Every third child systematically suffers from constipation. Every other person has constipation from time to time. And absolutely every baby at least once experienced difficulties with bowel movement. This problem is quite delicate, and parents do not always go to the doctor with it. That's when they are puzzled by simple and harmless home methods to cope with constipation in a child. In this article, we will talk about folk remedies designed to help solve the most delicate problems.
Symptoms and signs
Before talking about constipation as such, parents should know about the norms of bowel emptying in children of different ages that exist in medicine.... Newborn babies go to the toilet quite often, sometimes after each feeding, up to 12 bowel movements per day are considered normal. This applies to babies who are breastfed, artificial people go to the toilet less often, they can talk about constipation if the baby has not emptied the intestines for a day.
Children under 1 year old walk in large 1-3 times a day, and babies from 1 year to 2 years old - 1-2 times every 1-2 days. After two years, the stool in children is fully formed, the feces are formed, he can go to the toilet 1 time in 1-2 days. Defecation, which occurs less frequently than these rates, may well indicate constipation.
The main symptoms of constipation are:
- Lack of stool.
- Possible pain and discomfort in the abdomen.
- Decreased appetite.
- Headache, signs of general intoxication of the body.
- Bloating and increased gas production.
The reasons for children's constipation can be a great variety, because the digestive system of the baby is still imperfect. Most often, a child cannot normally go to the toilet due to an imbalance in his own diet or mom's menu if he feeds on breast milk. Constipation often occurs in babies who drink little liquid, who have been suddenly introduced to complementary foods or a new product, as well as babies who are experiencing severe stress or are in a state of psychological discomfort.
What is the danger
With constipation, the child's immunity suffers, the composition of his blood, and this directly affects the general condition... The absorption of nutrients in the intestines with constipation is impaired, which means that the body will not receive a large amount of vitamins, microelements, and anemia may begin. Decay products enter the body through the intestinal wall, which causes lethargy, apathy, symptoms of intoxication and a deterioration in appetite. In general, constipation is very harmful to the child's condition.
You can learn more about all the sides of the danger of childhood constipation by watching the next issue of Dr.
When folk methods are indispensable
Before treating constipation with folk remedies, you need to exclude more serious causes of difficulty with defecation than banal eating behavior. Frequent constipation can be signs of anemia, intestinal dysbiosis, food allergies. So helminthic invasions and disorders of the thyroid gland can manifest themselves. In addition, chronic constipation can be the result of congenital abnormalities, defects in the development of the intestine. Some of these conditions require surgery, and almost all are treated with traditional medicines.
Folk remedies will help alleviate the child's condition, but will not eliminate the root cause of the difficulties. That is why it is so important to inform the doctor about an existing delicate problem, and, if necessary, undergo additional examinations.
You should not even start treating with alternative medicine if you notice blood fragments in the feces, if the abdominal pain is quite intense, traces of a small amount of liquid feces are visible on the child's underwear with a steady state of constipation. All these problems require an early visit to a doctor, and not home practitioners with grandmother's recipes.
Folk remedies
Vegetable and fruit juices
Carrot juice, cabbage and peach juice are especially effective. They should be free of preservatives, the ideal option is to squeeze them yourself. You can take juices several times a day.
Vaseline oil
This remedy can be used for chronic severe constipation. Before going to bed, you can give your child 1-2 teaspoons, in the morning he should go to the toilet. This method is not suitable for children under one year old.
Flax seeds
They can be used to make a not very beautiful, but very effective laxative. To do this, pour a teaspoon of seeds with half a glass of boiling water and insist for a quarter of an hour. The result is a substance that is very reminiscent of mucus, and this is what you need to give the child half a teaspoon before each meal.
Dill water
This remedy helps not only for infant colic, but also for constipation and increased gas production. You can buy a ready-made mass at the pharmacy for dilution with water, or you can prepare the product yourself. You will need two teaspoons of dill seeds and one glass of boiling water. If there are no seeds, you can use dill greens, but its effectiveness is slightly lower. Throw the herb into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes. Then strain, cool and give the child a drink before meals.
Chamomile
From a pharmacy chamomile, you can prepare a remedy that will alleviate the condition of a child with infrequent and relatively not severe constipation. You will need a tablespoon of dry collection and two glasses of hot water. The broth should be held in a water bath for five minutes, and then cooled and filtered. Take a quarter of a glass three times a day before meals. The given dose is optimal for a child who is already 3 years old. Those who are younger are given a tablespoon four times a day.
Oats
Oat grains (150 g) must be poured with boiling water (250 ml) and left in a thermos overnight. The resulting oat milk is given in the morning after waking up on an empty stomach. Usually, the laxative effect of consumption occurs within 4-5 hours after ingestion. This remedy should not be given to children under 2 years of age.
Prunes
This healthy product is indicated for older children. Prunes can be given whole or made from a decoction with figs, taking both ingredients in equal amounts. After the liquid has boiled over low heat for about half an hour, it must be cooled and given to the child half a glass three times a day.
Kefir drink
Take 200 grams of kefir of any fat content, add two tablespoons of chamomile broth and a teaspoon of sunflower oil to it. Divide the resulting volume in two. Give one to drink in the morning, the second in the evening before dinner.
An Apple
The pulp of this fruit is rich in pectin, which has a laxative effect. Peel one medium-sized apple, sprinkle the resulting gruel with sunflower or olive oil. If the child is already 3-4 years old, you can add some honey. Babies usually eat such "medicine" with great pleasure. Give 2-3 times a day, before each use, you should prepare mashed potatoes again.
Raisins
If the child is small, he needs to prepare a decoction. For a tablespoon of raisins, you need a glass of boiling water. It takes at least 3 hours to infuse the remedy, and then give the babies 2 teaspoons 2-3 times a day. If the child is already 4 years old, suggest simply eating raisins. Give a handful three times a day and remember to drink plenty of water or milk.
The danger of self-medication
The medical approach to the treatment of constipation includes determining the cause and selecting a drug to eliminate it. That is why different laxatives have different effects: some increase the amount of stool, others accumulate fluid in the intestinal lumen, thereby facilitating the excretion of feces, and still others irritate the intestinal walls, provoking contraction and defecation.
With home treatment, it is difficult for parents to navigate the true reasons for the unpleasant state of their baby, they just have to try different recipes from the arsenal of traditional healers, and choose the right one by trial and error. Any experiments on a child are not humane and criminal, especially when you consider that the reason may lie in diseases that require drug therapy and as soon as possible.
What not to do
Some popular recipes offer a rather aggressive effect on the intestinal wall.... I would like to urge parents to prudence. It is not necessary to inject pieces of household or other soap into the child's rectum, as is advised on the Internet, since the alkaline compounds in the soap can cause serious irritation of the delicate mucous membrane.
You should not even try to do an enema with apple cider vinegar, it is fraught with burns of the mucous membrane and bleeding. In some situations, with such lesions, doctors are forced to remove part of the rectum, the child becomes disabled.
And the advice of the "experienced" to dip a baby's pacifier in honey and give it to the baby is dictated by anything but common sense, since even people far from medicine understand that honey is the strongest allergen, and the body of a newborn is not able to digest such a product.
Adult laxatives should not be given to children, even in smaller doses.
Tips
- A glass of room temperature water is where the morning should start. If you teach your child to drink water immediately after waking up, then he will not have constipation, moreover, he will develop a useful habit of going to the toilet at about the same time, preferably in the morning.
- As much movement and physical activity as possible for a child with constipation, this is the most correct thing that parents can do. The more intensively the baby moves, the more he runs and jumps, walks, goes in for sports, the more actively his intestines work, the metabolic processes proceed faster, which means that the risk of constipation is significantly reduced. For infants, tummy massage is recommended in circular movements in a clockwise direction.
- Enemas with folk remedies, as well as with pharmaceutical medicines, should be an emergency response measure. You can not do enemas systematically, as this causes serious damage to the intestinal microflora and can cause a rather severe dysbiosis.
- Provide your child with plenty of drink, and the problem of constipation will be solved due to the natural softening of feces.
