Classify persistent diarrhoea

After you have classified a child’s dehydration, you need to classify what kind of diarrhoea the child has. As you read earlier in this study session, a child who has had diarrhoea for 14 days or more should be classified as having persistent diarrhoea. There are two classifications of persistent diarrhoea, which are linked to the level of dehydration in the child (Box 5.6):

• severe persistent diarrhoea and
• persistent diarrhoea.