All parents know firsthand how unpleasant and exciting it is when a baby gets sick. It is especially frightening when a child has a pain in his right side, since this symptom may indicate a wide range of pathologies. In order to avoid mistakes in assessing the state of the crumbs, it is important to have the most detailed information about where they come from and what such pains mean.
If the child does not yet know how to speak, it is very difficult to understand that he is in pain.
The main causes of pain
A child under the age of three usually signals that he has a tummy ache by crying, refusing to eat and lethargy. With older children, the situation is somewhat simpler - they can not only say and show where they have unpleasant sensations, but also describe the nature of the pain. Some of the most common causes of right side pain include the following.
Intestinal parasites
Worms are parasites that lay eggs in the human body. Since children constantly pull toys and dirty hands into their mouths, it is not surprising that they are the first to be at risk.
When entering the abdominal organs, intestinal parasites can cause a variety of symptoms, including pain in the right side of the abdomen. Since we are not talking about an acute infectious infection, it can take several weeks from the moment the helminths enter the body until the first symptoms appear, and even more before the onset of pain.
Parasites in the intestines are a common cause of abdominal pain in a child
Despite the fact that the pain in this case is mild, getting rid of them is problematic even with the help of analgesics and antispasmodics. As a rule, symptomatic treatment is also ineffective. The only way to relieve your baby of suffering is to solve the problem with intestinal parasites. Once they are eliminated from the body, the abdominal pain will stop on its own over time.
Acute appendicitis
With appendicitis, the child also begins to hurt the right side in the lower abdomen. Pain syndrome in this case occurs very suddenly, for no apparent reason. At first, the child can still endure unpleasant sensations, but the longer he does this, the more unbearable the pain becomes. The baby begins to feel bad, he becomes weak, and his appetite worsens. Sometimes the disease can manifest itself as a single vomiting and nausea.
Another symptom of acute appendicitis is fever, accompanied by chills. A white or yellowish coating appears on the tongue.
In some cases, parents treat the child's complaints about pain radiating to the right side without proper attention and try to treat the tummy on their own with improvised means. Such a development of events is fraught with serious consequences - if the child is not operated on in a timely manner, peritonitis will develop.
Bowel and pancreas diseases
In a child, abdominal pain on the right can indicate many diseases of the intestines or pancreas. On the right side of the human body, there are a number of organs. This is not only a part of the intestines and stomach, but also the right lobe of the diaphragm, liver, gallbladder. Accordingly, the causes of pain can be many: gastritis, pyelonephritis, peptic ulcer, intestinal obstruction, biliary dyskinesia and much more.
Important! If you find the child has pain in the right side, you should not wait. It is necessary to immediately show the baby to a specialist. In the event that the pain syndrome is acute, an ambulance should be called. Any delay can lead to the most undesirable consequences.
Acute pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis is another disease in which the side on the right can hurt. Most often, this disease in young children develops with burdened heredity or trauma to the pancreas. The child's main complaint will be pain. At the same time, pain sensations, depending on the form of the disease (acute or chronic) and the individual characteristics of the organism, can vary from moderate to very strong. If pancreatitis is suspected, self-medication is unacceptable under any circumstances. You need to call an ambulance. With an untimely start of treatment, pancreatonecrosis can develop - the death of organ tissues.
Diseases of the liver and gallbladder
With various diseases of the liver and gallbladder, one of the main symptoms is girdle pain on the right side. Sometimes painful sensations can be given to the left shoulder blade or back. The pain may come on in fits or be persistent. Diseases of the liver and gallbladder require timely treatment. Therapy may include surgery, medication, or diet. You can't do without a doctor's appointment.
When you need help urgently
If a child complains that his right side or lower abdomen hurts, you should not waste time trying to find out on your own what could be causing the problem. Parents should immediately consult a doctor and describe in as much detail as possible all the symptoms noticed in the baby.
In children, the pain threshold is often lower than in adults.
Warning signs
Reasons for an immediate call to a doctor, even better an ambulance, are the following symptoms:
- the pain experienced by the child, sharp and cutting;
- the baby's abdominal muscles are overly tense;
- the child has nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea;
- high or low blood pressure;
- pallor of the skin;
- the child is lethargic or overly agitated;
- increased body temperature;
- the baby spends a lot of time on his side and pulls his legs to the chest.
Interesting. Sometimes the reasons why pains appear in the right side are associated with excessive physical exertion of the child with insufficient endurance. In this case, there is no particular cause for concern. You just need to reduce the load, and the problem will be solved by itself.
Diagnostic methods
A whole range of methods is used to diagnose pain in the right side of the abdomen. Laboratory examinations may include:
- general clinical analysis of urine and blood;
- biochemical research;
- blood test for sugar, total protein;
- coprogram;
- analysis of feces for helminths, rotavirus infection, dysbiosis, etc.
Of the instrumental methods, the following are most often resorted to:
- X-ray examinations;
- Ultrasound;
- CT;
- MRI;
- fibrogastroscopy, etc.
The choice of specific techniques is made by a specialist based on the results of the patient's examination. Treatment is prescribed only after the final diagnosis is made.
Side pain can be relatively time consuming to diagnose
If the pain syndrome is not acute, the first step is to contact your local pediatrician. He will get acquainted with the child's medical history, prescribe the necessary tests and examinations, after which he will give a preliminary conclusion. On its basis, a small patient can be referred to a narrow specialist: an infectious disease specialist, a surgeon or a gastroenterologist.
First aid and treatment
The only help that can be provided by parents until the child is examined by a doctor is to provide the baby with complete rest and refusal from antispasmodics and analgesics. Medicines can blur the clinical picture. It is not allowed to warm the right side - in many cases this can exacerbate the disease. You should not use folk remedies, especially since in most cases they will be useless.
Note. Pain can be reduced by using a cold compress with ice. This will slightly slow down the development of the inflammatory process and will reduce internal bleeding if present.
If the pain is moderate, and its attacks do not begin to frequent, calling an ambulance can be replaced by a visit to the attending physician. In order to prescribe adequate treatment that will allow you to cope with the disease and eliminate the pain syndrome, compulsory diagnostics will be required.
It is not the pain that needs to be treated, but the disease that caused it. Treatment depends on the diagnosis. In case of intestinal diseases, pancreatitis and inflammation of the gallbladder, a small patient will most likely be prescribed antispasmodics and a therapeutic diet. If the identified disease is inflammatory, the patient will be treated with a course of vitamins and antibiotics. For cholelithiasis or acute appendicitis, surgery will be suggested as therapy.
With pain in the side of a child, self-medication is unacceptable
Prevention
Practice shows that any disease is much easier to prevent than to cure. So that the baby does not suffer from pain in the left side, the following simple recommendations will be useful:
- annually undergo a complete medical examination, including ultrasound examination of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, etc., to identify the possible development of chronic diseases;
- organize proper nutrition for the child.
In many cases, this is quite enough so that the baby does not have to complain about pain in the right side of the abdomen.
