In children, especially during the summer, the interruption of digestion is extremely common. Do you know what their warning signs are? Also discover how to prevent it easily.
The time of year when there is a greater number of digestion cuts, especially in the case of children, is during the summer. The reason, of course, is quite clear: to get into the water quickly and abruptly.
However, how many times did our mother tell us not to get into the water after eating, having the obligation to wait 2 hours? If you have children, surely you have already used this popular and common phrase. However, do you know that it is actually not entirely true?
Indeed, it is not advisable to enter the water after having eaten, but it is advisable not to do it quickly and abruptly. In addition, there is no digestion cut understood as such, since digestion runs its course and can even last up to four hours (so the phrase “having to wait 2 hours” is not actually true).
From a medical point of view, what is produced is a peripheral shock due to difficulties in the vasculation of our organism, since when we enter the water quickly we cause a sudden change in temperature, and this is the consequence of the misnamed cut of digestion, and not having eaten recently.
What are the causes of digestion cut?
We must take into account, at first, that digestion begins from the moment we begin to eat any food. However, hence its name, digestion tends to “cut out” when the process is suddenly interrupted, which can occur for many different reasons.
It is very common that, since we were little, the digestion cut was associated with summer, since precisely one of the causes of the digestion cut in children is the ‘shock’ that contact with cold water produces on the body, especially when the little one bathes immediately after eating.
This shock can cause a loss of consciousness, by decreasing the flow of blood in the brain. Hence, one of the most obvious and dangerous signs is fainting, since if the child is in the water, it can cause him to drown in those moments of unconsciousness.
Symptoms of digestion cut in children
The symptoms of digestion cut are the following:
- Headache.
- Sensation of clouding (vision of objects as through a cloud).
- Blurry vision.
- Dizziness and nausea
- Ringing in the ears
- Loss of consciousness, fainting.
- In more serious cases: cardiac arrest.
Therefore, it is essential that you get out of the water at the slightest symptom, to avoid loss of consciousness and run the risk of drowning by immersion.
How to prevent the interruption of digestion in children?
It is essential to prevent the child from entering the water until 2 hours have passed after having eaten, especially if the water is cold or very cold and the little one has eaten copiously.
In the case of the little ones, who have the habit of spending most of the time in the water and tend to enter it abruptly (not only in swimming pools but also in sea water), in addition to always being aware of them it is very important to help them to enter the water little by little .
It is essential to soak each part of your body very slowly, which will help your little body get used to the cold temperature of the water.
Is it necessary then that we wait 2 hours after eating?
We must bear in mind that what is actually produced is not a digestion cut, but a peripheral shock as a consequence of a sudden change in temperature in our body.
Taking into consideration that the digestion process can last up to 4 hours, if this myth were true, we would actually have to wait this long as a preventive measure, and not just.
Therefore, it is possible to bathe after having eaten, but always doing it with caution: soaking each part of our body little by little, and avoid getting into the water abruptly.
