What Causes Severe Diarrhea And Fever In A Child?

Posted on Mon, 28 Nov 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Mon, 28 Nov 2016 Answered on

Mon, 26 Dec 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : my daughter is 14 months old and she had 3 loose motions today and has 99.6 fever

Answered by Dr. Sumanth Amperayani (43 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Looks like viral diarrhea - it's not fever

Detailed Answer:
Hi...You need not treat temperature less than 100 degrees Fahrenheit as fever.

Coming to the issue of loose stools -

It seems your kid is having viral diarrhoea. Once it starts it will take 5-7 days to completely get better. Unless the kid's having low urine output or very dull or excessively sleepy or blood in motion or green bilious vomiting...you need not worry.

There is no need to use antibiotics unless there is blood in the motion. Antibiotics might worsen if unnecessarily used causing antibiotic associated diarrhoea.

I suggest you use zinc supplements (Z&D drops 1ml once daily for 14 days) & ORS (Each small packet mixed in 200ml of potable water and keep giving sip by sip) as hydration is very important and crucial part of treatment.

Regards - Dr. Sumanth

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar