How does a baby's digestive system work?

This is an automatically translated article.

Video content is professionally consulted by Dr. Ho Thi Hong Tho, Pediatrician - Neonatology, Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital
Perhaps parents feel very tired whenever their child's digestive system problems are not healthy? So today, let's parents and children and Dr. Ho Thi Hong Tho, Pediatrician - Neonatologist, Vinmec Phu Quoc General Hospital discover how the child's digestive system works, this will help parents prevent Prevent as well as effectively treat digestive problems occurring in children.

1. Understanding the functioning of the digestive system in children

Did you know that in order for a child's digestive process to take place completely, the child needs coordinated organs to perform each function separately, including: mouth, esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, and pancreas.
Every time a mother breastfeeds, the oral cavity and tongue will act like a plunger to draw as much milk from the mother as possible. However, when the child is at this age, the oral mucosa of the child is quite soft, dry, has many blood vessels, so it is easily damaged and susceptible to fungal diseases in the mouth.
As your baby gets a little older and starts forming teeth, the teeth will help bite and crush food. Therefore, when your child starts teething, please give him solid and hard foods gradually.
After chewing the food thoroughly according to the instructions of the parents, the child will swallow the food through the esophagus to the stomach. After that, the food begins to continue the process of digestion in the stomach.
Your baby's stomach will have many changes during the child's development. At birth, a baby's stomach is round, lying high and horizontal. Therefore, the stomach muscles of children when they are young are weakly developed, especially the gastric sphincter, the stomach is easily deformed after eating while the pyloric sphincter is well developed and closes tightly, so the child is easy to vomit. after eating especially during the first 6 months of life.
After the stomach assumes and completes its function, the small intestine will receive the next substances of food. Parents see, the small intestine of the child is quite long, the intestinal mucosa has many wrinkles, microvilli and blood vessels, so it is easy for the child to absorb nutrients, but the connection between the intestinal epithelial cells is loose. Easy to create conditions for bacteria to enter causing digestive disorders. Moreover, the child's rectum is long, the muscles are weak and the mucosa is loose, so it is easy to prolapse when the child coughs and pushes a lot.
Next, food is digested in the intestine by the action of enzymes in intestinal juice, pancreatic juice, bile; However, the levels of these enzymes in children are lower than in adults, so children are prone to digestive disorders and malabsorption when they are ill.

2. Taking care of the digestive system in children

During the period of breastfeeding and mothers taking good care of hygiene, bacteria Bifidus, B.lactis aerogenes, B.acidophilus predominate because breast milk contains the sugar b lactose, which has a good effect on bifidus bacilli and inhibits bacteria. E. coli bacteria. If the mother breastfeeds her baby with formula milk, E. coli bacteria develop more because cow's milk contains a type of sugar called a lactose suitable for E. coli bacteria to grow. The positive effect of probiotics is to form a barrier to prevent pathogenic bacteria from entering, increase the digestion of proteins, fats, and sugars, participate in the synthesis of group B vitamins, vitamin K.
Another part of the baby's digestive process is the liver. The liver of the baby is large, accounting for 4.4% of the body weight. Because the structure of the baby's liver is not complete, so the baby's liver will:
● Easily move if there is a tumor or there is pleural fluid.
● The liver has many blood vessels, many cavities, and the cells are not fully developed.
Poor liver function, easy irritation when children have infections, poisoning and liver in children are also prone to fatty degeneration.
In order to protect the baby's health comprehensively, parents should have their children go for regular general health check-ups to detect health problems early, from which there are directions for early intervention and treatment.
Currently, Vinmec International General Hospital offers customers a General Health Checkup Package for children. The baby will be thoroughly examined, from eyes, teeth, blood pressure, weight to necessary tests, combined with diagnostic imaging. The examination package helps you check your baby's overall health, screen for symptoms for early detection and treatment if needed.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.