Top 8 most common gastrointestinal diseases in infants and children

Tả This is an extremely dangerous disease that can spread into an epidemic, patients, especially young children, if not treated promptly, have a high risk of death. The main distinguishing feature of cholera is massive watery diarrhea, continuous vomiting, and abdominal pain. Diarrhea is the most dangerous symptom to worry about. The baby can go to the toilet continuously, can’t hold it, the stool is full of milky white water. Children become severely dehydrated, exhausted, and can die very quickly.

The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. This type of bacteria often appears in dirty places, unsanitary water sources, stale, undercooked food or infested with flies. When children eat and drink in that environment, bacteria will follow the food into the digestive tract, they grow and secrete many disease-causing toxins.

Therefore, to prevent cholera in children, mothers should pay attention to:

• Need to keep food hygiene.
• Use cooled boiled water, limit the use of unpasteurized or bottled drinking water on the sidewalk.
• Food must be thoroughly cooked.
• Families can also teach children the habit of washing hands before eating and after using the toilet to limit infection.

Constipation common in young children, especially those using formula milk. However, you need to distinguish constipation Congenital dilatation of the intestines is a common physiological phenomenon in children that can take many days to have a bowel movement, but the stool is still soft.

So how to know exactly that your baby is constipated, based on the following signs, mom:

• Having a bowel movement less than 3 times a week and each time the child has a bowel movement may be afraid, the fear gradually makes him not want to have a bowel movement or the bowel is not finished.
• Stool properties: Hard, dry, lumpy stools that may contain blood and have an unpleasant odor.
• Diarrhea, urinary tract infection.

Do you know the reason why your baby is constipated? Let’s see if your baby falls into any of the following situations:

• The diet does not provide enough fiber for the baby or the baby is not nursing enough, drinking little water
• Babies hold their bowels, sometimes just one difficult and painful bowel movement, they will tend to hold their bowels
• Less movement restricts bowel movements and expels stools
• Family history of members also experiencing constipation
• Constipation side effects

Once you know the cause of constipation in children, please refer to the ways to overcome this situation:

• Improve nutrition: Increase fiber, eat less sweets and drink more water, drink more.
• Increase movement, infants and young children parents can rub the belly and let the baby learn to ride a bicycle.
• If the cause is due to a side effect of a medication, parents can consult a doctor to consider changing the medication.

Note: Minimizing anal enema in children, especially in infants and young children because it may affect the function of the excretory organs later.

Infants and young children may vomit after eating, during the period of weaning, teething… this is a very normal physiological phenomenon because the child’s digestive system is not stable and not fully developed. However, when children vomit many times and continuously during the day, parents need to determine the cause of such vomiting in order to have a remedy.

There are many reasons why children vomit often, including the following reasons:

• Children with intestinal diseases such as intussusception, intestinal atrophy, gastroenteritis… In addition, infants often suffer from Gastroesophageal reflux since the stomach is still horizontal, Gastroesophageal reflux It can go away when the baby is 1 year old, so you don’t need to worry too much.
• Children have problems with the nervous system caused by the vomiting reflex center controlled by the brain. Mothers should not arbitrarily use antiemetics, which can blur the symptoms, making it more difficult to diagnose and treat.
• Children who eat too much can vomit. In addition, if the mother’s breastfeeding position is not reasonable, the child may also vomit.
• Children cough with phlegm due to respiratory infections is one of the leading causes of vomiting in children
• Other symptoms that can lead to vomiting include bloating, belching, or constipation
• A less common cause is food poisoning in children.

Parents can refer to some ways to limit vomiting in children such as:

• Feed the baby in the right position, usually if the baby sucks from both breasts, the mother should feed the baby from the left first and then switch to the right.
• After the child has finished eating, parents should proceed to burp the child. For children with gastroesophageal reflux, parents should divide meals to avoid the baby eating too full and easily vomiting.
• Keep your baby’s tummy warm because when the baby’s stomach is cold, it can also vomit
• When carrying out the above measures, but the vomiting condition in children has not improved, parents should take the child to a medical center. Especially when children vomiting green bile yellow is the clearest sign of intussusception, parents should urgently take the child to the doctor to avoid it being too late.

Gastroesophageal reflux can be divided into two types: physiological gastroesophageal reflux, which is common in infants because at this time the stomach is still in the cyst and the cardiac node is weak, the second type is pathological gastroesophageal reflux. can cause many complications in children.

Symptoms of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease:

• Gastrointestinal symptoms: Vomiting immediately after eating, if it is milk, the milk is in liquid form, not as bean residue (bean residue means digested milk residue)
• Extra-gastrointestinal symptoms: sinusitis, ear infection, wheezing pneumonia, tooth erosion, anemia, rarely aspiration leads to respiratory arrest.

With a child with gastroesophageal reflux, parents also need to learn how to take care of the baby appropriately, avoiding the child’s recurrence will cause many complications later:


For children who are not yet weaned:

• Split feedings: Feed for 10-15 minutes, 1 to 1.5 hours apart.
• If the baby is bottle-fed, check to see if the milk is flooded with the nipple, the jet will be too strong,…

For babies who are already weaned:

• Eat small meals, don’t force your baby to eat too much
• Avoid giving your child: orange juice, tangerine, grapefruit, fried or oily foods, garlic, onions, spicy foods, ketchup and preparations with ketchup; Avoid giving children high-fat foods and foods that are too solid to increase the risk of constipation and reduce calcium absorption. In addition, after the baby has finished eating, parents need to burp the child and should sleep after eating for a while

When children have acid reflux, parents need to do the following:

• Let the child lie on his side to prevent the child from choking on milk and food; Perform nasal aspiration if necessary
• Clean up if the baby spits up and change clothes, put diapers on the baby to not get cold
• Feed or feed the baby again after about 30 minutes

There are many causes of anorexia in children that parents may not expect such as:

• The child is anorexic, but his parents still force him to eat, so physiological anorexia becomes a pathology
• Anorexia due to the lack of micronutrients such as zinc in the diet, makes the baby not have a good appetite
• Anorexia due to parents not giving children rich, improperly prepared foods that make children anorexic
• Anorexia after immunizations, fever, or when children gain specific skills during or after crisis weeks
• Anorexia due to inappropriate dietary transition time such as introducing solid foods too early
• Anorexia due to other diseases: parasitic infections, viruses, malnutrition, intestinal dysbiosis, …
• Drug-induced anorexia: antibiotics cause intestinal dysbacteriosis, appetite stimulants cause anorexia after stopping drug use
• Congenital anorexia

Anorexia is extremely dangerous because anorexia reduces resistance in children, making children often sick, poor absorption of nutrients, leading to rickets, malnutrition, mental retardation and physical retardation., etc.

Understanding the causes of anorexia in children as well as measuring the risks caused by anorexia, parents can help their children “beat” anorexia in the following ways:

• Parents should not force their children to eat (force to eat how much, how long and where to eat)
• Parents need to follow the correct food preparation techniques for their children and adhere to the dietary transition time in their children
• Parents should not rush to give their children good appetite stimulants lest they have the opposite effect, especially during the period when children are anorexic.
• When children are anorexic due to not absorbing enough necessary micronutrients, they need to supplement these micronutrients for children
• Drug-induced anorexia: Using probiotics to re-culture intestinal bacteria or feeding children yogurt; avoid taking supplements without a doctor’s prescription; Avoid using stimulants.
• When children are born anorexic (do not ask to eat but just sleep and play), parents need to actively feed the baby

Digestive disorders It is a condition in which the sphincter muscles in the digestive system contract abnormally, causing abdominal pain and changes in bowel movements. When the baby has digestive disorders, the baby will often experience inconvenience in daily life due to changes in the problem of going to the toilet, frequent abdominal pain, bloating, discomfort. Young children are susceptible to digestive disorders because the digestive system has not been perfected both in terms of structure, activity and amount of digestive enzymes. Moreover, children’s resistance is weaker, so they are prone to gastrointestinal disorders. Improper nutrition or use of antibiotics are also causes of this unpleasant disease.

Digestive disorders For a long time, children do not absorb enough nutrients for healthy development. As a result, children often suffer from malnutrition, physical retardation and underdeveloped immune systems.

To prevent digestive disorders In children, parents need to pay attention to:

• Breastfeed exclusively with breast milk for the first 6 months
• Healthy eating mode
• Limit antibiotic use when children are sick
• Keeping your baby clean
• Fully vaccinated baby…

Stomach bloating common in infants and young children because at this time the stomach is still small and the baby sometimes has to receive a rather large amount of food compared to the stomach volume, plus the microbiota in children is not rich enough to fully digest the amount of food that the child is consumed, especially in the case of weaning babies. When children have indigestion, they often have symptoms such as: irritability, crying, anorexia, anorexia, vomiting, abdominal distension, or may have loose or viscous stools for a few days.

So when a child shows signs of bloating, what should parents do?

• Abdominal massage for children to push air out from the stomach, mothers do it by rubbing clockwise, but should avoid massaging right after the child eats.
• Exercise for children by cycling method
• Warm up the baby’s belly
• Burp your baby
• Place the roasted onion and garlic over the baby’s navel (don’t put it directly on the skin).
• Use fruits such as: lemon and ginger juice, orange juice, grapes, garlic and soybean oil, ice, etc.

Parents need to clearly distinguish when children diarrhea (or to go wet) because babies and young children can go several times a day but not diarrhea, If you want to know, please refer to the following signs of diarrhea in children: The child has a bowel movement several times a day, the stools are watery with a fishy or sour smell, and there is no blood or nose mixed in the stool. Depending on the number of bowel movements a day, signs of dehydration vary. There are 3 levels of dehydration:

• Grade 1: The child is only thirsty, dry lips, fussy, normal daily urine output.
• Grade 2: The child is very thirsty, has poor skin elasticity, and decreased urine output.
• Grade 3: Wrinkled skin, sunken eyes, sunken fontanelles, dry lips, excessive thirst, fatigue, little urination.

Diarrhea and pneumonia are always the top two diseases that spread obsessions for parents. To avoid this problem, parents need to know the causes of diarrhea in children so that they can prevent it:

• Due to unhygienic in eating and drinking for children, especially those who take bottles but do not clean the bottles or wash their hands before preparing milk for babies.
• Hand – mouth cycle: If the child’s hand is contaminated with feces (in the process of cleaning for the baby accidentally touched) then sucking will easily lead to diarrhea.
• Due to the lack of digestive enzymes, it causes digestive disorders.
• Feed your baby malformed foods, such as milk left out in the air for a safe period of time, and then feed it again.

Understanding the possible causes of diarrhea in children, parents can “wear armor” to prevent children from getting sick by keeping clean when feeding their babies as well as their food sources. When a child has diarrhea, parents can rehydrate the child with oresol solution and strengthen breastfeeding and drinking water. Parents also note taking the child to the medical facility immediately when the child has the following symptoms:

• Fever
• Vomiting a lot
• Bloody stools
• Thirsty or very thirsty