Constipation in babies should not be underestimated, but how to prevent and solve it?

Many parents pay special attention to some emergencies of their children, especially high fever, diarrhea, rash, etc., and they urgently take them for medication and treatment. For some common problems, the damage caused is invisible and chronic, so they are often ignored or even put off again and again. But in the end, many adults\’ ignorance will become the source of pain for the baby in the future. Constipation is a typical example of this type of problem. When communicating with the famous pediatrician Nan Yahua, I asked what do you most want to share with parents about children\’s health? Dr. Nan said: What I especially want to tell parents is constipation. With many years of experience in child care, one of Dr. Nan’s biggest feelings is that constipation is very common and has a great impact on the baby’s future health. Unfortunately, there is no Get the attention you deserve from your parents. Expert support: Pediatric health care physician at Nan Ya Hua Peking University First Hospital. He has been engaged in child health care for more than 30 years and has rich experience in child care in newborn health care, infant and young child feeding, growth and development, planned immunization, pediatric care, intelligent testing, etc. Why is it called constipation? In life, many babies have suffered from constipation, and some babies have difficulty defecating. One mother once said that guarding her baby and waiting for him to defecate is \”like delivering a baby.\” Some babies have very long defecation intervals, once every three or four days or even more. What is the normal status of baby\’s defecation? What situation should be defined as constipation? First, let’s compare the following small test (Note: The following description is mainly for babies over six months old): • One bowel movement per day, the defecation time and location are relatively fixed, and the stool is yellow strip-shaped and soft; • 1-2 days 1 bowel movement, and this pattern has been maintained for a long time. The bowel movement is smooth and the stool is yellow and strip-shaped. If the baby is in this state, it means that it is not bad, so keep it up. • Difficulty in defecation. The stool is dry, hard, and thick, and makes a clanging sound when it falls into the basin; • Pain during defecation, very hard, the baby cries and does not dare to exert force, and it takes many times to defecate, and the stool is brown or black; • Defecation Time-consuming and labor-intensive, the stool is in the shape of strips, and if you look closely, the spherical stools are stuck together; • The baby cries during defecation, and blood streaks appear around the stool; • The baby often does not defecate for more than 3 days, the farts are very smelly, the mood is often irritable, and the appetite is poor. not good. When these conditions occur, it is constipation. • You have a bowel movement once every two or three days, which is not very regular, and it is a bit difficult to defecate. • The baby doesn’t feel any discomfort at ordinary times and is in good condition. • The poop is sometimes yellow, sometimes brown or black in color. To paraphrase a popular saying, this is not considered constipation in babies, but on the way to constipation, sufficient attention needs to be paid. Many parents have a hard time telling whether their child is actually constipated. Let’s summarize, rather than the frequency, constipation is more about the baby having difficulty defecating. In terms of timing, we must allow individual differences. As long as the defecation is regular and the baby has smooth bowel movements, even if the baby has defecation once every two or three days, it does not fall into the category of constipation. But once the baby only defecates once for more than three days, it must be taken seriously. Also, if it is difficult to have a bowel movement every time and the stool is dry and hard, even if the frequency is high, it is constipation.The impact of constipation on health is invisible and long-term. Constipation is a stubborn and daily problem. It is not as urgent as a cold or a fever, and it seems so serious that it is often ignored by parents. A constipated baby will feel uncomfortable when he feels uncomfortable, but once the stool is released and the blood is full, he can still eat and drink without delay. Parents often say that they should find a time to take you to see a doctor, but they wait and wait and put it off again and again, and in the end they often leave it alone because they are busy. Also, constipation is not a problem that can be solved simply by relying on a doctor’s prescription. It is more like a major family project. Most of the baby\’s constipation is caused by bad habits. To improve it, the whole family needs to participate, starting from the aspects of life rhythm, eating habits, exercise habits, etc., in order to help the baby completely solve the problem. So this has become a major pain point for many parents – they leave it alone because it is difficult. But if I tell you that constipation is not only painful, it also has a huge impact on the health and development of your baby. Parents, can you still sit still? From the short-term impact: food residues remaining in the baby\’s body for a long time will affect his appetite and nutrient absorption, and affect his growth and development. If the baby has difficulty defecating, he will be afraid of defecation and hold back, which will make the stool drier and further aggravate the baby\’s bad defecation habits. Long-term constipation and long-term accumulation of residues at the end of the baby\’s large intestine will cause a decline in intestinal function and form a vicious cycle. In the long run: babies who have been constipated since childhood often develop hemorrhoids when they grow up, and they are usually more serious. From a clinical point of view, many people will face problems such as surgical treatment at a very young age. The incidence of intestinal diseases is higher, because year-round constipation will affect the baby\’s intestinal mucosa and intestinal function, and the self-repair function will also become worse. At three time points, babies are most likely to have constipation. Although babies are different from each other, in summary, there are three time points at which constipation is most likely to occur. By knowing it well, parents can prevent it in advance: l From 6 months to 1 year old, babies At the stage of starting to add complementary foods and taking in solid food, constipation can easily occur if the baby eats too much or too little or develops allergies. Mothers should pay attention to diversifying their baby\’s complementary foods and preventing allergies. l Around 2 years old, at this stage, babies tend to be partial and picky eaters, do not like to eat vegetables, and have a relatively simple diet. In addition, toilet training has not been completed, and they have not developed fixed defecation habits, and they are also prone to constipation. l When entering kindergarten at around 3-6 years old, they leave the care of their families and need to readjust their eating habits and defecation habits. Some babies don’t like to go to the toilet in kindergarten, or they drink less water or exercise less in kindergarten. Therefore, This is also the peak time for constipation. Before entering the kindergarten, cultivating the baby\’s ability to use the toilet on his own in advance, expressing it to the teacher, and having experience defecating in public toilets will reduce the baby\’s anxiety and help him adapt to using the toilet in the kindergarten as soon as possible. If the stool does not come out, just \”drinking more water\” and \”eating bananas\” are not enough! Promoting children\’s bowel movements, these two \”ancestral secret recipes\” that make your ears feel calluses are actually not very effective – if they are good, why do so many people still suffer from them? ! 1. Give your children plenty of water. Drinking plenty of water to facilitate defecation is a method that most parents believe in, but drinking more waterIt is not the core factor in relieving constipation. If you do not improve your eating and defecation habits, just giving your child more water can improve the symptoms, but it will have no therapeutic effect. 2. Give your children more bananas. Eating unripe bananas for children has a strong astringent effect, which inhibits gastric juice secretion and gastrointestinal motility. Therefore, if you eat unripe bananas, it will aggravate constipation. Moreover, even if the dietary fiber content of ripe bananas is not high, the laxative effect is not very good. After all, how do you get rid of constipation? ! The most important thing to prevent or change the child\’s constipation status and make it regular and normal is – l Increase dietary fiber in the child\’s diet l Develop good defecation habits l Activate intestinal function through exercise and other methods to promote intestinal function Tao squirms. Therefore, this is more like guiding parents to change their lifestyle, starting from many aspects such as feeding methods, food types and quantities, exercise habits, etc. At the same time, parents must have enough patience and confidence: 1. Eat more Increase dietary fiber Dietary fiber can absorb a large amount of water, increase the amount of feces in the intestine, promote intestinal peristalsis, and make stool easier to pass. You can give your baby more fruits and vegetables. Fruits with higher dietary fiber content include prunes, pears, apricots, and apples. Recommended vegetables are peas, broccoli, and celery. [Tips from Chang Dad: If you take your child on a trip, you may have short-term defecation difficulties due to irregular and unbalanced diet. At this time, you can let your child eat prune puree, and the laxative effect is generally very good. 】In terms of diet, the content of baby food supplements cannot be too single. It can be supplemented by eating vegetable purees, fruit purees and baby cereals every day. Babies over 1 year old can eat more whole-wheat crackers, whole-wheat bread, and some whole grains. Especially potato foods are highly recommended, such as purple potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro, yams, etc., which can help babies relieve and prevent diseases. constipate. For infants and babies under 2 years old, the reasonable daily intake of dietary fiber is 5 grams, and for babies over 2 years old, it should be 7-15 grams. If this amount is difficult for parents to control, then remember such a ratio to ensure a balanced diet for the baby, that is, the intake ratio of cereals, vegetables, and meat is 3:2:1. 2. Defecation at regular times and at fixed points Timing: Let the baby sit in the basin to defecate at a fixed time every day. It is best to sit for about 15 minutes after a meal to let him become familiar with and accept defecation. Fixed point: let the baby go to the toilet to defecate, or place a baby in a fixed place. A dedicated urinal, if things go on like this, the baby will have psychological cues and physiological reflexes when doing it; if the baby has entered the kindergarten and is usually unwilling to go to the toilet in the kindergarten, you can also slowly adjust his defecation rhythm to after getting up every morning. Or at night. Develop a new rhythm through daily practice. Concentrate: The baby should not play with toys or watch TV at the same time while defecating. It is also best not to use a children\’s toilet with a toy function. Toys will attract his attention and make him ignore the feeling of defecation, which may cause the baby to keep Holding back bowel movement or eager to get up and play before finishing bowel movement. 3. Exercise promotes gastrointestinal motility. Only when gastrointestinal motility canContinuously give the poop a downward push, and exercise is an effective way to make the intestines move. You can do some passive exercises for your baby, such as toe touching, abdominal massage, crawling, etc. to activate the intestines. For older babies, you can take them outdoors more often. Walking, running, and jumping are all good ways to exercise. I\’m really constipated, what should I do? Helping your baby deal with constipation is a long-term process. Once there is no bowel movement for a few days and the baby feels uncomfortable, the following methods may help your baby defecate: • Cut our daily soap into strips similar to the size of your baby’s fingers. Shape, with one end slightly pointed, wet it in hot water, insert it from the edge of the anus, and then pinch the anus with your hands for a moment to prevent the soap head from sliding out. After the soap head melts in the rectum, it can effectively help the baby defecate. • Use children\’s special Kaiselu for your baby, but be careful not to use too much, and it cannot be used for a long time, otherwise it will aggravate the baby\’s muscle contraction weakness, cause discomfort to the baby, and form dependence. • Dumic (lactulose) is an oral drug that can be purchased in pharmacies. Take it as directed by your doctor. It can help babies defecate and relieve constipation symptoms. • Once defecation is completed, parents can use a hot water towel to apply heat to the baby\’s anus, and then cut a drop of cod liver oil to massage the baby\’s perianal skin. This can help quickly repair the damaged skin and mucous membranes around the anus, so that the baby will not have a bowel movement next time. It will hurt, and this is very good for relieving constipation. Although there is no need to go to the hospital as soon as the baby feels uncomfortable, if the baby does not defecate for 4-5 days and still does not get better after using the above methods at home, you should take the baby to the hospital for examination and take necessary measures. In addition, if a child has long-term constipation and is losing weight, it may be related to some diseases, and parents and children are also advised to see a doctor. How to deal with the naughty child\’s \”I don\’t want to go to poop, I just hold it in!\” I share this situation with my parents because many older children are constipated. It is not just a problem of diet and intestinal tract, but also a problem of themselves. Deliberately holding in your bowels. Generally speaking, the habit of holding in the stool mostly occurs when children are learning to use the toilet. When sitting on the toilet, the child is unwilling to exert force to make the intestines move, so he starts to hold in the stool. The next time the urge to defecate appears, the intestines move. Pain will occur, and the child will associate the pain with defecation, forming a fear of defecation. This situation also happens to many children in kindergarten. They are unwilling to use unfamiliar toilets and consciously endure the inconvenience. Gradually, a large volume of stool accumulates in the child\’s intestines, as long as the rectum. , there is no longer any sense of defecation, and in the end the problem can only be solved through external help. For children who hold back their bowels, they need to seek help from a doctor and use some drugs to help lubricate the intestines and prevent the child from actively holding their bowels. This treatment process will take about a few months. During this period, the child should continue to eat a high-fiber diet and help him nourish his bowels. Develop good toilet habits.