Constipation in infants: how to recognize and what to treat?

Constipation in infants is a problem that every mother encounters from time to time, even if the baby is completely breastfed. This disorder of the stool can occur for various reasons.

Constipation in infants: how to recognize? Before deciding what to do with the problem that has arisen, it is necessary to distinguish a normal chair from constipation and diarrhea, because every newborn organism has its own characteristics. For example, there are children who empty the intestines 4 to 10 times a day, and there are those that are missing once every two days. Therefore, from the very beginning, begin to follow the characteristics of your baby's chair, as well as how it changes as you grow up. After all, over time it becomes more dense, acquires a darker shade, and the frequency decreases.

If the separation of the stool causes the child difficulties and requires too much stress, then you should be worried. Constipation in infants can be accompanied by loss of appetite, bloating and pain. The child becomes capricious, often cries, sleeps a little.

Constipation in infants: causes . In most cases, disruption of the intestine is primarily related to the nutrition of the baby, whether it is artificial mixture or mother's milk. For example, if Mom abuses such products as meat, rice, bananas, coffee, cocoa, tea, nuts, white bread - they fix the chair.

Quite often constipation is a reaction of the body to insufficient quantity of mother's milk, early introduction of complementary foods, transfer of the baby to artificial feeding.

Lack of fluid is another cause of constipation. Especially it concerns those children who eat mixtures. And although it is believed that breastfeeding is not required for a child, this is not entirely true - even a small amount of liquid (boiled water, broths) is needed for every developing organism.

Dysbacteriosis of the intestine is a fairly common disorder among young children, one of the symptoms of which is constipation. Most often this happens after taking antibiotics. In this case, you need to consult a pediatrician - he will prescribe the necessary drugs to protect the microflora.

There is also the emotional experience of the newborn. For example, if, for some reason, the child has been severed from the mother for a long time, then as a physical unconscious reaction, disturbances in the stool may also occur.

Constipation in a newborn: what to do? There are many methods to save your child from discomfort and pain - this and all kinds of drugs, and massages, and special physical training.

But before deciding what to do, if the child has constipation, you need to find out the reason. For example, if stool disorders are associated with a change in diet, then this problem needs to be rectified. If the fault is the mother's food, then she needs to adjust her diet and give up those products that negatively affect the baby's body.

If the constipation appeared after the transfer to artificial feeding or the change of the product, then it is necessary to change the mixture to another, more suitable.

Constipation with dysbacteriosis can be cured only if the state of the microflora of the intestine is restored to normal. To this end, doctors, as a rule, prescribe drugs bifido- and lactobacilli, which are very effective.

As for medicinal preparations that will help the child to empty the intestine, then it is better not to use laxatives until one year - only if the doctor recommends it. But glycerin candles will not harm anything.

If we talk about such a popular method of combating constipation as an enema, then it is best to avoid it and apply it only in really extreme cases. And in any case it is impossible to use soap or soap solutions - only with pure, boiled water.