Most people will suffer from diarrhoea at some time in their lives. The symptoms of diarrhoea are frequent passing of stools (sometimes watery) and quite often abdominal pain.

It can be a very uncomfortable and inconvenient condition especially for your kids. Here is some advice in how to try and prevent diarrhoea and also some information about treatments of diarrhoea.

But before you treat a disease or disorder one needs to be well aware of the causes. In that case, diarrhoea can be caused by a number of different factors:

1. Bacterial Infection: Some bacteria can cause diarrhoea if they come into contact with the human gut. These bacteria can be passed very easy from person to person, child to child, through lack of proper hygiene.

2. Travelers’ Diarrhoea: If one travels to a country they have never visited, he or she may come into contact with a new type of pathogen which, although totally harmless to the native population, may cause diarrhoea in the traveller.

This is only because the traveler has never come in contact with the pathogen and their body does not know how to react to it.

3. Drug-related Diarrhoea: Sometimes, drugs prescribed by your doctor or pharmacist can cause diarrhoea as a side-effect. It may be worth asking your doctor about possible side-effects when they prescribe a drug for you or your child.

4. Other illness: Diarrhoea can occasionally be a symptom of another underlying condition e.g. ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease. This is much less likely to be the case and your doctor will be able to reassure you if you have any worries.

Diarrhea can also be caused by an over indulgence in alcohol, too much spicy food, or sometimes by anxiety.
The likelihood of you or your family getting diarrhoea can be greatly reduced by taking a few simple actions.

Hand washing: in order to prevent the spread of pathogens which may cause diarrhea, it is important to encourage your family to wash their hands after visiting the toilet.

This is one of the easiest and effective methods of preventing diarrhea and, although it is important to wash hands after every cloak room visit, it is even more important before preparing or handling food.

Use of Latrines: All human faeces should be disposed off in a way that prevents them coming into contact with hand or contaminating a water source. This includes, importantly, the hygienic disposal of stools of young children.

Measles Immunization: Measles vaccination at nine months of age can prevent up to a quarter of diarrhoea associated deaths in children under five.

Breast feeding: It is recommended that all babies up to four or six months should be breast fed. This is to build up their natural antibody levels and make them less vulnerable to infection.

Make sure that the water you and your family drink and the food you eat are clean to avoid infection.

It is important to try and prevent diarrhoea, but if you or your family do get diarrhoea, it is also important to treat the symptoms quickly.

The World Health Organization recommends rehydration as a first step- to try and replace any fluids lost as result of diarrhoea.

There is a recipe for a simple home made rehydration solution at the end of this storyline. The second step is to consult your doctor or pharmacist as quickly as possible.

The earlier you start the treatment the better- apart from feeling better and getting back to normal, early treatment often decreases the risk of spreading the disease.

There are a number of treatments for diarrhoea. Some of these treatments can be bought from your pharmacist and some are prescribed by a doctor.

Some of the older treatments of diarrhoea which can be bought may cause constipation or bloating. Your doctor will be able to prescribe some of the newer treatments for diarrhoea.

These new agents offer rapid relief from diarrhoea and do not cause any of the side-effects associated with some of the older products.

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