For how we live.
For most children with gastroenteritis, the treatment is oral rehydration fluid at home — not a drip, and not stopping fluids. Here is what the evidence shows works, and the warning signs that mean a doctor now.
Two randomised trials in more than 1,800 children found no benefit in acute gastroenteritis. A Cochrane review of 23 trials found fewer upper respiratory infections, on low-certainty evidence.
A national database of ~90% of public facilities found all-cause diarrhoea incidence in under-fives dropped 50% and hospitalisations 58% after 2020, with no rise in intussusception.