The symptoms of acute gastroenteritis can vary depending on the cause. Both gastroenteritis and infectious diarrhea exhibit symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. However, there are distinctions; the abdominal pain in gastroenteritis is often less severe than in infectious diarrhea, and the stools in gastroenteritis are typically watery. In infectious diarrhea, the stools can also be watery, but more often they are mucoid or even contain mucus and blood. Additionally, the stool volume in infectious diarrhea is usually not large and is accompanied by symptoms of tenesmus. Gastroenteritis often also involves symptoms of upper respiratory infection, including fever, chills, dizziness, headache, fatigue, general body ache, and sore throat. Differentiating between the two can be achieved through examinations and tests like stool routine, blood routine, and C-reactive protein levels.