Tummy problems in babies are one of the most common causes of anxiety for parents. Often, disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract manifest themselves in constipation. As a result, children cannot perform an act of defecation for a long time, suffering for several days. At the same time, they worry and express their dissatisfaction by crying. Parents should know what measures need to be taken to save their child from such health problems. Let's figure out what to do if a 7-month-old child has constipation.
Features of an infant's stool
When breastfeeding, babies have bowel movements frequently.
Constipation is generally understood as the lack of timely bowel movements. Since not all parents know the characteristics of an infant’s stool, they may not react in time to the onset of constipation, mistaking formed feces and rare bowel movements for the norm.
After all, a low stool frequency, as in adults, is a violation for infants, because small children have a completely different stool consistency, and they must empty their intestines much more often than adults.
The frequency of stool depends on age. Newborns should empty their bowels quite often: from 5 times per bowel movement. But this feature is characteristic only of those who are breastfed; artificial babies have their own stool characteristics. However, these repeated bowel movements do not lead to complete cleansing of the intestines; the approximate volume of stool should be about a tablespoon.
Complete emptying usually occurs every 5 to 7 days. When there is too much intestinal contents, it begins to put pressure on its walls from the inside and provokes defecation. Parents should think about possible problems as soon as they begin to notice hard stool consistency.
This problem is often faced by parents whose children are fed formula. This type of diet in most cases causes constipation, because the absorption of artificial nutrients takes a long time. Therefore, the baby can have a bowel movement every 2 days. If the consistency of the stool is hard and not pasty, constipation will occur.
After six months, when in addition to formula the child begins to receive complementary foods, the stool will soften and its frequency will increase to 2 times a day. If the baby has soft stools, but bowel movements pass every other day, this is not a problem. Such indicators are considered the norm.
Constipation after introducing complementary foods
What to do and what to feed your child if almost everything leads to constipation? We would like to reassure you: constipation in a baby when introducing complementary foods is a common problem that can usually be easily and quickly resolved. The causes are mostly harmless and no medication is needed. We will learn from pediatrician Anastasia Anatolyevna Nikulina about what most often leads to stool retention, as well as how diet and children’s exercises stimulate digestion and ease children’s tummies.
Constipation is defined as an increase in the intervals between bowel movements by more than 48 hours or compared to the individual norm. A systematic delay in bowel movement in young children can begin during the period of complementary feeding.
— Anastasia Anatolyevna, is it true that after the start of complementary feeding, constipation is less common in a natural-fed child than in a bottle-fed child?
— Constipation can occur in children receiving both breast milk and formula. Therefore, there is no direct dependence of constipation on the type of feeding.
When introducing complementary foods, it is important to follow the diet. It is necessary to feed the baby at certain hours, and give new foods to him in the morning in order to have time to track the body’s reaction to the introduced food.
— What features of your diet or eating regimen increase the risk of stool retention?
— The rarest cause of constipation in children not related to nutrition is congenital intestinal pathology. Constipation when introducing solid foods is often caused by violation of the rules of complementary feeding.
Constipation after first feeding: causes
- Failure to meet deadlines, for example, early start of complementary feeding.
- Initially, large portions of food - although you need to start with microdoses in the amount of 1/3-1/2 teaspoon.
- First complementary feeding with multi-component products - according to the rules, they first give mono-component complementary foods
(white and green vegetables, for example, zucchini, or gluten-free porridge from one grain). - Introducing several new products at once - in fact, it is important to be gradual, alternately with a weekly or even slightly longer interval.
- Starting complementary feeding with semolina or rice porridge - they strengthen.
- Water deficiency
- feces contain a large percentage of water, and if not enough water enters the body, the stool becomes hard and it is difficult to go to the toilet. - Individual sensitivity, food allergies.
- Constipation from complementary feeding - what to do to quickly relieve the child’s condition?
— If a child experiences constipation with the start of complementary feeding, first of all it is necessary to interrupt the introduction of food products and analyze the possible causes of stool retention in order to isolate and eliminate the real one.
If the delay in bowel movements does not cause discomfort to the child, he is gaining weight well, is cheerful and cheerful, then this condition cannot be called constipation. You can wait a little and observe the child’s behavior. If the stool is restored, complementary feeding can be continued.
Signs of constipation
It is necessary to carefully monitor the nature of the baby's stool.
Parents need to carefully monitor the nature of the baby's stool; its frequency and characteristics can signal a number of diseases. There are a number of signs that indicate constipation:
- hard stool once a day;
- short-term painful sensations in the abdomen;
- particles of blood on the surface of hard stool;
- in the absence of defecation, diapers and underwear get a little dirty.
The baby is capricious and tightens his legs. This state alternates with complete calm.
Constipation is not as harmless as it seems at first glance. If a child cannot perform a normal bowel movement, then he becomes lethargic and depressed. After all, beneficial substances will not be able to be absorbed in the required quantities, which will result in a slowdown of all metabolic processes. Therefore, the baby’s health will be poor.
Particles of blood on the surface of hard stool are caused by cracks in the rectum, which appear due to constipation and excessive straining. This condition must be reported to a specialist immediately; self-medication in such a situation is unacceptable.
What to do, how to help a little belly with constipation, the video will tell you:
Causes of constipation in children
Poor nutrition
Constipation, which is caused by nutritional reasons, occurs in the second half of a child’s life, when complementary foods are actively introduced.
Disorders of bowel movements are caused by the predominance of solid foods and cereals, and a decrease in the consumption of breast milk. Stool is observed once a day or less, which is not typical for infants. In this case, the feces look like small lumps that irritate the rectum, which is why the child cries when defecating. In older children, constipation is associated with insufficient consumption of vegetables and fruits, which contain fiber. Fecal retention is caused by an irrational diet with a predominance of cereals, cottage cheese, and meat. Lack of stool is often due to inadequate drinking regimen, especially in the hot season. Feces remain in the rectum for a long time, lose water, and during defecation, dry, lumpy feces are released in the form of a cylinder.
Psychogenic factors
Sometimes the stool begins to linger during the period of accustoming the baby to using the potty. If parents do not show enough patience and care at this time, each act of bowel movement is accompanied by stress, and conditioned reflex reactions occur with the participation of rectal receptors. The child involuntarily retains feces, and over time the frequency of the urge to defecate decreases.
Constipation in young children is also caused by other psychogenic causes: embarrassment when using the potty in kindergarten, inconvenience when visiting the school toilet. The lack of complete passage of feces is often combined with encopresis (fecal incontinence, soiling of panties). If such conditions are not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner, they can develop into persistent mental problems that persist into adulthood.
Dysbacteriosis
Disruption of normal microflora and the proliferation of pathogenic bacteria is a common reason why constipation occurs in a child, since beneficial microorganisms produce lactic acid and stimulate peristalsis of the intestinal wall. With dysbacteriosis, defecation occurs once every 2-3 days, feces are scanty, lumpy, and foul-smelling. Sometimes a grayish coating can be seen on the surface of the stool. Older children complain of rumbling and seething in the stomach, cramping pain.
Fever
As the temperature rises, the child's body intensively loses water through sweating and rapid breathing. Due to dehydration, feces become very dry, and small lumps (“sheep feces”) are released when you go to the toilet. With a febrile temperature, stool may be absent for 3-4 days, which indicates severe hypohydration, which cannot be cured at home.
Rectal diseases
If the mucous membrane is damaged, defecation is accompanied by severe pain, so the child spontaneously restrains the urge so as not to experience pain. The situation is aggravated by the accumulation of a large amount of solid feces in the rectal ampoule, constipation reaches 5-7 days or more. Children complain of unbearable pain in the anus and lower abdomen, which intensifies when sitting.
With proctitis and paraproctitis, constipation in children is combined with other symptoms: constant jerking or dull pain without clear localization, lack of appetite, weakness and malaise. An anal fissure is characterized by the release of drops of blood from the anus during defecation. With rectal fistulas, along with prolonged constipation, there is a discharge of bloody or purulent contents from the opening near the anus.
Hirschsprung's disease
The severity of symptoms depends on the form of Hirschsprung's disease. With diffuse damage to the large intestine, constipation begins almost immediately after birth, and spontaneous bowel movements are absent in the newborn. The child is restless, constantly screams, twists his legs and tries to press them to his stomach. If left untreated, the childhood form of the disease causes intestinal obstruction.
With a latent or prolonged version of the anomaly, there is a decrease in the frequency of bowel movements to 2-3 times a week, constipation is eliminated after the use of enemas. Manifestations occur more often in schoolchildren and adolescents. Stagnation of feces causes chronic intoxication, which is characterized by dizziness, headaches, pale skin, and fatigue.
Congenital malformations
Rectal atresia manifests itself already in the first day of a newborn’s life: meconium does not pass, there is no stool, and there is no anus. This condition is diagnosed by neonatologists immediately after birth. False constipation (pseudoconstipation) is pathognomonic for cleft lip and palate. With this defect in the structure of the facial skull, milk and mixtures flow into the respiratory tract or pour out of the mouth. Fecal retention is associated with poor nutrition.
For dolichosigma, the appearance of persistent constipation is typical after 6 months of life, which is due to the introduction of complementary foods. At first, they occur episodically and last from 2 to 3 days, then the duration and frequency of stool retention increases. The feces are large in diameter, resemble a “fir cone” in appearance, and have a strong, foul odor. In 30% of children, constipation occurs between 3 and 6 years of age.
Helminthiasis
Small children do not maintain hygiene, so the development of constipation in a preschool child is often associated with the entry of parasites into the gastrointestinal tract. With helminthiases, the processes of food digestion and intestinal motility are disrupted. Some of them (roundworms) form large “balls” in the intestinal loops, so with ascariasis there is an obstacle to the movement of feces. Persistent stool retention is always detected, children feel pain in the abdomen, and sometimes vomiting occurs.
Chronic gastrointestinal diseases
The appearance of constipation is characteristic of gastroduodenitis and peptic ulcer disease. These causes cause disturbances in the motility of the gastrointestinal tract, as a result of which partially digested food remains in the intestines for a long time. Constipation is short-lived, defecation resumes after 2-3 days on its own or after an enema. The symptom recurs regularly and is provoked by errors in diet and stress.
Prolonged constipation in children, developing against the background of severe abdominal pain and tenesmus, is typical of ulcerative colitis. When there is a urge to defecate, blood and mucus are released from the anus, fecal retention during an exacerbation can reach a week. The symptom is sometimes replaced by profuse diarrhea, the stool is liquid and foul-smelling, and contains blood.
Intoxication
In case of lead poisoning, constipation in a child may be the only symptom. Sometimes there is widespread pain in the abdomen and occasional vomiting. Fecal retention is also caused by endogenous causes: intoxication with protein breakdown products, release of toxins by microbial cells. Constipation is prolonged, the urge to stool is often absent. The symptom occurs against the background of a general serious condition requiring emergency medical care.
Complications of pharmacotherapy
Most often, persistent constipation is caused by the abuse of laxatives without the advice of a doctor. Uncontrolled use of these medications inhibits the natural reflex to bowel movement; the rectal muscle fibers stop responding to impulses from the spinal cord. Independent defecation is difficult or impossible. Constipation is also provoked by other medicinal causes: the prescription of anticholinergic drugs, chemotherapy drugs.
Rare causes
- Endocrine pathology
: hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, pheochromocytoma. - Infant botulism
. - Damage to the nervous system
: cerebral palsy, neuro-arthritic diathesis. - Space-occupying formations
: single rectal polyps, juvenile polyposis, intestinal cancer. - Enteropathies
: celiac disease, lactase deficiency.
