Intussusception is a disease that is unique to infancy and childhood, and is most common in infants 6-12 months of age. Intussusception can occur throughout the year, but is more common in spring and summer.
There are several main symptoms of intussusception: crying, vomiting, bloody stools, and abdominal swelling, among which crying is the earliest and most important symptom of intussusception, which is sudden, violent, and rhythmic. Suddenly, a healthy infant is crying, pale, clenching fists, bending knees and retracting abdomen, moving hands and feet, refusing food and milk, and the attack lasts for 3-5 minutes and then relieves itself, and reappears in 10-20 minutes. Some infants are better behaved and show paroxysmal arching of the back without crying. Vomiting occurs soon after the onset of crying, initially with milk and food residues, later with bile, and in the later stages with fecal-like liquid. 8-12 hours after the onset of crying, the infant develops bloody stools, red jam-like stools, fresh blood stools, or pus and blood stools.
These are the early symptoms of intussusception. If the baby is brought to the doctor, experienced doctors will also feel the swelling in the baby’s abdomen, i.e., the trapped intestine, and even see the swelling coming out of the anus in the late stage of the disease. However, there are many cases in which the baby’s symptoms may not be typical and need to be identified by X-ray and ultrasound of the abdomen.