Every person has experienced food poisoning at least once in their life. Doctors distinguish between two types of poisoning. The first type is the consumption of poisonous mushrooms, plants, and berries that are not suitable for ingestion. The second group is the ingestion of spoiled, contaminated or dirty products, which lead to intoxication of the body. This is the type of poisoning we encounter most often. Food poisoning often awaits us if we dine at questionable catering establishments. Poisoning often occurs when hygiene rules are not followed - unwashed fruits and vegetables can be dangerous. The risk of developing food poisoning also depends on the condition of the digestive tract. If the intestines are weak, they react to the slightest changes in diet. In addition, the type of infection is distinguished - poisoning with simple bacteria goes away in a few days, but, for example, salmonellosis is much more difficult to treat. In this article, we will try to understand food poisoning - consider its symptoms, learn how to act in case of poisoning and how to treat it at home.

Symptoms of food poisoning

Symptoms of food intoxication may not always be characteristic; sometimes the absence of vomiting and diarrhea leads a person to other diagnoses; the patient may associate weakness and poor health with a cold and other pathologies. Let's try to figure out how poisoning can manifest itself.

Most often, poisoning is accompanied by pain in the gastrointestinal tract of various localizations - in the stomach or intestines, it can even stab the side.

A feeling of nausea appears, and in some cases vomiting occurs.

In most cases, a person develops diarrhea, but this does not always happen. By the way, the absence of vomiting and diarrhea is much more dangerous, because toxins do not leave the body, their concentration increases more and more.

Often the patient’s abdomen becomes bloated, severe gas formation and flatulence develop.

Intoxication makes itself felt - weakness, poor health, and dizziness appear. In children this manifests itself especially clearly - the baby constantly lies down, even if by nature he is very active and mobile.

In case of severe poisoning, the temperature may rise, fever, chills, aching joints may occur, and fog may appear before the eyes.

With obvious dehydration, when a person suffers from diarrhea and vomiting, the smell of acetone appears from the mouth. In such a situation, you need to urgently consult a doctor.

Poisoning can occur within an hour after consuming a spoiled product. The maximum time after which signs of food poisoning appear is a day.

First aid for food poisoning

If you are poisoned by low-quality, dirty or spoiled products, it is very important to act wisely in the first hours. As soon as you suspect that you are poisoned, analyze what you have eaten recently. If you are not sure about the freshness or sterility of the prepared dishes, it is better to do a gastric lavage. This will help cleanse the body of the remnants of spoiled food that has not yet been absorbed into the walls. Remember, the fewer toxins in the body, the faster you will recover. The remnants of these toxins can be removed using a weak solution of potassium permanganate. Make pale pink water, drink at least two glasses of the solution, after which the body itself will experience the urge to vomit. Once you have emptied your stomach, you need to drink and vomit again. This should be done until food stops coming out of the stomach and the water remains clean. If there is no urge to vomit, drink more water and press your fingers on the root of the tongue - the contents of the stomach will come out very quickly.

In difficult cases, in a hospital setting, not only the stomach, but also the intestines are washed. To do this, they do a cleansing enema to rid the intestinal walls of toxins that have penetrated beyond the stomach. After washing the gastrointestinal tract, it is necessary to take sorbents. The simplest option is activated carbon, which should be taken in a dosage of one tablet per 10 kg of weight. That is, if your weight is 60 kg, you need to drink at least 6 tablets of coal at a time. Instead of this sorbent, you can drink what you have on hand - Filtrum, Polysorb, Enterosgel, Smecta, etc. If vomiting occurs after taking the sorbent, repeat the procedure after half an hour, do not be afraid of an overdose. Try to hold back vomiting at least a little, after a few minutes the sorbent will begin to act and the nausea will pass.

The best cure for food poisoning is fasting. Under no circumstances should you eat in the first hours after intoxication, even if you want to. Doctors say that fasting is much more beneficial, even than dieting, although not everyone can handle it. If you do not eat anything for 24 hours, the body will be able to cope with the poisoning faster, and there will be no trace of the disease. But eating is an additional burden. Compassionate mothers who are trying to feed their baby during the period of poisoning should know about this, with the words “He will not have the strength to fight the disease.”

You can’t eat, but you can and even need to drink. Excessive vomiting and diarrhea lead to dehydration, which is very dangerous, especially for young children. The fact is that a baby can have physiological stool 10-12 times a day, this is normal. In such a situation, the mother does not immediately notice that the baby has diarrhea. Mucus or blood in the stool, or unusual color of bowel movements should alert the mother. Dehydration is a very dangerous condition; in a child it can occur in an unrealistically short time. Therefore, you need to solder the baby. In order not to induce vomiting, it is necessary to give the baby a teaspoon of water every 5 minutes; large portions of liquid will cause the baby to vomit. During the period of poisoning, breastfeeding is very helpful - it is a natural protection against dehydration. However, do not allow prolonged latching - a large portion of milk can lead to the baby vomiting again. It is better to put the baby to the breast more often, but not for long.

You can restore the water-salt balance in adults and children using a special solution called Regidron. If you don’t have it on hand, you can prepare the composition yourself - add half a teaspoon of salt and the same amount of baking soda per liter of water. Drink as often as possible - liquid flushes out the remaining toxins from the body. After all the above measures, you can lie down to rest, because the patient feels weakened.

As noted, the best diet is fasting. However, not many people can withstand daily fasting, especially if their health has already returned to normal. But this does not mean that you need to again eat questionable foods, fatty dishes and stale fruits. In the first days after poisoning, only lean and light meals are allowed. This includes steamed chicken and rabbit meat, simple cereals, crackers, dried bread, bananas, baked apples, biscuits. Rice has a very good effect - it perfectly strengthens and relieves diarrhea. Oatmeal is recommended for stomach pain - it gently envelops its walls, relieves spasms, it is a light food that will not cause discomfort. It is very good to drink jelly, tea, herbal infusions. Light vegetarian dishes are acceptable, without a lot of salt and spices. You should exclude baked goods, heavy meat, fatty, smoked, spicy and fried foods from your diet.

After the acute period of the disease has passed, some patients note that their stool has still not recovered. This occurs against the background of disruption of the normal intestinal microflora. To correct the situation, you should take a course of probiotics - Linex, Hilak Forte, Acipol, etc. You can improve your intestinal health by drinking fermented milk products with live bacteria.

Folk remedies in the fight against poisoning

There are a lot of recommendations in the collection of home medicine recipes that will help get rid of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Cinnamon. Cinnamon powder perfectly absorbs everything unnecessary; it is an excellent natural sorbent. Pour boiling water over a teaspoon of spice, let it brew and cool, drink in small sips throughout the day.

1. Ginger. This is an excellent remedy in the fight against nausea. Grate the root and add it to the teapot along with the tea leaves. But remember, nausea can only be suppressed if the stomach is completely cleansed.
2. Althea. The root of this plant perfectly removes toxins and stops diarrhea. Pour a tablespoon of crushed root into a glass of boiling water, let it brew and drink 50 ml three times a day.
3. Dill. You need to prepare a decoction from dill seeds - this is an excellent remedy in the fight against flatulence, bloating and increased gas formation.
4. Rose hip. Rose hip decoction contains a lot of acids and vitamin C, which is so necessary for poisoning and dehydration. The decoction should be drunk in small portions half an hour before meals.

Home treatment recipes perfectly restore the body after poisoning, but you should not always rely only on yourself. Some categories of patients should never stay at home if poisoned - only stay in a hospital under the supervision of doctors. Such patients include children under three years of age, pregnant women, and the elderly. If poisoning does not go away, and the symptoms only get worse, you should definitely consult a doctor at any age. You should also consult a general practitioner or infectious disease specialist if you have a high fever during poisoning, a rash on the skin, blood in your stool, vomiting that doesn’t stop, or the patient loses consciousness. If you ingest poisonous mushrooms or plants, you should immediately call an ambulance.

How to protect yourself from poisoning

We all know that we need to wash our hands after using the toilet and before eating anything. But, unfortunately, this rule is not always followed, especially if we are talking about children. Here are some more tips to help you protect yourself from poisoning.

You need to eat only in trusted places. Questionable food service outlets, where the seller takes money with one hand and holds a hamburger bun with the other, can be dangerous.

You need to wash your hands before and after preparing food, especially if you handled raw meat or poultry.

Every 2-3 days, check the refrigerator, do not allow food to stagnate. Do not eat products that have expired. If you notice that a product is about to expire, cook something from it for dinner. For example, sausage can be added to pizza, a cupcake can be baked from sour kefir, etc.

Do not leave food open on the table - cockroaches and flies can crawl on it, after which you eat contaminated food.

Keep a separate cutting board for raw meat, fish and poultry.

Fry meat, fish and eggs thoroughly.

Carefully inspect the cans for integrity. Any product, even one with a good shelf life, should be thrown away if it has an unpleasant, sour or unusual odor.

After opening condensed milk or other canned food, you need to transfer the contents into glass or porcelain containers; food in a metal container oxidizes when exposed to air.

Do not leave cooked soups on the stove overnight; be sure to put all prepared food in the refrigerator. If you didn’t eat the soup right away, but left it for tomorrow, when you eat again, try to warm it up thoroughly, i.e. boil.

And, of course, buy only fresh and high-quality products, use filtered or boiled water for drinking and cooking.

We can say that food poisoning is a minor disorder that passes quickly, the body recovers in a few days. But sometimes food poisoning can be hiding something more serious, such as salmonellosis or botulism. Therefore, if you cannot cope with poisoning on your own, do not experiment, go to the hospital as soon as possible. After all, any disease can be treated more successfully if you seek help in time!

Video: what to do if a child has food poisoning