1. Practice Hand-Washing
Gastroenteritis is often passed from person to person. Washing your hands well after using the washroom or changing diapers can prevent you from becoming infected. Children need to be taught to wash their hands properly with warm water and soap. You can help younger children with this or model the correct behavior, so they will wash their hands well independently.
Personnel at daycare centers and other places with groups of young children need to be particularly careful. Sick children should be kept home. Caregivers should wash their hands well after changing diapers, and diaper-changing areas and bathrooms should not be near the kitchen and eating areas.
If your baby has gastroenteritis, you might want to consider disinfecting the changing area in addition to normal hand-washing. Make sure that diapers are disposed of properly and that leaking diapers don't soil other clothing or surfaces.
2. Practice Good Food Hygiene
The bathroom is not the only place where good hygiene needs to be practiced. Food can also be a source of contamination. You can minimize food-borne infection by always washing your hands before handling food. If you are suffering from gastroenteritis, avoid preparing food for other people until you are better.
Raw meat, poultry and eggs can cause bacterial gastroenteritis, carrying salmonella and other bacteria. These foods should always be thoroughly cooked. You should also wash your hands and all the cooking utensils that came in contact with the raw meat or eggs before handling other food. Recipes that call for raw eggs, such as certain ice cream recipes, are best avoided. And though no one wants to give up raw cookie batter, keep in mind that this too usually contains raw eggs. Another way of limiting your risk of gastroenteritis is to drink only pasteurized milk and apple juice. Also, refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible, and keep all food stored at the proper temperature.
3. Take Care of Food Safety When Traveling
Traveler's diarrhea is an all-too-common form of gastroenteritis that can often be avoided. Since food safety and sanitation standards vary from country to country, it is important to be a little more cautious about what you eat and drink when you are traveling. This is especially true when in third world countries.
In general, always drink bottled water. Even ice cubes need to be avoided because they may have been made with contaminated water. If you are unable to get bottled water, boil your water before drinking it. In countries where the quality of the water is questionable, avoid getting water in your mouth when you are showering, and use bottled water to brush your teeth. Other precautions you can take include peeling fruit and vegetables, avoiding raw foods, such as salad that has been touched by human hands, and staying away from food sold by street vendors.
4. Prevent the Rotavirus Vaccine
Rotavirus is a type of gastroenteritis that most commonly affects children under 5 years old, and now there is an immunization for children. The vaccine has become part of the recommended vaccination schedule and is given to babies at 2 months, 4 months and 6 months old.
