Mushroom poisoning in children: symptoms and signs

Collecting and cooking mushrooms is a ritual for many families. But few people think about the danger of mushroom dishes for health and human life. Children are especially sensitive to their toxins poisoning them occurs more acutely, leads to severe dysfunction in the whole organism. In this article, we thoroughly reviewed mushroom poisoning in children, its causes, symptoms, complications, and how to provide first aid and components of treatment in hospital.

What causes mushroom poisoning in children

Mushrooms are not a dietary staple. According to the recommendations of dietitian, children under 12 years of age, they are contraindicated. Their body can not completely to properly digest the mushrooms. Many parents are fed mushrooms to their kids from an early age, they believe this products is very useful and valuable.

Children are more susceptible to poisoning than adults. This is due to the peculiarity of the development of their digestive and immune systems. Below are the main causes of mushroom poisoning in children.

• Consumption of expired, spoiled mushroom dishes can lead to the development of intestinal infections. During long-term storage in fungi infest putrefaction bacteria.
• Poisoning with poisonous mushrooms. Kids can eat beautiful mushroom, tearing it on the street. They can also eat poisonous mushroom varieties in meals at home. Some mushrooms look like edible, and when cooking them you can not tell the difference.
• Cooking with mushrooms, which grew in ecologically unfavorable areas. Mushrooms are able to absorb all the toxins, nitrates, gases, pesticides, which polluted earth and air. Collect them along the highways, near factories is prohibited. Buying mushrooms at spontaneous markets or from the owner, you may not know exactly where they grew up.
• Poisoning with mushroom canned food contaminated with botulism. This bacterium develops only in an environment devoid of oxygen. Canned mushroom in it falls with the remnants of the earth, due to poor washing and cleaning mushrooms.
• Insufficient heat treatment of mushrooms.

Please note that eating mushrooms can cause in children is not just poisoning, but acute pancreatitis, inflammation of the pancreas. This body first reacts to deviations in power and its flagrant violation of the inflamed.

The clinical picture of mushroom poisoning in children

The first symptoms of mushroom poisoning in children appear earlier than adults. By eating poor-quality edible mushroom species the signs of the disease develop over 4-6 hours, in case of poisoning with poisonous varieties of mushrooms they can occur in a few minutes.

Signs of mushroom poisoning in children depend on the toxin that triggered the disease. Below are the clinical manifestations of mushroom poisoning poisonous and edible mushrooms.

Symptoms of poisoning with edible mushrooms

The severity of symptoms depends on the amount eaten mushroom dishes and age of the patient. The less old the child is, the harder it will be expressed intoxication. For the effects of spoiled or substandard edible types of fungi common symptoms:

• strong abdominal pain localized in the stomach and in the intestine. It may resemble intestinal colic;
• nausea and vomiting. Vomiting in toddler can be frequent and abundant. It reduces nausea;
• diarrhea may be watery and multiple. In children profuse diarrhea leads to rapid dehydration;
• the increase in body temperature (hyperthermia) to 39-40 degrees;
• tachycardia – rapid heartbeat that is caused by intoxication, hyperthermia and lack of fluid in the body;
• headache, dizziness, severe weakness. The child becomes lethargic and inactive, he lost appetite, interest in games and entertainment.

Mushroom poisoning in children is often accompanied by acetonemia syndrome. It develops on the background of high intoxication and dehydration. The body is disturbed the uptake of ketone bodies. against the background of copious vomiting and diarrhea in a child there is a characteristic smell of acetone breath and urine.

Symptoms of poisoning with poisonous varieties of mushrooms

Signs of consumption of poisonous species of mushrooms growing in children very quickly and lead to a marked deterioration of the child. Usually, there are symptoms described in the previous paragraph. They can be complemented by the following clinical manifestations:

• increased production of saliva, tears, sweat;
• redness or blanching of the skin;
• myalgia – muscle pain;
• the change in the level of blood pressure. Some poisonous mushrooms lead to greater, some to a sharp decline;
• breathing problems. It can be fast and superficial or infrequent, inconsistent;
• convulsions, covering the whole body. They develop in the form of attacks, as in epilepsy. Cramps most often occur on the background of the disturbed mind of the child, they may be accompanied by an arbitrary act of expulsion of feces and urine. Such fits last not long, 15-25 seconds;
• hallucinations which may be visual, olfactory or auditory in nature;
• a violation of consciousness. The child may fall into a stupor, deep coma.

We did not separately describe the clinical signspoisoning every poisonous mushroom. Remember that in case of violations being the kid who ate the mushrooms, to suspect disease need them.

Symptoms of poisoning of canned mushrooms

Botulism, an infection that can be transmitted through canned mushroom begins to appear within the first day after a meal. First develop symptoms of intestinal poisoning, the body temperature rises, there is diarrhea and vomiting. They are a few hours pass. They are replaced by damage to the Central nervous system. While botulism can be broken speech, motor function, vision, coordination of movements, develops paralysis of the limbs.

If untreated, botulism infected people die due to respiratory arrest. Toxins that strike the respiratory center located in the brain, resulting in a person stops breathing.

What to do if the child has poisoned with mushrooms

If a child, who for the last day ate the mushrooms, began to feel violated, call the ambulance. On the phone indicate to the dispatcher the age of the baby, describe the symptoms and provide your exact location. While waiting for the medics start to conduct first aid, which in the case of severe intoxications can save the life of a child.

Remember, that to treat children mushroom poisoning in the home is strictly prohibited. Only a doctor can make an accurate diagnosis, to assess objectively the patient's condition and prescribe an appropriate treatment.

What is first aid the child in cases of suspected mushroom poisoning are listed next.

Gastric lavage

Gastric lavage in the home is carried out only under the condition of undisturbed consciousness of the child. Let him gulp drink several glasses of plain water and then make him vomit. This can be done by clicking on the root of the tongue with your finger. Repeat this procedure several times. During vomiting, follow the kid, he choked.

Remember that the use of potassium permanganate during the gastric lavage in children is very dangerous. It can cause burns of the mucous membrane of the digestive tract and severe poisoning. According to the latest who protocols, potassium permanganate is not included in the list of drugs for gastric lavage.

Enema

Children up to 3 years enema is a special rubber pear in the volume of 100-200 ml enema is Done on the basis of plain water at room temperature. Add something extra prohibited.

The enema should be repeated several times. When effectively cleaned intestines appear clean rinse water.

Sorbents

The sorbents should be in every home medicine Cabinet. These drugs are shown in all food poisonings. With their help it is possible to rid the body of toxins and poisons.

For a child can be used enterosgel, activated coal, smektu. Before giving your child this medication, read the instructions, which is attached, dosage, do not forget to check the expiration date of the drug.

Drink

You can drink plain or alkaline water. All the liquid should be non-carbonated. The watering of a child poisoning is a complex and lengthy process. It is very important not to provoke repeated vomiting. It is best to water the baby 1 tablespoon every 5 minutes.

What if the child lost consciousness

In case of loss of consciousness the child until the arrival of medical personnel need to put it on a firm and level surface, lift the leg to turn his head to one side. Make sure he doesn't choke on her own vomit. You should also check the presence of a carotid pulse and respiration.

Medical treatment

First aid is medical SMP. They conduct a quick examination of the patient and stabilize his condition with the help of droppers with solutions of drugs and oxygen. Then they transporterowych child to the hospital.

Treatment of mushroom poisoning can be carried out in the intensive care unit or in the isolation ward. In addition to providing medical care survey is conducted of the child on the basis of which revealed the cause of the disease, its complications and assigned to targeted treatment.

Mushrooms are products that are not intended for baby food. Many parents, not knowing this, systematically feeding their offspring mushroom dishes, thereby exposing them to danger. Children are more susceptible to the development of mushroom poisoning, and they occurs in a more severe form than adults. When the first symptoms of the disease need to seek medical help. Self-medication in this situation is unacceptable, may lead to the death of the baby.