Colic in a child is a sharp, sharp abdominal pain that is caused by cramping. In pediatrics, intestinal colic in babies is very common. Basically, it occurs in infancy due to the immaturity of the digestive tract. Although they are diagnosed in older children due to dysbiosis, malnutrition and other pathologies.
How to understand that a child has colic? With them, pain appears in the area slightly below the navel. At the same time, the child occupies a forced position, pressing his legs to his stomach or bending over, while drops of sweat can often be found on his face. Basically, the pain goes away in a few minutes. After that, the child’s condition will either improve or another spasm will occur. So, in this article we will understand what it is, why it appears and how to provide assistance correctly.
Causes of Colic
The causes of intestinal cramping in childhood are very different. In a baby, this is a common disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, which is explained by the immaturity of the nervous system and incomplete development of the digestive organs of the newborn. The first colic occurs in a month-old baby (possibly a three-week old) and usually ends by the fourth month.
In older kids, they appear for the following reasons:
- helminthiases;
- bowel obstruction;
- poisoning of the body with salts of heavy metals;
- violation of the digestive system;
- inflammatory processes in the intestines;
- infectious diseases;
- too intense exercise, due to which there is irritation of the intestinal loops;
- psycho-emotional overload, stress.
Symptoms
Symptoms of colic in infants are not at all the same as intestinal cramps in babies older than a year. In infants, they begin when feeding or 15 minutes after it. The kid, even if he fell asleep, wakes up with a loud cry, the food spits up and behaves very excitedly. If you touch his tummy at a given moment, you can discover how tense and hard he became.
At the same time, if a bottle or chest is offered to the crying baby, most likely he will refuse. The development of the digestive tract and nervous system of the baby ends closer to the year, therefore, in the first months of colic occur quite often, with different expressions.
Symptoms of intestinal colic in children aged 5 years and more are manifested by pain and intense cramping in the intestine, upset stools and rumbling, bloating, and the appearance of mucus in the feces. In this case, the baby's condition worsens sharply, dizziness, general weakness is observed.
Since the symptoms of colic in the abdomen in a child can accompany all kinds of pathologies of the digestive system, it is necessary to find out the cause of this trouble and immediately take up its treatment.
Sign of disease
There are a number of diseases whose symptoms are considered colic. These are diseases of the pancreas and stomach - pancreatitis and gastritis, due to which food is not fully absorbed and enters the intestines undigested.
In addition, intestinal colic in children can be caused by irritation of the muscles and nerve endings that are on the walls of the intestine. This may be the cause of ARVI, intestinal infection, flu.
Also, colic, which appeared due to problems with intestinal motility, appears as a sign of irritable bowel syndrome, enteritis, nervous breakdown and other serious diseases that require urgent treatment.
Diagnostics
The correct diagnosis of the condition, which is accompanied by intestinal colic in children, is carried out by a doctor suggesting a certain disease. After collecting an anamnesis and examination, the baby is invited to take a blood test to identify the inflammatory process and anemia. In addition, the doctor will send to the coprogram - the study of feces, which makes it possible to obtain the necessary data on disorders of the pancreas, liver and intestines.
To get an accurate picture of babies with intestinal cramps, they are sent for FEGDS, ultrasound, radiography, colonoscopy and computed tomography.
First aid
How to help a child with colic? First aid in this case can be comprehensive. It should consist of various events:
- If the baby receives breast milk or a mixture from a bottle, it is necessary to ensure that he tightly wraps his nipple around his lips, while the diameter of the hole should not be too large in it.
- When feeding a baby, it is necessary to keep it in a position close to vertical, so as to prevent ingestion of excess air (aerophagy), which often causes cramping after eating.
- With colic in older children, first aid is to find the cause of the ailment, for which you need to consult a doctor - a gastroenterologist or pediatrician.
- You can make a warm bath between feedings with herbal decoctions, which have a pronounced antispasmodic effect (chamomile, mint, oregano).
How to help the child with colic yet? Intestinal cramps at home can be removed with the following actions:
- Older children can take a drug that has an antispasmodic effect. Such funds mainly affect the intestines. For example, a mint broth, No-shpa, Papaverin, Platifillin, Smecta.
- Put a warm heating pad on your tummy in order to relax your muscles.
Treatment
It is not necessary to treat the colic in a child just born, since this is not a dangerous condition at all, usually resolving on its own by the 4th month of life. All kinds of medications that are designed to stop them, cramps do not completely eliminate, but they slightly relieve the power of the attack: dill water, Espumisan, Babycalm, Disflatil, etc.
Experienced pediatricians advise parents to simply survive this period, making the baby a light massage of the tummy, performing feeding in a vertical position and applying a heating pad. Sometimes, when a baby suffers painful spasms with difficulty, it is allowed to try various antispasmodic drugs, for example, No-shpa or Papaverin. The course of administration and the dose of the drug should be selected by the doctor on the basis of examination of the crumbs and the exclusion of other reasons that can cause colic in the child.
Treatment of symptoms in older children should begin only after finding out the cause of the pathology. Basically, in such cases, intestinal cramps are a sign of some kind of disease. In order to cure him, it is necessary to undergo an examination to identify its true cause. This should be taken into account, since intestinal colic in schoolchildren may require serious, even surgical treatment if they arise as a result of appendicitis, acute intestinal obstruction, etc.
To do this, call an ambulance. There is no need to take any action before the doctor arrives - the child should not be offered various medications to relieve pain, warm, because you can lubricate the picture of the disease, and the doctor will make the wrong diagnosis.
If colic in the child’s tummy is not the first time, and the cause of this condition is precisely known, then symptomatic treatment is carried out as prescribed by the doctor with the help of drugs that solve such problems:
- Means that relieve pain: Spazmol, No-shpa, Papaverin, Drotaverin, Buscopan, Besalol.
- Preparations for the relief of diarrhea: Smecta, Lactofiltrum, Enterosgel.
- Medicines that reduce increased gas formation, eliminate the symptoms of bloating and flatulence: "Bobotik", "Dysflatil", "Espumisan".
Diet
Treatment of symptoms of colic in a baby must begin with the correction of mother's nutrition. In order to prevent problems that arise with the baby’s tummy, mom should revise her own daily diet and exclude gas-forming foods from it: tomatoes, cabbage, apples, legumes, watermelons, pears, mushrooms, brown bread, sweets, kvass.
If the baby is breast-fed, you should double-check whether the mixture is diluted correctly according to the instructions. Probably out of proportion. In addition, artificial children who suffer from colic need to refuse any mixtures that contain iron, while 1/3 of the daily diet should be made up of a special fermented milk mixture, for example, Lactofidus, Agu, etc. .
With colic in older children, the diet depends on the cause of the ailment. Of course, during an attack and after it, giving the child some food is in principle undesirable, since it will not be of benefit, rather, on the contrary, the relapse of the attack will not be forced to wait.
If pain in the abdomen appears regularly, while not causing serious discomfort, nutrition should remain complete, rich in vitamins B and C.
In addition, the doctor may recommend excluding heavy foods from the diet, for example, meat, which should be replaced with light proteins - poultry and fish.
If there is a suspicion of an allergy, which is the root cause of spasms, you must immediately exclude possible allergens from the menu and look at the baby's well-being. With colic, it is advisable to supplement the diet with weak black tea with a small amount of sugar, in addition, the use of plant decoctions of fennel, caraway seeds, peppermint or yarrow.
Useless methods for treating colic in a child
The life of young parents is often overshadowed by infantile colic. Scientists still cannot find their true cause. But no matter what causes them, you must be able to cope with them correctly. And this is not easy to do, when ineffective and sometimes harmful treatments for children are extremely popular. Let's take a closer look at them.
Simethicone for a newborn from colic
Let's start with the most popular - drugs that contain the active substance simethicone. They are often advertised on TV. True, back in 1985, studies were conducted that revealed that it was just a placebo, and the substance was completely ineffective.
Therefore, these drugs are often prescribed for babies, believing that colic is a painful sensation arising from increased gas formation. Although far from always, babies with colic appear to have increased gas formation. Therefore, the use of various drugs to remove gases is also ineffective.
Nootropics and sedatives
The following dangerous and useless remedies are a variety of nootropics and sedatives. Young parents often do not understand what to give the child from colic, and begin to collect information from girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers, in all kinds of "authoritative" forums, where they find recommendations for using these funds. You need to understand that hysteria is not a cause of colic in a child. Crying and screaming is only a consequence. In addition, the use of sedatives in infants leads to a slowdown in their neuropsychic development. In addition, nootropics belong to the class of drugs that have not shown their safety and effectiveness. In principle, they should not be used in children. Like adults.
Phytopreparations
Speaking about herbal remedies for colic, it should be noted that for the most part, such preparations for colic also have not shown their effectiveness. In addition, there is a very high risk of allergic reactions to various herbal remedies for babies. In other words, they do not help with colic, and can cause an acute allergic reaction.
Homeopathy
Manufacturers claim that homeopathic medicines have a certain memory of water, which has a healing effect. In other words, when you purchase a homeopathic medicine, you need to understand that you pay for the water along with its memory, while the medicine itself is not here. It should also be noted that the medical community of the planet is convinced that homeopathy can only cure what is beautiful and will pass by itself. However, this may be an erroneous opinion.
"Good bacteria"
Many doctors still blame the absence of “beneficial bacteria” in the baby’s intestines for colic. Many researchers have been trying for several decades to treat this ailment with various medicines that contain beneficial microorganisms, for example, lactic acid bacteria or yeast.
But the opinions of scientists even diverged. Some studies say that lactic acid bacteria in children with colic reduce the intensity of pain and reduce the duration of the baby’s crying. Other studies prove completely different information.
Therefore, at the moment, the use of "beneficial bacteria" for the treatment of colic in infants is not welcome.
Lactose
Lactose has also been attacked by researchers. But the transfer of children to a lactose-free mixture (in case the child is breast-fed), as well as the use of the lactase enzyme in babies by natural feeding, did not significantly reduce the intensity and frequency of crying.
Water dosing
There are people who believe that the baby is crying because he wants not to eat, but to drink. They are sure that breast milk is food, and the baby wants to drink. Well, there’s nothing to even comment on.
Chiropractic and osteopathy
The researchers also found that such effects are ineffective and also not safe for infants. For example, acupuncture did not have any positive effect on babies with colic.
Shaking
Aggression, which is aimed at the baby, with colic does not help at all, and for the child it is extremely dangerous and can even lead to his death. Know: shaking baby shake syndrome has killed more than one small life. Therefore, no matter how much the baby cries, you do not need to shake it.
Prevention
Prevention of colic in babies is as follows:
- it is necessary to eat only high-quality products stored in compliance with the expiration dates in normal conditions;
- refusal of any junk food that may cause disruption of the digestive tract;
- you can not overeat and get up from the table with a heaviness in the stomach, but if this happens, you must take enzymes such as "Festal" or "Mezim";
- it is forbidden to eat dry food, as it inhibits digestion: products due to insufficient enzymes cannot be absorbed by the stomach in the required volume, cramps appear;
- fruits, vegetables, sour-milk products and cereals should make up the bulk of the diet, and daily use of flaxseed oil will not be superfluous.
Timely treatment of symptoms and diagnosis of intestinal colic in babies guarantees a favorable prognosis for recovery. You need to understand that neglected conditions are fraught with the appearance of complications such as enterocolitis, dysbiosis, etc. If we talk about infant colic, it is best to just wait.