Nutritional management of diarrhoea

Abstract

Diarrhoeal disease may cause, precipitate, or exacerbate protein-energy and micronutrient malnutrition. The main driving forces that determine nutritional care of the sick child in the home are advice from health-care providers, the mothers' own beliefs and the social support network available to mothers or social pressure to act in a determined way. Therefore, health providers should be knowledgeable about appropriate feeding management of illness, and should provide sound advice to mothers. The likelihood that mothers will follow the recommendations given by the health-care system (formal or informal) will be greater if these conform to mothers' cultural norms and their explanatory model of disease. Feeding practices followed in health facilities should be consistent with those advised for the mothers at home. In order to make a successful change in a given practice, culture-sensitive interventions should be used.