How to Prevent Gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis occurs when a person has a combination of symptoms including nausea, diarrhea and stomach cramping. This is why you will also hear it called "stomach flu." You can not really do much to prevent viral gastroenteritis, outside of avoiding the virus when other people have it. There is, however, quite a bit of information to follow when insuring prevention of bacterial gastroenteritis. The chief culprit is food poisoning. To prevent it, you mainly need to use good sense in the care and handling of foods.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Keep your distance (as much as possible) from people who have gastroenteritis. You have no way of knowing if their stomach ailment is a viral or bacterial illness. Thus, you do not know the amount of contagion that surrounds the ill person.
2. Wash your hands often with anti-bacterial soap. This is particularly important after using the restroom, changing diapers or when you have come in contact with a sick person or animal.
3. Note the sanitation and hygiene practices around food handling anywhere you eat. Poor habits in these areas may cause a nasty bout of gastroenteritis due to food poisoning.
4. Clean all surfaces on cabinets and counter tops with hot water and bleach in order to kill germs. This action goes a long way toward preventing an upset stomach of any kind.
5. Refrigerate all leftovers as soon as possible after a meal is over. Keep foods warm prior to the meal.
6. Educate yourself on how quickly certain foods spoil. Eggs are particularly quick to spoil. Any food that is spoiled causes food poisoning.
7. Travel all you want—even to another country—but use bottled water. The water in another country may be unclean and should not be trusted until you are sure about it.

Tips & Warnings

• Refrigerate meats as soon as you get home from the store.
• One of the best ways to prevent gastroenteritis occurring in your infant is by breastfeeding.
• If foods have been left out for a while after a meal, consider their safety, weighing heavily whether or not they could have developed bacteria.
• Remember that uncooked meats can carry salmonella (which can cause death) if they have not been treated appropriately.