Assess and classify diarrhoea
Diarrhoea is the passage of three or more loose or watery stools per day
Any deviation from the child's usual stool pattern should arouse some concern (particularly with ill appearance, the passage of blood or mucus, or dehydration) regardless of the actual number of stools or their water content. The change in stool consistency is more important than stool frequency (the mother's perception to diarrhoea).
Diarrhoea varies in consistency, duration of stay with and the physiological change in the child's body. Then you expected to identify diarrhoea and assess these changes in children. Diarrhoea may be loose or watery, with blood in the stool and may be with or without mucus. It frequently leads to dehydration in the child, and can be serious enough to lead not only to malnutrition but also to the child's death. It may be acute or persistent and can be linked to some causes, including cholera and Shigella. The clinical manifestation of Shigella is dysentery (bloody stool).
A child may have both watery diarrhoea and dysentery. The death of a child with acute diarrhoea is usually due to dehydration.
Dehydration is low body fluid in the body due to loss.
Persistent diarrhoea: diarrhoea which lasts 14 days or more (in a young infant this would be classified as severe persistent diarrhoea).
Dysentery: diarrhoea with blood in the stool.