Pediatric Food Poisoning Follow-up
- Author: Sunil K Sood, MBBS, DCh, MD; Chief Editor: Russell W Steele, MD more...
Inpatient & Outpatient Medications
- See Medical Care for treatment of food poisoning.
Deterrence/Prevention
- Prevention of food-borne diseases (FBDs) occurs on 2 levels.
- Level 1: The CDC has initiated a major educational initiative for practitioners and the lay public to recognize, report, and prevent FBDs. Part of this effort is "Fight BAC!".
- Level 2: The second level of prevention is at the individual level.
- Care with food preparation, good hand-washing technique, and refrigeration are essential to prevention of FBDs. Particular care should be taken with foods offered to persons who are pregnant or who are immunocompromised. A good axiom is never to serve reheated leftovers to these individuals.
- Unfortunately, many diseases are difficult to prevent, and following a vegetarian diet does not guarantee that organisms customarily associated with meat (eg, Shiga toxin-producing E coli, Listeria species, cysticerci) will not be a hazard. The seafood that causes chemical food poisoning is not obviously spoiled; therefore, the occurrence is unpredictable.
- Most mushroom toxins are not destroyed by heating.
Patient Education
- For excellent patient education resources, visit eMedicine's Esophagus, Stomach, and Intestine Center and Poisoning Center. Also, see eMedicine's patient education articles Food Poisoning, Gastroenteritis, Vomiting and Nausea, and Diarrhea.
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