Fluid Diet

Fluid Diet

Fluid diet.
Answer.

The fluid diet is divided into two types as below:

• Clear fluid diets
• Full fluid diets.

Clear Fluid Diets

Clear fluids are prescribed for patients with marked intolerance.

An acute illness may produce nausea, vomiting, anorexia, distention and diarrhoea. Clear fluid diets are meant to provide very few calories and make up the water loss in the body. Clear fluid diets include:

• Tender coconut water
• Clear fruit juices
• Glucose water
• Albumin water
• Clear vegetable or meat soup
• Whey water

The clear fluids are used for 1 or 2 days till the patient is able to retain and digest a more liberal liquid diet.

Full Fluid Diet

This diet bridges the gap between clear fluid and soft diet. These consist of inclusion of eggs, milk, cereal, porridges, conjees or gruels, vegetable, chicken or mutton soup, fruit milk shakes etc.

This diet will meet the minimum requirement of all protein calories, vitamins and minerals.

It is used following operations in acute gastritis, acute infections and in diarrhoea.