Causes of neonatal constipation
Baby constipation is a common disease with many reasons, which can be divided into two categories: one is functional constipation, which can be cured after conditioning; The other is constipation caused by congenital intestinal malformation, which cannot be cured by general conditioning and must be corrected by surgery. Most infant constipation is functional.
Neonatal functional constipation
1, artificial feeding: milk contains more soap calcium after digestion, which is easy to cause dry stool and constipation.
2, insufficient milk: if you eat less milk, or vomit more, or children who eat rehydration will cause no stool for the time being. In addition, the muscular layer of neonatal digestive tract is not fully developed, which is easy to cause constipation and may also be accompanied by spitting milk. As long as the child does not lose weight, vomiting and constipation are normal.
3, the mother's poor diet: the food that the mother eats has a great influence on the baby, and spicy food will cause the baby's indigestion.
4, mental factors: children are suddenly stimulated by the spirit, or sudden changes in the environment and living habits will also cause constipation for a short time.
Neonatal intestinal malformation constipation
5. Surgical diseases: Possible malformations include intestinal atresia, intestinal stenosis, intestinal malrotation, Hirschsprung's disease, congenital anorectal disease, spina bifida sacrococcygeal, meningocele, tumor compression of caudal nerve, etc. These diseases are often accompanied by severe vomiting and abdominal distension, which need timely diagnosis and treatment.
In addition, some children with constipation after birth may be related to heredity if they have a family history.
6. Diseases: Some diseases can cause constipation, such as anal stenosis's disease or congenital myasthenia.
Symptoms of neonatal constipation
Infants generally defecate 1-2 times a day, and the stool is soft. If they don't understand the stool for 2-3 days, other conditions are good, which may be general constipation. But if there is abdominal distension, abdominal pain, vomiting, etc. Should be sent to the hospital for examination in time. The symptoms of neonatal constipation are different in the following two situations.
1, meconium
If you still can't see meconium 24 hours after birth, you should doubt whether it is fecal obstruction caused by congenital malformation of digestive tract, and make timely diagnosis and treatment.
2, ordinary stool
Some babies have poor defecation shortly after birth, and defecate every 1-2 days or 3-4 days/time. The defecation is dry and hard, and the baby cries constantly during defecation. Because the stool is dry and hard, it is difficult to defecate every time, which will make the baby feel scared and afraid of defecation, leading to a vicious circle.
If the baby is constipated for a long time, there will be symptoms such as loss of appetite, abdominal distension and even abdominal pain, dizziness, restless sleep, and even serious symptoms such as proctoptosis or anal fissure bleeding.
How to diagnose neonatal constipation
Every baby has a different frequency of defecation. Some babies defecate many times a day, and some may defecate once every few days. As long as the characteristics and quantity of defecation are basically normal, there is no abnormality in the baby's eating, general state and weight gain, so there is no need to deal with it.
Especially for breast-fed babies, there will be great differences in stool shape and defecation law. No matter the time interval between defecation, as long as the defecation process is not very laborious, it is normal and not dry. Don't take the time interval between defecation as the diagnostic condition of constipation.
If the baby has the following conditions, the mother should consider constipation:
1, the total amount of stool is small and dry.
2, difficulty in defecation, and even anal fissure.
3. loss of appetite.
4, abdominal fullness, abdominal pain.
What about neonatal constipation?
What about neonatal constipation? Parents can adopt the following eight methods.
1. Breastfeed as much as possible: because breastfed babies are less prone to constipation.
2, appropriate massage abdomen: massage the left lower abdomen, if you touch the umbilical cord, gently massage from top to bottom to promote the downward discharge of stool.
3, massage the child's anus properly: you can stimulate the anus with warm water, or gently massage the anus with your fingers to relax the stool, which can cause physiological reflex and promote the baby's defecation.
4, adhere to passive gymnastics: mother should insist on doing passive gymnastics for the baby, increase the strength of abdominal muscles, which is conducive to defecation.
5, do more turn-over exercises: For babies who often lie flat (especially some full-term normal children), parents are advised to turn over three times a day, practice looking up and increase gastrointestinal peristalsis.
6, give the baby plenty of water: usually pay attention to let the baby drink more water, promote intestinal peristalsis, and have a certain effect on inducing the baby to defecate.
7. Chinese medicine treatment: Chinese medicine (under the guidance of a doctor) that can clear away heat and detoxify and moisten the intestines and relieve constipation can be applied appropriately.
8. Artificial laxatives: use laxatives such as paraffin oil, kaisai dew and small soap bars, and train defecation habits at the same time. However, this method of artificial defecation can not be widely used to prevent the baby from becoming dependent, and it can only be used when the baby is severely constipated.
(1) laxative massage: put the four fingers of the right hand together and gently massage the baby's navel clockwise. This can not only help defecation but also help digestion.
(2) Soap bar laxative method: cut the soap into pencil-thick, 3 cm long soap bars, and insert them into the baby's anus after wetting with water, which can stimulate the intestinal wall and cause defecation.
(3) catharsis with Kaisailu: Inject Kaisailu into the anus of children, so that the liquid medicine can give full play to the role of stimulating intestinal peristalsis and softening stool, and achieve the best catharsis effect. But this method is used as little as possible.
(4) Glycerol suppository laxative method: Wash your hands, then open the wrapping paper of conical glycerol suppository, slowly insert it into the baby's anus, then gently press the anus and wait as long as possible to make the glycerol suppository fully melt before defecation.
What does newborn constipation eat?
The newborn baby is constipated, first of all, we should find out the cause of constipation, because different constipation symptoms have different solutions.
For breast-fed newborns, if they eat too little, there will be less residue after digestion, resulting in less stool. Mothers can appropriately increase the amount of breastfeeding.
For artificial feeding and mixed feeding newborns, it can make the baby drink more warm water to stimulate intestinal peristalsis, which has a certain laxative effect.