A proper nutritional diet when your children have a fever plays a crucial role in supporting the treatment of the disease. Therefore, parents need to understand which foods should and should not be added to their child’s diet when they have a fever to help them recover quickly.
1. Children have a fever, what should I feed them?
When children have a fever, what should I feed them is a question many parents care about. Here are some foods and drinks parents should actively add to their children’s diet to help reduce fever and heal quickly:
1.1. Drinking lots of water
Fever causes the body to lose water. Therefore, when children have a fever, parents should give them more water than usual to replenish the amount of water lost. Rehydration during fever will help the children not become exhausted and support the body's decrease in temperature faster.
In addition, parents can also replace filtered water with cooled boiled water mixed with oresol to rehydrate and replenish electrolytes. However, many children do not like the taste of oresol because it is quite difficult to drink. So, parents can choose oresol having orange and strawberry flavors to make it easier to drink.
1.2. Liquid dishes
Liquid dishes like soup, congee, pho and diluted food cooked with chicken, pork, and beef are not only easy to eat and digest but also add essential nutrients for the body. Especially, parents can try to cook mung bean congee for kids. According to nutrition experts, mung bean congee is one of the proper dishes for children with fever. Because it can help them with less pale mouths and even treat anorexia and lazy chewing in young children. Congee also provides more energy for children, and mung beans help anti-inflammatory effects, so they will help kids reduce fever quickly. Therefore, when children have a fever, parents should cook a delicious and nutritious bowl of delicious mung bean congee for children to help them get well quickly.
1.3. Coconut water
Coconut water is nutritious refreshing, and very rich in electrolytes, so it’s very suitable during the period when children have a fever, especially occasionally children do not want to drink oresol. In addition, some research also show that coconut water includes high levels of antioxidants which are very good for the body. This kind of drink is also less uncomfortable for the stomach than some acidic drinks like orange and lemon juice.
1.4. Fruit juices, smoothies
Fruits such as oranges, lemons, strawberries, mangoes, bananas...are rich in vitamins. They are the preferred choice during times of fever. When children have a fever, they will always have a feeling of loss of appetite. If they continue to refuse to eat, the body will be more tired, lethargic, and take longer to recover from the disease. Therefore, parents should try to make dishes that are both delicious and beautiful to stimulate children to eat more. A savory fruit smoothie provides additional vitamins and helps reduce fever, compensates for lost electrolytes. In addition, parents can add a little yogurt to the smoothie to increase the deliciousness and nutrition. Yogurt contains probiotics that are good for your children’s immune and digestive systems.
1.5. Eating a lot of green vegetables
Vegetables such as tomatoes, malabar spinach, water spinach, amaranth, mustard green vegetables,... are very good when children have a fever. Parents can boil or cook soup from these vegetables, both of which have the benefit of cooling down and helping children recover quickly.
In particular, some parents also wonder what mothers should eat when their newborn has a fever so that they can recover quickly. The principle of nutritional supplementation for mothers with feverish newborn is the same as above. Mothers should also actively drink lots of water, eat lots of fruits, and vegetables to add vitamins and electrolytes which are necessary for babies through breastfeeding.
2. What should be avoided when children have a fever?
2.1 Drinking a lot of ice, cold water
When having a fever, if parents give the kids too much cold water, the body temperature will not only not decrease, but also may have a higher fever. Especially in the case of fever, the function of the digestive tract is reduced. Therefore, drinking too cold water will also be very dangerous to your children's health.
2.2 Eating garlic, chili, pepper
Spicy spices and spicy foods can cause internal heat and make the baby feel more uncomfortable. Therefore, spices and hot spicy foods are foods that parents should avoid when children have a fever.
2.3 Drinking tea
Tea contains high levels of tannins that can cause body temperature rise. If you give tea to your children, it will make the brain in an irritated state, increasing blood pressure and leading body temperature to increase more. On the other hand, the tannin in tea can precipitate with some substances and reduce the effect of some medicines. Therefore, you should not give your kid tea during a fever.
The above article has helped parents answer the question of what should eat when a child has a fever to recover quickly. However, when children have signs of persistent high fever and do not respond to fever reducers, parents should quickly take them to the hospital for medical examination, diagnosis and prompt treatment by doctors. Because high fever can lead to many dangerous complications such as seizure, severe dehydration, delirium,...
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