Cut your child's risk of getting diarrhea with these simple strategies:

Lather up: “Hand washing is probably the most important way to prevent all types of infectious diarrhea,” says Dr. Neuspiel. That includes encouraging hand washing in children and ensuring that the people who come in contact with them are also careful about washing their hands. “When parents are investigating day care centres, I suggest that they look at the hand washing practices.”

Practice safe cooking: “Salmonella and campylobacter are commonly present in raw chicken and eggs so it's really important to be careful handling meats and cook eggs well for young children,” says Dr. Neuspiel. “Some people are careful to cook chicken well but then use the same utensil to turn over the raw chicken as they use to put it on a plate, re-contaminating it with something like salmonella.”

Get the vaccine: Talk to your child's paediatrician about Rotateq, the new rotavirus vaccine, which is very effective, says Dr. Neuspiel. It's given to infants in three intervals, at two, four and six months.

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