Colic in a child: symptoms and treatment

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Colic in a child is a sharp, sharp pain in the abdomen, which is caused by spasms. 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 also diagnosed in older children due to dysbacteriosis, malnutrition and other pathologies.

How do you know if a baby has colic? With them, pain appears in the area slightly below the navel. At the same time, the child takes a forced position, pressing his legs to his stomach or bending over, while drops of sweat can often be found on his face. In general, the pain goes away after a few minutes. The condition of the child after this will either improve, or another spasm will occur. So, in this article we will figure out what it is, why it appears and how to properly help.

Causes of colic

The causes of intestinal spasms in childhood are very different. It is common in infantsa disorder in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, which is explained by the immaturity of the nervous system and the incomplete development of the digestive organs of the newborn. The first colic occurs in a month-old baby (perhaps three weeks old) and usually ends by the fourth month.

In older babies they appear for the following reasons:

• helminthiases;
• intestinal obstruction;
• poisoning the body with s alts of heavy metals;
• disruption of the digestive system;
• inflammatory processes taking place in the intestines;
• infectious diseases;
• exercising too intensely, irritating bowel loops;
• psycho-emotional overload, stress.

Symptoms

The symptoms of colic in infants are not at all the same as intestinal cramps in babies over a year old. In infants, they begin during feeding or 15 minutes after it. The baby, even if he fell asleep, wakes up with a loud cry, spits up food and behaves very excitedly. If at this moment you touch his tummy, you can find how tense and hard it has become.

At the same time, if a crying baby is offered a bottle or a breast, most likely he will refuse. The development of the digestive tract and nervous system of the baby is completed closer to the year, therefore, in the first months, colic occurs quite often, while they have different severity.

Symptoms of intestinal colic in children aged 5 years or more are manifested by pain and intense spasms in the intestinal region, stool disorderand rumbling, bloating, mucus in the stool. At the same time, the baby's condition deteriorates sharply, dizziness, general weakness are observed.

Since the symptoms of abdominal colic in a child can be accompanied by all sorts of pathologies of the digestive organs, it is necessary to find out the cause of this trouble and immediately treat it.

Sign of disease

There are a number of diseases that colic is considered to be a symptom of. These are diseases of the pancreas and stomach - pancreatitis and gastritis, due to which food is not fully absorbed and enters the intestines in an undigested form.

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 due to SARS, intestinal infection, influenza.

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.

Diagnosis

Proper diagnosis of a condition that is accompanied by intestinal colic in children is carried out by a doctor who assumes a certain disease. After collecting anamnesis and examination, the baby is invited to take a blood test, which allows to identify the inflammatory process and anemia. In addition, the doctor will send for a coprogram - a study of feces, which makes it possible to obtain the necessary data on disorders of the pancreas, liver and intestines.

To get the exactpictures of babies with intestinal spasms are sent for FEGDS, ultrasound, x-rays, colonoscopy and computed tomography.

First Aid

How to help a child with colic? First aid in this case can be complex. It should consist of various activities:

1. If the baby receives breast milk or formula from a bottle, it is necessary to ensure that he tightly clasps the nipple with his lips, while the diameter of the hole in it should not be too large.
2. When feeding, the baby must be held in a position close to vertical, thus preventing the swallowing of excess air (aerophagia), which often causes cramps after eating.
3. For colic in older children, first aid is to find the cause of the ailment, for which you need to contact a doctor - a gastroenterologist or pediatrician.
4. You can make a warm bath between feedings with herbal decoctions that have a pronounced antispasmodic effect (chamomile, mint, oregano).

How to help a child with colic yet? Intestinal cramps can be relieved at home by doing the following:

1. Older children can take a drug that has an antispasmodic effect. Such funds mainly act on the intestines. For example, a decoction of mint, "No-shpa", "Papaverin", "Platifillin", "Smekta".
2. Put a warm heating pad on the tummy to relax the muscles.

Treatment

Spendtreatment of colic in a newly born child is not necessary, since this is a completely non-dangerous condition that goes away on its own mainly by the 4th month of life. All kinds of drugs that are designed to stop them, spasms do not completely eliminate, but they slightly relieve the strength of the attack: dill water, Espumizan, Babykalm, Disflatil, etc.

Experienced pediatricians advise parents to simply survive this period, giving the baby a light massage of the tummy, feeding in an upright position and applying a heating pad. Sometimes, when the baby suffers pain spasms with difficulty, it is allowed to try various antispasmodics, for example, "No-shpa" or "Papaverine". The course of administration and the dose of the drug should be selected by the doctor based on the examination of the crumbs and the exclusion of other causes that can cause colic in the child.

Treatment of symptoms in older children should be started only after finding out the cause of the pathology. Basically, in such cases, intestinal spasms are a sign of some kind of disease. In order to cure it, 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 appeared 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 arrival of the doctor - the child should not be offered various medicines to relieve pain,warm, because you can blur the picture of the disease, and the doctor will make the wrong diagnosis.

If colic in the baby's tummy does not occur for the first time, and the cause of this condition is known for sure, then symptomatic treatment is carried out as prescribed by the doctor with the help of drugs that solve such problems:

1. Means that relieve pain: "Spasmol", "No-shpa", "Papaverine", "Drotaverine", "Buscopan", "Besalol".
2. Drugs for the relief of diarrhea: "Smekta", "Laktofiltrum", "Enterosgel".
3. Drugs that reduce increased gas formation, eliminate the symptoms of bloating and flatulence: "Bobotik", "Disflatil", "Espumizan".

Diet

Treatment of symptoms of colic in an infant should begin with the correction of the mother's diet. In order to prevent problems with the baby's tummy, mommy should review her own daily diet and exclude gas-producing foods from it: tomatoes, cabbage, apples, legumes, watermelons, pears, mushrooms, black bread, sweets, kvass.

If the baby is bottle-fed, you should double-check whether the mixture is diluted according to the instructions. Probably out of proportion. In addition, artificial children who suffer from colic should abandon any mixtures that contain iron, while 1/3 of the daily diet should be a fermented milk special 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, it is in principle undesirable to give a child some kind of food, since there will be no benefit from this, rather, on the contrary, a relapse of an attack will not keep you waiting.

If pain in the abdomen occurs regularly, but does not cause serious discomfort, the diet should remain complete, rich in vitamins B and C.

Also, your doctor may recommend eliminating heavy foods from your diet, such as meat, which should be replaced with light proteins like poultry and fish.

If there is a suspicion of an allergy, which is the root cause of spasms, it is necessary to immediately exclude possible allergens from the menu and look after 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 herbal decoctions of fennel, cumin, peppermint or yarrow.

Useless treatments for baby colic

The life of young parents is often overshadowed by infantile colic. Scientists still cannot find their true cause. But whatever causes them, you need to be able to properly deal with them. And this is not easy to do when ineffective and sometimes harmful methods of treatment for children are wildly popular. Let's take a closer look at them.

Simethicone for a newborn baby from colic

Let's start with the most popular - drugs that contain an active ingredientsimethicone. 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 absolutely ineffective.

Therefore, these drugs are often prescribed to babies, believing that colic is painful sensations arising from increased gas formation. Although not always babies with colic have increased gas formation. Therefore, the use of all kinds of drugs to remove gases is also ineffective.

Nootropics & Sedatives

The next dangerous and useless means are various nootropics and sedatives. Young parents often do not understand what to give their child from colic, and begin to collect information from girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers, on all kinds of "authoritative" forums, where they find recommendations to use these funds. It must be understood that hysteria is not the cause of colic in a child. Crying and screaming is just a consequence. In addition, the use of sedatives in babies leads to a slowdown in their neuropsychic development. In addition, nootropics belong to a class of drugs that have not been shown to be safe and effective. They should in principle not be used in children. Just like adults.

Phytomedications

Speaking of herbal remedies for colic, it should be noted that for the most part, such drugs for colic have also not shown their effectiveness. In addition, the risk of allergic reactions to various herbal remedies for babies is very high. In other words, they will not help with colic, and can cause an acuteallergic 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 remedy, you need to understand that you are paying for water along with its memory, while the remedy 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 baby's lack of "good bacteria" for colic. Many researchers have been trying for several decades to treat this disease with all kinds of medicines that contain beneficial microorganisms, for example, lactic acid bacteria or yeast fungi.

But the opinions of scientists even here differed. 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 very different information.

Therefore, the use of "good bacteria" to treat colic in infants is currently discouraged.

Lactose

Lactose has also been attacked by researchers. But the transfer of children to a lactose-free mixture (if the child is bottle-fed), as well as the use of the lactase enzyme in breast-fed babies, the intensity and frequency of crying is not significantlydecreased.

Drinking water

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 is nothing to even comment on here.

Chiropractic & Osteopathy

Researchers have also found that such exposures are ineffective and not safe for babies. For example, acupuncture has not shown any positive effect on babies with colic.

Shaking

Aggression, which is directed at the baby, does not help with colic at all, and is also extremely dangerous for the child and can even lead to his death. Know that shaken baby syndrome from shaking has ruined 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:

• you need to eat only high-quality products stored in compliance with expiration dates under normal conditions;
• rejection of any junk food that can cause disruption of the digestive tract;
• you can’t overeat and get up from the table with a heaviness in your stomach, but if this happens, you need to take enzymes like "Festal" or "Mezim";
• it is forbidden to eat dry food, as this slows down digestion: products due to an insufficient amount of enzymes cannot be absorbed by the stomach in the required volume, spasms appear;
• fruits, vegetables, dairy products and cereals should be the main part of the diet, it will not be superfluous anddaily use of linseed oil.

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 complications such as enterocolitis, dysbacteriosis, etc. If we talk about infantile colic, then it's best to just wait.