Intestinal colic in children, symptoms and treatment
Colic - a sharp pain in the abdomen, caused bySpasms. In pediatrics, intestinal colic is common in children. Usually it appears in infancy due to the immaturity of the digestive tract. But intestinal colic in children is diagnosed and at an older age due to malnutrition, dysbiosis and other pathologies of the digestive system.
Pain sensations in colic appear in the area just below the navel. At the same time the child takes a forced position, bending over or pressing his legs to the stomach, and on his face you can see a drop of sweat. As a rule, the pain passes after a few minutes, after which the condition of the child either improves, or another intestinal spasm begins. What is intestinal colic in a child, why does it appear and how to help? Let's see below.
Why does colic occur?
The causes that cause intestinal spasms in childhood can be very different. Intestinal colic in an infant is a common disorder of bowel function, which is easily explained by the incomplete development of the digestive system and the immaturity of the neurological system of the newborn. The first symptoms of intestinal colic in infants begin with 3 weeks of life and usually end at 4 months.
In older children, intestinal colic occurs for the following reasons: :
- intestinal obstruction;
- helminthiases;
- disruption of the stomach, pancreas and other digestive organs;
- poisoning with salts of heavy metals;
- infectious diseases;
- inflammatory processes in the intestine, for example, colitis;
- stress, psycho-emotional overload;
- excessive sports, against which there is a constant irritation of the intestinal loops.
Symptoms of
Symptoms of intestinal colic in an infant differ from intestinal spasms in children older than a year. Usually the colic begins in the process of feeding or immediately after it - after 15 minutes. The child, even if he had time to fall asleep, wakes up with weeping, spews food and behaves extremely excitedly. If at this moment to touch his tummy, you can see how it became hard and tense.
If a crying baby is offered a breast or bottle, he will respond with a flat refusal. The final development of the nervous system and digestive tract of the baby takes place closer to the year, therefore in the first months of life intestinal colic in children occur quite often and have varying severity.
Symptoms of intestinal colic in children under 5 years old and older are manifested by intense spasms and pains in the intestine, bloating, rumbling and stool disorder, the appearance of mucus in it. During intestinal colic, the child's condition deteriorates sharply, there is general weakness, dizziness.
Since the symptoms of intestinal colic in children can accompany various pathologies of the digestive organs, it is necessary to find out the cause of the trouble and to treat it.
Intestinal colic as a sign of the disease
A number of diseases are known, the symptom of which is intestinal colic in a child. Firstly, these are diseases of the stomach and pancreas - gastritis and pancreatitis, against the background of which the food is not digested in full and enters the intestines in undigested form.
Secondly, intestinal colic can be triggered by irritation of nerve endings and muscles located on the walls of the intestine. This can be caused by intestinal infection, acute respiratory infections, influenza.
Thirdly, intestinal colic, caused by intestinal peristalsis, appears as a sign of enteritis, irritable bowel syndrome, nervous breakdown and other serious diseases requiring treatment.
Diagnostics
Diagnosis of a condition accompanied by intestinal colic is carried out under the supervision of a physician who prescribes a particular disease. After examining and collecting an anamnesis, the child is asked to give a general blood test, which helps to detect anemia and inflammatory process in the body. Also, the doctor gives a referral to the coprogram - a study of stool, which allows to obtain data on disorders of the intestine, liver and pancreas.
To get a more accurate picture of children with intestinal cramps, they are directed to ultrasound, phagodynamic examination, computed tomography, abdominal radiography and colonoscopy.
First Aid
First aid for intestinal colic in infants may be complex and consist of several events:
- during breast-feeding must be held in the near vertical position to prevent aerophagia - swallowing excess air, which oftenBecomes the cause of intestinal cramps after eating.
- If a child receives a mixture or breast milk from a bottle, it is important to ensure that it tightly grips the nipple with lips, and the diameter of the hole in it should not be too large.
- Between the feeds, you can make the baby a warm bath with the addition of herbal decoctions that have an antispasmodic effect( for example, mint, chamomile, oregano).
First aid for intestinal colic in older children is to find the root cause of the ailment. To do this, you need to see a doctor - a pediatrician or gastroenterologist.
remove intestinal cramps at home by using the following actions:
- Put on your stomach( closer to the groin area) warm heating pad to relax the muscles and get rid of cramps.
- Take a drug that has an antispasmodic effect, mainly such drugs only affect the intestines. It can be 2 tablets No-shpy, decoction of mint, 1 tablet of Platyphylline with Papaverin or 1 sachet of Smecta.
- To prevent colic attacks, it is advisable to lie down and rest for a while. In the next few hours it is better to refuse any meals, you can drink only weak tea.
Treatment
treatment of intestinal colic in infants is not mandatory, since it is not a dangerous condition that occurs in all children, and passing yourself to 4-6 months of life. Drugs intended to stop colic in infants do not eliminate the spasms in full, slightly removing the force of the attack: these are Espomizan preparations, dill water, Disfatil, the use of a gas pipe.
Many experienced pediatricians advise parents to simply survive the period of infantile colic, making baby massage the abdomen, applying a heating pad and performing feeding in a vertical position. In exceptional cases, when a child can hardly tolerate painful spasms, it is possible to try antispasmodics such as Papaverin or No-shpa. The dose of the drug and the course of its administration should be selected by the doctor on the basis of the examination of the baby and the exclusion of other causes that can cause intestinal colic.
Treatment of symptoms of intestinal colic in older children can begin only after the cause of the pathology is known. Usually in these cases, intestinal spasms are a sign of a disease, and in order to cure it, you need to undergo a screening to determine its cause. This is important to take into account, since intestinal colic in school-age children may require surgical treatment, if they arise as a result of acute intestinal obstruction, appendicitis and other causes.
In this case you need to call an ambulance and to the arrival of the doctor not to take any action - you can not offer your child for pain any medication, applying hot water bottles, otherwise you can lubricate the clinical picture of the disease, and the doctor has misdiagnosed.
If bouts of intestinal colic in baby do not arise for the first time, and accurately know the cause of this condition is prescribed by a doctor symptomatic treatment with drugs that solve the following problems :
- Pain relief: No-spa, Spasmol, Drotaverin, Papaverin, Besalol, Buscopan.
- Drugs to reduce increased gas production, relieve symptoms of flatulence and bloating: Disfatil, Bobotik, Espumizan.
- Drugs for arresting diarrhea: Lactofiltrum, Smecta, Enterosgel. Read more about when Smecta is still assigned →
Diet
Treatment of symptoms of intestinal colic in infants should begin with a correction of feeding of the nursing mother. To prevent problems with the belly of a baby, a woman is recommended to revise her daily diet and exclude gas-producing products from her: cabbage, including sauerkraut, tomatoes, legumes, apples, pears, watermelons, black bread, mushrooms, kvass, sweet.
If the baby is on artificial feeding, then you need to double-check whether the dry mix is diluted correctly with water according to the instructions. Perhaps, some proportions are violated. Also, artificial children suffering from intestinal colic need to abandon the mixtures that contain iron, and a third of the daily diet should make up a special sour-milk mixture, for example, Agu, Lactofidus and others.
The diet for intestinal colic in older children depends on what caused the indisposition. Of course, in case of an attack and immediately afterwards, the child is not advised to give any food at all, since there will be no benefit from it, on the contrary, a relapse of an intestinal colic will not be long in coming.
If abdominal pain occurs regularly but does not cause serious discomfort, the food should be full, enriched with vitamins of group B and C. Also, the doctor may advise you to remove too heavy food from the ration, for example meat, replacing it with lighter proteins in the form of fishAnd birds.
If there is a suspicion of allergy as the root cause of intestinal spasms, you should immediately exclude possible allergens from the menu and observe the child's well-being. It is advisable to supplement the diet with intestinal colic with a lot of weak black tea with a minimum of sugar, as well as using such vegetable decoctions as decoction of cumin, fennel, yarrow, peppermint.
Prevention
Prevention of intestinal colic in children is as follows:
- rejection of harmful food that can cause disruption of the digestive system;
- only need to eat quality products that were stored under normal conditions with the observance of the terms of implementation;
- is forbidden to eat dry, because it inhibits the process of digestion: due to a lack of enzymes, foods can not digest by the stomach in full, spasms occur;
- can not be overeaten and get up from the table with a weight in the stomach, but if this happens, you need to take enzymes such as Mezim or Festal;
- vegetables, fruits, cereals and sour-milk products should make up most of the diet, regular flax oil will not be superfluous.
Timely diagnosis and treatment of symptoms of intestinal colic in children ensures a safe prognosis for recovery. The launched conditions are fraught with the development of complications such as dysbacteriosis, enterocolitis and many others.
Author: Olga Rogozhkina, doctor,
specially for Moizhivot.ru
