when poisoning with acid and vice versa.

Timely rendered first aid for food poisoning often helps to avoid hospitalization, in addition, it sometimes saves not only the health, but also the life of the victim.