Diarrhea and Cow Milk Allergy

If fluids are not absorbed, or if your digestive system produces extra fluids, stools will be loose and watery. Loose stools are larger than usual.
A person with diarrhea typically passes more than a quart of stool a day for more than three times a day.

Acute diarrhea is a common problem that usually lasts 1 or 2 days and often goes away on its own without special treatment. Acute diarrhea is only an unpleasant digestive disorder that nearly everyone experiences at one time or another, meaning more-frequent trips to the toilet and a greater volume of stool.
Prolonged diarrhea persists longer, for more than 2 days, and may be a sign of a more serious disorder, such as cow milk allergy, inflammatory bowel disease or irritable bowel syndrome.

People of all ages can get diarrhea and the average adult has about of acute diarrhea about four times a year. Diarrhea is especially dangerous in newborns and infants, which can have acute and chronic forms of diarrhea leading to dehydration in just a day or two.

Diarrhea and dehydration
Diarrhea can cause dehydration, which means the body has lost too much fluid and too many salts-chemicals to work properly.

Dehydration is particularly dangerous in children and in older adults and must be treated promptly to avoid serious health problems: a child can die from dehydration within a few days.

Signs of dehydration include thirst, less frequent urination, dry skin, fatigue, light-headedness and dark-coloured urine.

If this is the case, it is essential to replace promptly the fluid, salts and minerals lost during diarrhea.

The main treatment for diarrhea in children is rehydration to replace lost fluid quickly, drinking not only water but also broth and soups, fruit juices, soft fruits, or vegetables. This is because water is extremely important in preventing dehydration but it does not contain salts and minerals.

Diarrhea and Cow Milk Allergy

Diarrhea occurs when insufficient fluid is absorbed by the colon. As part of normal digestion, food is mixed with large amounts of water. The water is supplied, as needed, by the stomach and small intestine and is recovered by the colon, leaving the remaining material as a semisolid stool.
If the colon is damaged or inflamed, however, absorption is inhibited, the fluids aren't sufficiently absorbed, and the result is a watery bowel movement. In addition, the lining of your colon may be inflamed or diseased, making it less able to absorb fluids: watery stools are the result i.e. diarrhea.

Cow milk allergy, a common food allergy in infants, is one of the diseases that can trigger diarrhea, as a consequence of colon inflammation: in allergic individuals, the allergen first introduction (the cow milk) through the digestive tract triggers the immune system to produce IgE antibodies against the allergen. The IgE molecules are coated onto cells, which inhabit the mucosal lining of the digestive tract. Upon ingesting again the same food allergen, the cow milk, the IgE reacts with it and release a number of chemicals which lead to oedema of the intestinal wall, loss of fluid and altered motility. Diarrhea is one of the results of this mechanism.

Types of diarrhea

In cow milk allergy, the more common type of diarrhea is inflammatory: inflammatory diarrhea occurs when there is damage to the mucosal lining or brush border, which leads to a passive loss of protein-rich fluids, and a decreased ability to absorb these lost fluids. Other types of diarrhea include:

• motility-related diarrhea, occurring when the motility of the gastrointestinal tract is abnormally high, as in gastrointestinal food allergy related diseases. If the food moves too quickly, there is not enough time for sufficient nutrients and water to be absorbed;
• secretory diarrhea, with an increase in the liquid active secretion by the digestive organs or an inhibition of liquid absorption by the bowel, as in cholera disease;
• osmotic diarrhea, if there is a loss of water in the lumen, as in maldigestion;
• infectious diarrhea, caused by microbes such as bacteria, parasites or viruses.

Diarrhoa causes
Other than cow milk allergy related diseases, a few of other more common causes of diarrhea include the following:

• Bacterial infections
• Viral infections
• Food intolerances
• Parasites
• Reaction to medicines
• Intestinal diseases
• Functional bowel disorders

In many cases, the cause of diarrhea cannot be found. As long as diarrhea goes away on its own, an extensive search for the cause is not usually necessary.

Generally, acute diarrhea is usually related to a bacterial, viral, or parasitic infection while chronic diarrhoea is usually related to functional disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease or a food allergy.

Some people develop diarrhea after stomach surgery or removal of the gallbladder. The reason may be a change in how quickly food moves through the digestive system after stomach surgery or an increase in bile in the colon after gallbladder surgery.

People who visit foreign countries are at risk for traveler’s diarrhea, which is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with bacteria, viruses, or parasites.