Recently, many parents are consulting the problem of blood in the baby’s stool, then today we will talk about the causes of blood in the stool, learn with you, parents also master the relevant knowledge, really encountered will not be at a loss! What is blood in stool? First of all, what is blood in the stool? Blood in the stool from the anus is called blood in the stool, regardless of whether the stool is bloody or all bloody, and whether the color is bright red, dark red or tarry. The first thing to be clear about red stools is that they are not blood. Most of what parents notice is the presence of a red substance in the stool, which is not necessarily blood. Parents are alarmed when they bring their stools in for testing and the results come back completely normal! No red blood cells were detected and the occult blood test was negative. When pressed for a history, the child had just eaten dragon fruit, tomatoes, and watermelon the day before, food residue that hadn’t been fully digested! There are also children who have recently been taking medications such as cefdinir, rifampicin, and montelukast. These are called false blood in stool. False alarm! There is also bleeding, especially in the neonatal period, due to swallowing the mother’s birth canal or a ruptured nipple. Also rule out bleeding from the mouth, nasopharynx, bronchial tubes, lungs, all of these areas. If it is determined that the child does not have pseudohemorrhage, a stool examination does detect red blood cells and a positive occult blood test. The next step is to determine where the bleeding is occurring and how much it is occurring. Bleeding site: Upper GI or lower GI? Upper gastrointestinal bleeding, because the location of the bleeding is higher up, after the red blood cells pass through the digestive tract, the stool will appear black, which we call tarry stool. If the amount of bleeding is small, it may not be easy to detect. A larger amount of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, black stools, mostly suggesting that the esophagus, gastroduodenal bleeding, common esophageal varices rupture bleeding, gastroduodenal ulcer bleeding, and so on. Lower gastrointestinal bleeding due to the location of the lower, most of the blood stools appear bright red or dark red. More common are anal fissure, hemorrhoids, polyps, Michael’s diverticulum, tumors and so on. Children with prolonged diarrhea and perianal skin and mucous membrane breakage may also have bloody stools. In addition, some systemic diseases: such as coagulation disorders, acute infectious diseases (epidemic hemorrhagic fever, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever), parasitic diseases (hookworm disease, schistosomiasis), sepsis, food and drug poisoning, hereditary hemorrhagic trichotillomania and so on can cause blood in stool. How to further clarify the cause: 1, age: (1) newborns: focus on exclusion of other parts of the pharynx blood, or natural bleeding disorder, hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis, digestive tract malformations; (2) infants and young children: focus on exclusion of intestinal intussusception, intestinal polyps, anal fissure, Michael’s diverticulum; (3) school-age should pay attention to gastroduodenal ulcers, esophageal hemorrhage, and anaphylactic purpura, etc.. 2, color and bleeding: (1) a small amount of blood in stool, bright red, blood attached to the surface of the stool, dry stool, crying during defecation, mostly caused by constipation; (2) a large amount of blood in stool, dark red or black, mostly upper gastrointestinal or acute hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis, enteric typhoid fever, and other bleeding. (3) Jam-like is a mixture of blood and mucus like jelly-like stool, such as children aged 6 to 18 months, accompanied by paroxysmal crying, to consider intussusception. (4) If the child does not cry when relieving the stool, consider rectal polyps, if the child cries a lot, consider anal fissure, also seen in intussusception. (5) 6 months of infants, there is no obvious blood stool, only positive occult blood test, accompanied by eczema, eosinophilia, suggesting the possibility of milk protein allergy. (6) pus and blood stools: no pain, note the exclusion of polyps, abdominal pain, note dysentery, parasitic diseases. 3, and defecation relationship: (1) blood dripping in the stool, and the stool is not mixed with hemorrhoids, anal fissure; (2) accompanied by severe abdominal pain: intussusception, hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis; (3) pain during defecation: anal fissure. Summarize: In the presence of bloody stool, first of all, to clarify whether it is bleeding, and then to clarify the bleeding site and the amount of bleeding, and finally rely on careful physical examination and auxiliary examination to clarify the diagnosis. Parents should send the stools for examination and ask the doctor for details when they encounter bloody stools, so as not to delay the condition.