2-year-old boy loses half of his weight due to long-term diarrhea
A 2-year-old boy lost over half of his body weight due to long-term diarrhea. He was recently saved by doctors at Xinhua Hospital, with experts reminding parents to be aware of diarrhea – one of the major causes of death for children below 5 years old.
The boy suffered diarrhea for nine months and his weight dropped from over 10 kilograms to 5 kilograms. His parents took him to various hospitals and failed to control the condition.
After going to Xinhua Hospital, doctors made a detailed plan to control the boy's diarrhea and then provided nutrition treatment.
"The boy's intestinal tract had become a desert, as the flora and villi had serious disorders, and shrunk due to such a long time with chronic diarrhea, whose reasons and mechanisms are complicated. Regardless of whether we offered water or nutrients, his intestinal tract couldn't absorb them," said Dr Wang Ying, director of Xinhua's pediatric digestion and nutrition department. "We had to make an extremely careful plan to give nutrition each hour step by step to fatten the intestinal environment for better nutrition absorbtion."
Normal intestinal tract (right), which has villi to keep and absorb nutrients, and desert-like intestinal tract (left).
It took over two months for doctors to return the boy's desert-like intestinal tract to normal conditions. His weight increased from 5.2 kilograms to 7.6 kilograms, almost half of the weight, and was finally discharged.
Wang said diarrhea is a common disease among children. "But chronic diarrhea can not only make children lose nutrients but also impact their intestinal health and immunity, resulting in prolonged onset of diarrhea. Malnutrition and diarrhea can also influence children's brain development. Parents must take the issue seriously," she added.
The boy was able to sit by himself after a month of treatment (left) and gained 50 percent of weight after two-months of treatment.
