Treatment of constipation in children

Very often a child can cry and suffer, it would seem, for no apparent reason. Parents are worried, but they can not determine them. It turns out that this constipation is the impossibility of getting rid of feces, pain in the tummy, a painful act of defecation. How to treat constipation in a child?

In time, consult a doctor

Younger children and newborns with constipation should be carefully inspected and examined by a pediatrician. Poor nutrition can lead to dehydration and cause constipation, and so the doctor should carefully examine the eating habits when testing your child to make sure that he is gaining weight rather than losing weight. This is important for diagnosing constipation in children.

It is important to remember that in children who are exclusively breastfed, constipation occurs much less frequently than those who are fed artificially. Rare defecations do not mean that the child has constipation.

Start treatment

The initial stages of treating a child for constipation usually include giving an additional amount of fluid: water or fruit juice once or twice a day. The general treatment for constipation is the addition of syrups from a bottle to the baby's diet as recommended by the doctor.

Although this is usually not recommended due to the theoretical risk of botulism. If you change cow's milk to soy, this too is a key to stopping constipation in the initial stages.

Medications that are used to treat children with constipation are usually limited to colace, maltsupex, lactulose, and glycerin suppositories can be used from time to time.

Treatment of children's constipation through diet changes

The ultimate goal of treating constipation in your child is to adjust the work of the intestine and soft stool, as well as daily defecation.

One of the main ways to prevent and treat constipation is to change the baby's diet. Nutrition against constipation is the need to exclude from the diet products that cause constipation, including cow's milk, bananas, yogurt, cheese, boiled carrots and other low-fiber foods. For children who drink a lot of milk, soy milk is a good alternative compared to a cow, they usually cause less constipation than cow's milk.

Another important change in diet is the increase in the amount of fiber in the baby's diet. How much fiber does your child need? Recommendations for its reception are that children should receive 2-3 grams of fiber per year of life daily. For example, 4-year-olds should consume at least 9-10 grams of fiber per day.

How to choose foods high in fiber?

Parents would be very helpful to learn how to read food labels to choose foods rich in fiber. Fruits and vegetables, especially if they are raw and not processed, are a very good choice. It is important to eat high-fiber vegetables, and legumes, especially baked ones, and also kidneys, lima beans, potatoes, peas, turnips, greens, raw tomatoes are well suited to them.

Other dishes that are good for children with constipation are vegetable soups (they contain a lot of fiber with the addition of liquid), and popcorn. Additional bran in the popcorn may be useful, including cereals, bran buns, grated wheat, crackers and wheat bread from wholemeal.

It is also important to increase the amount of liquid that your child drinks daily. He should drink at least 2-3 glasses of water or fruit juice every day. Apple juice, pear, plum juice, or other juices are a good choice.

Preparations for the treatment of constipation in children

For dietary changes the menu of the child will take time to become effective for the body, and until this happens, your child should probably go for laxatives. These drugs are often used in the long term as maintenance therapy and are considered safe, effective and not addictive.

If you want to avoid chronic use of stimulants, laxatives, a child can still take, on the recommendation of a doctor, castor oil. To soften the stool, it is usually safe for long-term use.

Usually, drugs that eliminate constipation in a child include:

• Milk of magnesia: contains magnesiuim sodium, osmotic laxative, true, it is not allowed for all children.
• Malt Extract: or Maltsupex, it has an unpleasant odor, but is easily applied in the treatment of constipation in younger children.
• Preparations for children based on the substance simethicone (used as a laxative) - espumizan or simplex, for example.
• Dill water (boiled dill or medicine)
• Suppositories with a laxative effect
• Lactulose: used as a laxative (it can be purchased by prescription)

Terms of taking medications

Keeping in mind the main goal of treating your child's constipation - a soft stool every day, you may need to take medication for a long period of time, up to 4-6 months. One of the biggest mistakes parents make, stopping in the treatment of their children, as soon as their chair gets better. If you do this too early, your child will be prone to relapse and constipation will return again.

Instead of stopping taking medication, as soon as the child's chair has adjusted, the dose of drugs should be reduced by 25%. So, if the child took 1 teaspoon of milk of magnesia, you need to reduce the dose to 3/4 teaspoon. Do not make too many changes based on your own conclusions, first consult a pediatrician.

After your child regularly goes to the toilet and his chair is soft, you can talk to your pediatrician about reducing the laxative dosage that you use. Usually this is done gradually, often by reducing the dose by 25% every 1-2 months. Too fast stopping in taking laxatives can cause the child to complain about painful defecation again. It is also important to continue your child's diet while taking laxatives and after the baby stops taking them.

Treatment of acute constipation in a child

If the child has too hard stool and he can not go to the toilet, his defecations are painful, special treatment will be required. First of all, you will need to cleanse the baby's intestines from stool, and then apply the diet and laxatives, if they have not worked so far.

Fortunately, rectal cleaning is rarely done manually. This is usually done with enemas or suppositories. This can also sometimes be done with the use of high doses of mineral oil - often from 1 ounce (28.3 grams) to 8 ounces (226.8 grams) for 2-3 days.

Children up to one and a half years can be given glycerin suppositories. Children from one and a half years to 9 years can do enemas or 1/2 suppository Dulcolax (they improve intestinal motility and act as a laxative). For older children, you can use a whole Dulcolax suppository.

You should avoid the regular use of enemas or suppositories. At times they are needed as an emergency therapy - but only if your child has not emptied the bowels on their own within 3-4 days. And if necessary, use these funds regularly, you will most likely need to increase dosage and maintenance therapy.

Correction of the child's behavior in the fight against constipation

After the chair of your child has become soft and regular, it is important to change his behavior and encourage him to such actions that the child and in the future had a regular bowel movement. This often involves sitting the child on the toilet for about 10 minutes after eating once or twice a day. You can keep a diary or schedule when the child is going through a bowel movement and / or taking laxative medications, and then praising and encouraging him for good behavior.

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Complications of constipation in a child

In addition to pain, constipation can lead to anal fissures or ruptures of the skin around the rectum, bleeding, hemorrhoids, prolapse of the rectum. Encopresis (incontinence of feces) is another complication of chronic constipation and can lead to involuntary leakage of stool.

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Prevention of constipation in children

Food and beverages that can prevent constipation include the following

• a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits that the child is washed, but not peeled, including apples, grapes, peaches, etc. A lot of fresh fruits with high water content, such as watermelon and melon
• raw vegetables
• beans (beans)
• raisins
• prunes and figs
• products made from whole grains (whole wheat bread, etc.) crushed wheat or sprouted wheat
• Corn bran and buns with bran
• vegetable soup

Useful conclusions about constipation

Although constipation in children is often a chronic condition that is difficult to treat, you need to learn how to live with it and at the same time fight it. Over time, with proper nutrition and medical intervention, your child should be able to adjust the bowel and stool.

If your pediatrician can not or does not want to help treat your child for constipation, it is worth asking for additional help from a pediatric gastroenterologist. The referral to a physiotherapist and masseuse specialist is also a good idea if your child has any signs of a more serious condition with constipation or if current therapy does not work effectively.