The first "why": regurgitation occurs, thrush in the baby, abdominal pain, sweating

• Why does a baby burp?

After feeding, children often regurgitate. Regurgitation is the release of milk, fresh or curdled, from the stomach over a short distance. Regurgitation should be distinguished from vomiting, which occurs in children much less often. Vomiting is the release of milk under high pressure (fountain). It can be associated with a spasm of the pylorus of the stomach or be a symptom of an incipient disease. If the child vomited once and his health is not impaired, there is nothing to worry about. If vomiting is repeated, the child's temperature rises, then the child is ill and you need to see a doctor.

Usually, regurgitation occurs by the age of three months. Regurgitation is associated with swallowing a small amount of air during sucking. Once in the stomach, the air increases the pressure in it. When it becomes sufficient to open the muscular sphincter at the entrance to the stomach, the air will come out. Since the air bubble "floats" above the milk, the baby should be held vertically immediately after feeding for several minutes. Then the air located above the milk will come out and there will be no regurgitation. If the baby is laid down, the air, coming out of the stomach, will push out a small portion of milk located in front of it. In this case, milk can get into the baby's respiratory tract.

If regurgitation is very frequent, occurs even after you have held the baby upright, and the baby is not gaining weight well, you need to see a doctor.

• Why do children get thrush?

Thrush is a fungal infection of the oral mucosa caused by a fungus of the genus Candida. It looks like white plaque on the oral mucosa and on the tongue. If there is a lot of plaque, the child's condition may change: the temperature will rise, the child will become restless, and will begin to refuse the breast.

To eliminate thrush, after feeding, wipe the baby's mouth with a finger wrapped in a gauze napkin and soaked in a 2.5% soda solution (1 teaspoon of soda per glass of water). For the same purpose, you can also use a weak solution of manganese. But you should not wipe the baby's mouth immediately after feeding, but after half an hour - after he has burped air and some of the milk has gone into the duodenum. Otherwise, the child may vomit everything he has just eaten.

But it is better not to fight thrush, but to prevent its occurrence. To do this, it is necessary to follow hygiene rules: the nipple must be boiled (both the pacifier and the nipple from the bottle) or thoroughly washed with soap each time before giving it to the child.

• Why do children in the first months of life often suffer from abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain in children is caused by gases formed in the intestines and air swallowed by the child during feeding. Initially, the child's intestines are sterile. Gradually, they are populated by bacteria common to humans. Food is digested in the intestines with the help of digestive juices, and bacteria complete this process, during which gases are formed that inflate the intestines. This causes paroxysmal abdominal pain - intestinal colic. The child suddenly arches, turns red, begins to scream, strain, kick his legs, pull them up to his stomach.

To help the baby, you need to empty the intestines of gases as quickly as possible. There are several ways to do this. The first and easiest is to put the baby on his tummy. This will create support for the abdominal muscles, and he will get rid of excess gases. The second method is that you take the baby lying on his back by the legs and bring them to the stomach, lightly pressing on the knees. This will also increase the pressure in the stomach and make it easier for the baby to strain. The next technique is a light massage of the stomach, which consists of running your palm over the stomach (clockwise), lightly pressing on it. To prevent intestinal colic, you can give the baby dill water or the drug "Plantex". Dill water is a very old and well-proven remedy. You can also give the baby tea with an infusion or decoction of chamomile or tea with fennel and caraway seeds from the company "Humana" to relieve irritation of the intestinal wall.

If all these measures do not help, you can put a gas tube in your child, which you can buy at a pharmacy. If you could not find a standard tube, you can make one yourself from a small bulb syringe. To do this, you need to cut off the bottom with scissors.

Before inserting the tube into the child's anus, the end of the tube should be lubricated with Vaseline or baby cream. The tube should not be inserted too deeply into the rectum. As soon as gases start to pass as the tube is inserted, you should stop immediately. Very often, feces start to pass along with gases, so the child should lie on a diaper or nappies.

Colic usually bothers boys more than girls and usually goes away by the age of three months.

• What is considered constipation and how to deal with it

If your baby has not had a bowel movement for one or two days, it is constipation. There may be different reasons for constipation. If you feed your baby only milk, without giving him water, the reason may be that the baby is not getting enough fluid. If the baby is bottle-fed or is receiving supplementary feeding, then you need to review his diet. Rice porridge is constipating. In this case, to loosen the stool, you need to transfer the baby to oatmeal or add vegetable and fruit purees containing fiber to the diet. Constipation should be treated in the same way as intestinal colic. In addition, the baby can be given an enema. The volume of water administered with an enema should be about 10-15 ml per kilogram of weight. A newborn is given 30 ml, and a child of one to three months 40-60 ml. It is not necessary to boil the water for the enema, it should be at room temperature. You can add salt to the water, which will draw out all the toxins accumulated in the intestines (1 teaspoon of salt per 500 ml of water).

• Is it necessary to give the child additional water?

From the age of 4 weeks, the child needs to be given water to drink. The need for liquid is determined by the nature of feeding, health condition, climatic conditions and is approximately 100-120 ml per 1 kg of body weight.

Additionally, if the child feels thirsty, 50 to 200 ml of water per day is prescribed. It can be given to suck from a bottle between feedings or at night - instead of feeding. It is undesirable to give water before meals, since this can "interrupt" the child's appetite. The water should be boiled, at room temperature, without added sugar. This can be unsweetened tea or water slightly acidified with lemon juice. You can also give the child unsweetened rosehip infusion.

• What is prickly heat and how is it different from diaper rash?

If small red dots appear on the child's neck and in the groin folds, this is prickly heat. Most often, it appears as a result of overheating and insufficient hygiene. If you do not pay attention to prickly heat, it can gradually cover an increasing surface area of the skin. The skin turns red and becomes vulnerable to microbes, diaper rash appears.

Intertrigo is located in the same places as prickly heat, but more often in the buttocks, in the groin folds and on the inner thighs. It can "grow" from prickly heat rashes or form primarily due to insufficient care. Most often, intertrigo appears due to skin irritation caused by exposure to urine and feces. At first, intertrigo looks like redness of the skin, and if measures are not taken, the affected areas begin to get wet, inflamed and even ulcerated.

It is easier to prevent prickly heat and diaper rash than to treat it!

To prevent your child from sweating, do not overheat him. Maintain the room temperature and do not wrap up your child!

The situation is the same with diaper rash - after each act of defecation and urination, the child should not be "dabbed" with wet wipes, but washed.

Basic principles for preventing prickly heat and diaper rash: if the skin in the diaper rash area is damp, it should be treated with baby powder; if it is dry and flaky, it should be lubricated with sterile sunflower or olive oil.