Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

Lists for First Aid Kits, Over-The-Counter (OTC)Medicines to keep on hand,Masks & Protective Gear info,How-To Information for home care of family members and lots more.
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Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Where There Is No Doctor
Chapter 13:

DEHYDRATION
Go here to see entire PDF version: https://hesperian.org/books-and-resources/# (Scroll down to the link for 'Where There Is No Doctor')

Most children who die from diarrhea die because they do not have enough water left in their bodies. This lack of water is called dehydration.Dehydration results when the body loses more liquid than it takes in. This can happen with severe diarrhea, especially when there is vomiting too. It can also happen in very serious illness, when a person is too sick to take much food or liquid.People of any age can become dehydrated, but dehydration develops more quickly and is most dangerous in small children. ---CONTINUED---
Last edited by Readymom on Sun Feb 28, 2021 10:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Updated Link
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10 Things you should know about Rehydrating a child.

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Rehydration Project

Oral Rehydration Solutions: Made at Home
http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm

PDF Can be found here: http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade-ors.pdf

Oral Rehydration Solutions: Made at Home
The most effective, least expensive way to manage diarrhoeal dehydration
The "Simple Solution" Do-It-Yourself .... Encouraging self-reliance

Recipe for home-made salt and sugar solution ---CONTINUED---
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From: Preparing for the Coming Influenza Pandemic
by Dr. Grattan Woodson, MD, Decatur GA, edited by David Jodrey, PhD.
(free pdf, 24 pp, 530 KB. Dec 20, 2005 )

The ORS Solution, Page 25
https://www.atu.edu/research/docs/Bird_Flu_Pandemic_Woodson.pdf

Identifying Dehydration: Preventing dehydration in flu victims will save more lives than all the other treatments combined. When patients have a fever or diarrhea, they loose much more water from the body than is commonly appreciated. Symptoms of dehydration include weakness, headache, and fainting. Signs of dehydration include dryness of the mouth, decreased saliva, lack or very decreased urine that is dark and highly concentrated, sunken eyes, loss of skin tugor (the elasticity of the skin),low blood pressure especially upon sitting up or rising from the sitting to the standing position and tachycardia (fast pulse) when laying or sitting up.

(SNIP) ... BFS is simply homemade IV fluids for oral use. The formula is: ... ---CONTNUED---
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The Oral Rehydration Solution

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The Oral Rehydration Solution
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2006/12/oral-rehydration-solution.html

Dehydration, and severe diarrheal disease, particularly among children in the third world, is a massive killer. Recognizing this threat, more than 25 years ago the WHO (World Health Organization) came up with what is now called ORS, or an Oral Rehydration Solution.
(SNIP) ...

Making your own ORS

The bottom line, of course, is how to make a cheap, safe, and effective ORS powder yourself.
The simplest formula is ... ---CONTINUED---
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preventing dehydration
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16760

(SNIP) ... preventing dehydration will be the most important way to avoid a preventable death of a loved one or friend.

As Sally stated, the basic formula is 1 quart of water, 1 tsp of salt and 3 tbsp of sugar. What this amounts to is a physiologic solution that is very rapidly absorbed by the gut.

However, when I took my own medicine (the above recipe) it tasted too salty and was sweeter than I liked. If sick and given this to drink, well being stubborn I just might refuse. If you doubt me, mix this up and try it for yourself. If you do, it would be interesting to hear what you think.

Given my real world experience with ORS as prescribed by the WHO and others including me, I have modified my opinion.

First, the recommended ORS basically is an attempt to provide a physiologic salt and sugar solution orally in a proportion somewhat similar that that provided to patients with dehydration intravenously. It is certain that when sugar is given in addition to water and salt orally that there is improved absorption of all three and this is the essence of the prescriptions components.

What is important to understand about medicine is there are often many ways to successfully treat a serious condition like dehydration. For instance, it is perfectly OK the lower the salt and sugar content of the solution and still obtain excellent results. In fact if the ORS is more palatable to the patient then they are much more likely to take it.

When a patient is really sick with flu there are many ways you can enhance the ORS to make it more palatable to them. First is the temperature of the fluid. If they have a very sore throat, a heated fluid will help relieve the pain. If they have a high fever a cold fluid may prove to be more comforting. In some cases drinking room temperature fluid is preferred. The point is to kowtow to the patient's preferences to the extent possible since their life may depend on them drinking down as much fluid as possible.

Second, don't get hung up on the formula. It is too strong IMO. Way too salty and sweet. It is fine to reduce the salt and sugar content. It will still work great. What is important is they drink the stuff because if they don't they could die.

Caffeinated tea, coffee, or soda helps increase the fluid transfer through the lung, increases the function of the heart, kidneys, and colon and increases awareness. It is a time honored treatment for flu and other infectious diseases. So, simply add a pinch of salt to these beverages, sweeten then with sugar (no diet coke!) and enjoy.

A very good ORS recipe is using juice as the flavor and sugar source added to water and a bit of salt. For instance, 2 cups water, 2 cups juice, and 1/4 tsp salt. This ORS provides plenty of water and sugar but also potassium and sodium. The potassium can substitute for sodium with regards to enhancing water absorption in the presence of sugar. This is my preferred ORS because it tastes so much better to me.

In essence, what is important is not the quantity of salt and sugar but the amount of water given. Yes, to improve the absorption of water from the gut both salt and sugar need to be present but in fact there is a large range of acceptable concentrations of these two that still result in a good clinical recovery. So, don't get locked into a single mantra. There are many variations that also work quite well.

I wish to elaborate a bit on one point Sally made regarding the use of sodium bicarbonate. If the patient is dehydrated from fever then it is fine to use this source of sodium instead of table salt (sodium chloride) if this is all you have available. When doing so, use the flexible guidelines above because like salt, sodium bicarbonate is very salty. The caveat relates to the cause of the dehydration. If it is due to vomiting, sodium bicarbonate administrate will harm the patient because this cause of dehydration results in an excess of bicarbonate in the blood due to loss of chloride in the vomitus. So if your patient is vomiting, the best ORS has plain table salt as the sodium source since it provides both sodium and chloride.

OTOH, if the patient has diarrhea as the cause of dehydration they loose more bicarbonate than chloride. So when diarrhea is playing an important role, using sodium bicarbonate is preferred.

As you can see, it is a little complicated but not all that difficult to manage. I have spelled all this out in a pamphlet entitled Good Home Influenza Care which is widely available.

What is important is not to wait until your child, spouse, or friend comes down with severe flu and the medical establishment is unable to respond due to its being overwhelmed. You need to get the information for how to do this on your own within your own home now. What's more you need to stock up on the simple things like salt, sugar, sodium bicarb, aspirin, acetaminophen, Benadryl etc that you will need to care for people at home.

Recently I had the privilege of advising a mother of a 14 y/o with A (novel H1N1) on how to care for her at home. While sick, she was not ill enough to require hospitalization thank goodness and she recovered quite rapidly (Tamiflu worked wonders). The point in sharing this vignette with you is how totally distraught and disorganized her mother was when she called me for help. Why was this a surprise? Because her mother is someone who works in the medical field and has significantly more knowledge about pandemic influenza than 99% of the population. What she did not have was a plan. She was not prepared to deal with pandemic influenza occurring within her own household and affecting her only child.

The lesson here is the need for everyone, irrespective of how much you "know" about influenza, pandemics, etc to be ready, really ready to handle it if it shows up in your own home. When this happens, it will not be of any value to understand how just-in-time inventory management by industry has broken down or that there is no true surge capacity within the advanced nation's health care system. What will matter most is the lethargic febrile being lying totally defenseless in the bed in front of you. Their life may well depend on what steps you take right now. So, what are you going to do?

Don't wait until then to answer that question. That is all that I am saying.

Grattan Woodson, MD
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Re: Diarrhea & Dehydration

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Manage Dehydration Casualties
http://www.operationalmedicine.org/TextbookFiles/FMST_20008/FMST_1411.htm

UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
Field Medical Training Battalion
Camp Lejeune

TERMINAL LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Given a dehydration casualty in a combat environment and standard field medical equipment and supplies, manage dehydration casualties, to prevent further injury or death per the references. (FMST-HSS-1411)

ENABLING LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify levels of dehydration, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411a)

2. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify signs and symptoms of dehydration, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411b)

3. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify predisposing factors for dehydration, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411e)

4. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify treatments for various types of dehydration casualties, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411c)

5. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify preventive measures for dehydration, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411d)

6. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify the signs and symptoms of hyponatremia, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411f)

7. Without the aid of references, given a description or list, identify the proper treatment of hyponatremia, per the student handout. (FMST-HSS-1411g) ---continued at link, above ----
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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The Treatment of Diarrhoea:
A manual for physicians and other senior health workers. World Health Organization (WHO). 50 pages pdf
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2005/9241593180.pdf

Excerpt:
2. ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS CONCERNING DIARRHOEA

2.1 Definition of Diarrhoea

Diarrhoea is the passage of unusually loose or watery stools, usually at least three times in a 24 hour period. However, it is the consistency of the stools rather than the number that is most important. Frequent passing of formed stools is not diarrhoea. Babies fed only breastmilk often pass loose, "pasty" stools; this also is not diarrhoea. Mothers usually know when their children have diarrhoea and may provide useful working definitions in local situations.

(SNIP) ... (Scroll down to page 9 for the home-made recipe/directions ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Dehydration
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dehydration/DS00561/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs

*Click on 'Diagnosis and Treatment' tab for ORS recipe

The only effective treatment for dehydration is to replace lost fluids and lost electrolytes. The best approach to dehydration treatment depends on age, the severity of dehydration and its cause. ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Stockpiling Electrolytes-A review of the best electrolyte powders and tablets
http://www.happypreppers.com/electrolytes.html

Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating Electrolytes-preparedness-page-210x212 Best electrolyte powders and tablets:
As a prepper you'll want to stockpile electrolytes in your prepper's pantry, and put some electrolylte powders or tablets in your bugout bag, because electrolytes balance the amount of lifesaving water in your body! Excessive sweating from a strenuous activity or illness are just two reasons why you'll want to stockpile electrolytes as part of your overall prepping plan. Electrolyte powders and tablets are easy to stockpile and they'll last just about forever.

Below is everything a prepper needs to know about stockpiling electrolytes, including a review of the top electrolytes and how to make your own electrolyte drink... ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Treating the Runs in a Survival Situation
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/treating-the-runs-in-a-survival-situation/

One of the most dangerous outcomes is dehydration. Dehydration can cause headache, fatigue, sallow and dry skin, constipation and other woes. It can compromise your immune system and make you weak or even faint. In the most dire cases, diarrhea can cause vomiting, fever, and bloody stools. All of this is in addition to cramps and bloating.

In a worst-case scenario, diarrhea and the resulting symptoms can cause death, especially in children. ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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The Cure Manual

Emergency Re-Hydration Procedure via Enema
http://www.curemanual.com/2010/05/emergency-re-hydration-procedure-via-enema/

Rehydration can kill anyone at any age. Special note during loose bowel movement / diarrhea episodes, sometimes the intake of plain water may not be enough as the body gets an imbalance in electrolyte levels and cannot make use of the plain water. First aid I usually choose is water melon, then follow up with coconut juice with coconut meat for raw fats. But what if the dehydrated person is far beyond that stage? What if he cannot take anything orally? ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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Electrolyte Options For The Prepared
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/electrolyte-options-for-the-prepared/

(SNIP) ... There are many ways to supplement electrolytes. This is not an expensive prep but it can make a big difference during a survival situation. Here are some options to consider.

Many electrolytes are fairly acidic so if you get heartburn easily you may want to try a few different ones and see which one agrees with you the most or try not to drink too many right before bed. You can also add more water than recommended if that helps. ---CONTINUED---
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Re: Diarrhea, Dehydration and Re-hydrating

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How to Make Gatorade
https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/how-to-make-gatorade

The thing about me experimenting with an idea to try to come up with a healthy alternative is that I can get super excited about the result – but then immediately question, “Will this taste as good to other people as I think it tastes? Will others who are used to the ‘real version’ think this only tastes like a so-so ‘healthy version?'” These questions were especially tricky when making a Gatorade alternative because 1) I haven’t actually sipped on any Gatorade for several years so I couldn’t even remember what it was supposed to taste like and 2) the homemade version looked so cute in my recycled juice bottles that I was going to be super disappointed if my kids didn’t like it. ---CONTINUED---
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