A normal child should have stools every day. If the stool is well digested and fine, and there are no lumps between them, this is normal. However, sometimes the stool may be a bit dry, for infants, the real formed stool is still relatively small, usually soft stool, are thin paste, such stool is normal. Generally speaking, children need to poop every day, if a child does not poop for three days is definitely constipation.
What is constipation? What are the dangers?
When stool stays in the large intestine for too long, a large amount of water is absorbed and the stool becomes dry and hard and cannot be excreted smoothly. This is the formation of constipation. In studies, it has been found that children between the ages of 2 and 6 who are chronically constipated are less energetic, less patient, sleepy, weepy, less responsive to external changes, less talkative, and less inclined to make friends. With regular constipation, children will feel bloated and uncomfortable, but because they cannot express their discomfort, not to mention the attention of their parents, their attention is too much focused on the constipation discomfort, so they will be indifferent to external things and appear “dull”. Some children have a bowel movement once every few days; others have a bowel movement, but the amount is too small. Since the body can not be discharged in a timely manner, protein spoilage is absorbed into the body by the intestine, which can easily cause toxic reactions. Children with constipation often feel dizzy, headache, loss of appetite, and bloated stomach, which is very detrimental to health.
Sometimes it’s okay to have a bowel movement once every other day, but if it’s always once every other day, it’s considered constipation, and if you don’t have a bowel movement for 3 days, you should definitely seek medical treatment. If no stool for 5 or 6 days is not normal, and the stool is not discharged, it should be solved in a timely manner.
So what are the causes of constipation in children?
First of all, from the children who eat milk, generally speaking, children who eat mother’s milk are less constipated, and children who eat milk are prone to constipation. They are characterized by constipation once every few days and thick tongue coating, and such children are upset and cry and have trouble sleeping at night. When infants are constipated, the main manifestation is crying every time they have a bowel movement, and even the occurrence of anal fissures. The occurrence of anal fissures makes the infant fearful of stool, causing a vicious circle and aggravating constipation.
Around 1 year old began to eat, the incidence of constipation in children at this stage is very high, mainly because: from 1 to 2 years old children to transition from eating milk to eating food, meals contain fiber to promote defecation, especially to eat vegetables, vegetables contain fiber, fiber through the stool, some children love to eat milk, love to eat, love to eat meat, do not love to eat vegetables, more milk children and children who do not love to eat vegetables easily cause constipation.
Children are in the growth and development stage, they are prone to internal heat, such as eating more fat, sweet and thick taste and partial food, do not eat vegetables and fruits, over time may cause a decline in digestive function, so that the food is too long in the intestines, and internal heat, the two heat added, damage the body fluid, the formation of constipation. Of course, there are also adults, adults and the elderly.
So, how to treat constipation?
The main cause of constipation in children is the weakness of the gastrointestinal function of children, which requires a combination of internal and external methods and patient treatment to eradicate constipation in children.
I. Consumption of bifidus factor
The largest micro-ecological environment in the human body is the intestinal tract, in which there are more than 100 species and trillions of bacteria, including beneficial bacteria, harmful bacteria and neutral bacteria, Bifidobacterium is the main beneficial bacteria, with the role of antioxidant and scavenging free radicals. It is the guardian of the intestinal tract, combined with intestinal mucosa cells to form a microbial barrier, inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, resist the invasion of foreign pathogens, and enhance the immunity of the body. Constipation in children can cause probiotics to be dehydrated and unable to reproduce. After consuming bifidogenic factor, bifidogenic factor can not only provide food for probiotics, but also keep intestinal water and promote intestinal peristalsis.
Second, to develop a good diet and lifestyle habits
1.Eat porridge water and sugar water that are good for bowel movement.
2.Encourage eating more fresh vegetables (spinach, celery, rape, cabbage, cabbage), fruits (banana, pear), foods made of grains and cereals such as common flour, corn, barley and other fiber-rich foods. Eat more vegetable juice, honey water, vegetable porridge.
3, avoid ice cream, cheese, refined rice, bananas, carrots, etc. Do not eat too much, because these foods can aggravate the appearance of children constipation.
4, pay attention to give children a sufficient amount of water every day.
5.Cultivate the good habit of eating and sleeping on time. Form a regular human biological clock. This is conducive to the normal role of the child’s gastric juices, which helps the digestion of food.
6, training defecation habits: infants from 3 to 4 months can be trained to defecate regularly. Because the intestinal peristalsis accelerates after eating, often appear stool, so it is generally advisable to choose to let the child defecate after eating, to establish the conditioned reflex of stool, can play a half-hearted effect.
7, pay attention to maintain oral hygiene. Poor teeth, children will become picky eaters, loss of appetite, which will also affect his ability to defecate. Therefore, in addition to educating your baby to pay attention to the correct brushing after meals, you should also take him to the dentist’s office regularly (every 3 months) for a checkup.
8.Treatment methods for infants.
① on the infant constipation first of all to find the cause, if it is breastfeeding, the amount of breast milk is not enough due to constipation, there is often no weight gain, crying after eating, etc.. For this constipation, just increase the amount of milk, the symptoms of constipation will be relieved.
② milk-fed babies are more prone to constipation, which is mostly due to excessive casein content in milk, thus making the stool dry and hard. In this case, you can add 5 to 10 ml of bifidogenic sugar to the milk.
③ Appropriate increase of fruit juice. Such as freshly squeezed orange juice, apple puree, banana puree, etc.
④Infants less than 3 to 4 months old can add some milk cake to the milk. Because the carbohydrates in the milk cake are partially fermented in the intestine, it can stimulate intestinal peristalsis and help laxative.
⑤ For infants over 4 to 5 months old, supplemental foods can be added appropriately. It is best to chop spinach, cabbage, bok choy, capers, etc. and put them into rice porridge with castor oil to make various delicious vegetable porridge for babies to eat.
(6) Supplementary food contains a large number of B vitamins, etc., which can promote the recovery of intestinal muscle tone, which is very helpful for laxative.
Three, physical therapy
1, abdominal massage: do abdominal massage before bedtime, can promote intestinal peristalsis, the specific method is: lie on your back in bed, with the right hand palm root massage abdomen, according to the right upper abdomen – left upper abdomen – right upper abdomen direction while kneading and pushing, but be careful not to be too heavy, but the technique. Each time for 10 minutes, do 2 to 3 times a day.
2, bath method: can be soaked in a hot tub of water several times a day, so as to relax the rectal muscles, so that the defecation process is easy to carry out.
Fourth, there are some individual stubborn constipation, often 5, 6 days stool once, this is called habitual constipation. This kind of constipation should be considered as giant colon disease, which is a congenital abnormality of colonic nerve development, this time you need to find a hospital to take X-ray, such as the diagnosis of giant colon disease, need surgery.
Parents should pay attention to.
1, the constipation of pharmacotherapy and food therapy is important, but the removal of the cause of the disease is essential. It is necessary to have a regular life, not to be picky and eat less cold diet to cure constipation.
2, parents need to according to the above mentioned methods combined with the actual situation of children, constantly, patiently adjusted.
3, adhere to the children’s constipation can not be eradicated at once, the process may be a few months, or even half a year, must be the quantitative to qualitative process. Only after children’s intestinal function slowly sound, constipation can be completely eradicated.
4, the infant’s gastrointestinal tract neural regulation is not sound, gastrointestinal function is not well developed. Do not abuse drugs to laxative, easily lead to gastrointestinal dysfunction, diarrhea, etc..