Dehydration is a huge concern for babies and young children when they get sick. They may develop a little bit of a stomach bug, and they might be vomiting, or have diarrhea, or they may have a cold and they're just not eating well, especially small babies that are nursing. Sometimes they get so sick that it's hard for them to eat and breathe, and so they have a hard time eating and can become dehydrated quickly. No matter what the illness might be, it's really important to think about dehydration. Keep that in that back of your mind and watch for the signs that I'm going to discuss, and if you see them, have your child seen by a doctor so that they can determine if intervention is necessary for dehydration and/or the cause of the issues that they were having in the first place.
The first thing you'll want to be watching for is the number of wet diapers your child is having. They should have about 6 wet diapers a day, so if the number of wet diapers starts to go down, or if you notice that their urine is very concentrated in the diaper, then those are signs of dehydration. They're just like adults - the less they drink, then the less they're going to pee, or the more they drink, the more they're going to pee. So this is something that you should pay very close attention to. Other symptoms may be a little less obvious. They might just start to play less than usual, they might be a little bit irritable, they might have a parched dry mouth. And if they're toddlers, they may be asking for drinks, but if they're vomiting, they may have a hard time keeping it down. You may notice that when they cry, they don't have as many tears as usual. And for infants and young toddlers, the soft spots on their heads may become sunken. Obviously, if they've been having diarrhea, then their stools are going to be loose, and of course, the diarrhea is contributing to the problem of dehydration. But if the dehydration is caused by something else, you may actually see less stools than you were before.
In addition to these symptoms, signals that it's becoming a more serious problem may include excessive fussiness (especially from a baby), maybe excessive sleepiness, they're just a little bit harder to arouse when they're sleeping, wrinkled skin, sunken eyes. And again, the number of wet diapers that they're having is so important. If you're only seeing 1 or 2 a day, then that's definitely a sign of dehydration and you're baby needs to be seen by a doctor as soon as possible. If you have more questions in the future for me, feel free to ask them on our Facebook page at [ Ссылка ], and recommend us to your friends and family too.
