Vomiting and abdominal pain in a child

Colic is common in infants, especially in male infants. It is quite normal, colic starts at about two weeks of age and stops bothering the child at three to four months. The pain of colic is quite severe, the child cries, kicks his legs, and farts. At the same time, infants often spit up food, and sometimes it is difficult to understand whether he is vomiting or regurgitating.

If a child cries from abdominal pain for more than three hours in a row, throws up the breast and vomits (regurgitation occurs immediately after eating and does not cause significant discomfort to the child), vomiting occurs immediately after feeding and some time after eating, you need to see a doctor and examine the child. Usually, if the baby is bothered by vomiting, the child is lethargic, dehydrated, and does not gain weight well. The most common causes of vomiting and abdominal pain in infants are developmental pathologies that cause gastric or intestinal obstruction: narrowing of the pyloric part of the stomach or intestinal intussusception. These are correctable pathologies, however, the conditions are considered emergency and require surgical treatment.

When a child has a stomach ache and vomiting with a fever, the most likely cause is rotavirus infection. Children may also have inflammation of the appendix of the cecum and other quite "adult" pathologies. Children older than infancy may be poisoned, infected with helminths. Allergic reactions, intolerance to any products may manifest themselves in a similar way.

If a child has a stomach ache and vomits without diarrhea, then you need to remember when he last had a bowel movement. It may be a simple case of constipation, but acute appendicitis or an inflammatory process in another organ – the stomach, gall bladder, pancreas, liver – cannot be ruled out. The absence of diarrhea does not completely rule out poisoning and intestinal infections, but it does put these causes in the background.

Complaints that a child's stomach hurts after vomiting may indicate any inflammatory process, since vomiting itself does not eliminate the pain in this case. However, the stomach should have hurt before vomiting began.

If it started suddenly and there was no pain before the vomiting urge appeared, then complaints about abdominal pain may be caused by tension in the abdominal muscles during vomiting spasms. Such pain will subside fairly quickly if the child lies still.

Very emotional children, especially those growing up in an unfavorable psycho-emotional climate, may experience abdominal pain and vomiting of a psychogenic nature, accompanied by a slight increase in body temperature, migraine-like pain, fluctuations in blood pressure, changes in skin color - hyperemia or pallor, nausea, diarrhea or constipation.

In general, abdominal pain and vomiting are a reason to see a doctor at any age. It is recommended to call an ambulance in cases where a sudden attack of pain has woken up the child, if the pain has not subsided for two hours in a row and at least one symptom is observed in combination with it - nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and especially all at once; if the pain is localized in a specific place and increases with gentle pressure on it, as well as when traces of blood are found in vomit, urine or feces.

It is necessary to visit a doctor and undergo an examination in cases where the child periodically complains of abdominal pain and vomits, as well as when the child eats poorly, has lost weight, has become less active and has a sickly appearance.