Constipation in an infant: causes and methods of elimination

When a baby is born, his body has yet to learn flawlessly and is debugged to cope with all natural processes, and therefore various functional disorders in the breast period are more likely a norm than pathology. Unfortunately, such disorders, although not dangerous, cause a lot of inconvenience to both the unhappy baby and his parents. One of the most common misfortunes is constipation.

Constipation in a nursing baby is difficult to differentiate from normal, as sometimes a baby can have a normal stool delay for one or two days. In case this does not bring discomfort, and the chair as a result is soft, then the constipation does not count, and nothing to do in this case is not necessary. But if the child is tortured, tries and can not poke, his tummy hurts and appetite decreases - this is constipation. Constipation in infants is often accompanied by increased gas production and causes severe discomfort.

The causes that cause constipation in a nursing baby are many. First, much depends on nutrition. If the baby is on artificial feeding - then the problem is most likely in the mixture, or rather, in how the baby tolerates it. To begin with, it is worth trying to give him plenty of water - sometimes it helps, and if he is already trying the juices - one should give preference to those that have laxative effect, for example, carrot or plum. The mixture should be changed only if these methods do not help to establish regular stools, since this change for an infant is quite noticeable, and a frequent and abrupt change of mixtures can contribute to the emergence of food allergies. If constipation in an infant is almost a permanent phenomenon, it is better to transfer the baby to another mixture, and preference should be given to those that provide comfortable digestion, for example, contain dietary fiber, or prebiotics.

Constipation in children who are breastfed, happen much less often and talk about the imbalance of the mother's diet. In this case, you need to pay attention to products rich in potassium, the most famous and effective of which is prunes.

In addition to the basic, food, constipation in a child can occur for a variety of reasons. In particular, teething can cause both constipation and diarrhea, the importance of water quality, especially for children on artificial feeding, and even the weather can sometimes affect the stool density - in general, constipation in infants is more a normal phenomenon than an extraordinary, And almost every baby in the first year of life is facing him.

Despite the fact that constipation in an infant is not particularly dangerous, it delivers a huge discomfort to the baby, and it is necessary to fight with it. The main thing in this business is not to overdo it. To medicines and enemas you need to apply in the last place, and before that try other means.

Sometimes a special massage helps a lot when the baby is massaged tummy clockwise or in the form of a letter P from right to left, since it is in this direction that the large intestine passes, and this stimulates its peristalsis and promotes fecal masses. By the way, this massage also helps with increased gas production. You can try to bend the legs of the baby in the knees and press them on the tummy, play a bicycle and oil the anus with oil or cream: this will not only facilitate possible defecation, but it can also stimulate it.

Laxatives and enemas are extreme measures, which should not be resorted to too often, since the intestine then completely loses its stature, and constipation in the infant becomes permanent. This is a reliable way out, but only when everything else is already tried.