Recognizing signs of intestinal obstruction in children

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor II Cao Thi Thanh - Pediatrician - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital. Dr. Thanh has worked for 25 years in the treatment of neonatal pediatric diseases.
Intestinal obstruction in children can be caused by persistent constipation or by a tumor. In addition, it can also be caused by non-compliance with hygiene and by ascariasis bacteria. When intestinal obstruction, children cry a lot because of severe abdominal pain, vomiting. Therefore, parents need to pay attention and promptly handle when children encounter this disease.

1. What is bowel obstruction?

Intestinal obstruction is a common surgical emergency. In particular, food residue is one of the rare causes of small bowel obstruction. Food residues are formed in the stomach and move into the small intestine when the stomach is not intact after many different surgeries such as: Gastrectomy, X-wire cutting, gastrojejunostomy,...
In addition, when the intestines are blocked, blocked due to compression from the outside of the intestines such as ligaments, tumors, ... or by foreign bodies such as worms, food residues, gallstones, tumors in the intestinal lumen, meconium plugs , ... also causes intestinal obstruction. But mainly food residue is the main cause of intestinal obstruction in children.
Intestinal obstruction is difficult to correctly diagnose the cause before surgery, if delayed treatment can cause many complications such as dehydration and electrolyte loss due to vomiting, hypotension, premature collapse.

2. Signs of intestinal obstruction in children

Clinically, there are 4 main symptoms including pain, vomiting, constipation and abdominal distension:
The pain usually appears quite early, can occur suddenly and intensely for about 2-3 minutes and then subsides and after a while time reappears; the intensity is increasing gradually; pain occurs around the area above the navel, left or right abdomen, pelvis, ... then spreads quickly to the whole abdomen. Vomiting is an easy to identify sign, they may appear early along with pain due to increased peristalsis and antiperistalsis; At first, children may vomit food, then bile, digestive juices; when vomiting is early and profuse is a sign of high intestinal obstruction, early dehydration often occurs; when vomiting stools, bowel obstruction has been left too late and low bowel obstruction with signs of vomiting appears late; Late vomiting is often accompanied by abdominal distension.

Constipation also shows a blockage in the circulation of substances in the intestinal lumen, this is the decisive clinical symptom to diagnose intestinal obstruction, but it is the most difficult to determine because it is a subjective sign that many patients do not pay attention to. Abdominal distention is often detected by clinical examination methods such as: Seeing, palpating, tapping, percussion, listening, rectal examination,... At the age of teething or tooth replacement, children chew poorly and do not know yet. grumpy. Therefore, the risk of intestinal obstruction is great when children eat fruits with a lot of pulp, acrid, especially fruits with many small and hard seeds.
Early diagnosis of the disease will be essential. Accidents should be prevented by carefully controlling food for children. If after eating, the child has abdominal pain, vomiting, bloody stools or cannot urinate, it is necessary to take him to the hospital to prevent complications in time.
Besides, parents also need to supplement their children with essential micro-minerals such as zinc, lysine, chromium, selenium, vitamin B1, ... to fully meet the nutritional needs of children. The addition of these essential vitamins also supports digestion, enhances nutrient absorption, improves anorexia, and helps children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. The combination of many types of functional foods at the same time or continuously changing many types in a short time can cause the baby's digestive system not to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.