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Typhoid
seems to be doing the rounds in Bangalore city. Many children and
young people are down with it. In the old days it would be seen
to occur in slum areas commonly but today many are down with it
and it could be because so many are eating out.
Typhoid is
a condition, which is got through contaminated water, milk or food.
It is a salmonella infection resulting in a very high fever for a shot duration
and in this case the lining of the small intestines are infected
and damaged. Sometimes ulcers are formed, sometimes diarrhea occurs
but usually stomach pain and fever are common. Absorption of food
nutrients is hindered and due to this you will feel hungry, headache
may occur too and you feel very weak. You want to eat but feel nauseous
and so you can not eat and the weakness continuous.
The diet principles
to follow are to keep up a high calorie intake with plenty of carbohydrate
as fruit juices with glucose, coconut water, barley water, porridge,
rice kanjee, rava, etc. High protein is also required so if there
is no diarrhea, milk, custards, fruit milk shake, thin dhal, eggs,
soft cooked fish and chicken may be given. Mashed potato and other
soft cooked vegetables and fruits like banana must be given. As
there is intestinal inflammation all fiber is to be eliminated from
the diet so that the intestine is not further irritated. Also a
bland diet is to be followed without any spices or masala.
Because of the fever, water balance may be affected. So plenty of
water and fluids are necessary. Fat intake has to be as low as possible
so that we do not put extra burden on the digestive process and
help keep the fever down. Too much fat in the food during fever
causes the fever to rise higher. It may also cause vomiting which
we want to avoid as far as possible or there would be further lose
of nutrients and more weakness.
Foods
to be strictly avoided are butter, ghee, chillies, spices and all
irritating fibers occurring in foods. Also rich pastries, deep fried
snacks, desserts and thick cream soups must be avoided. But as mentioned
earlier much care must be taken to get in high quantity of calories
other wise the person becomes very weak, there is much hair loss
and loss of muscle tone. Small frequent feeds of juice, fruit, milk
or lassi, bread and jam and light biscuits may be tried. When feeding
a person recovering from Typhoid we have to be very patient and
persistent. It may take half an hour to 45 minutes to complete one
meal. However we must be patient and kindly coax the person to finish
or she/he will become very weak and take very long to get back to
the normal routine of school or work. |
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