The study of the child's feces is important for determining the state of the gastrointestinal tract and diagnosing possible problems in its work. How to collect the baby's feces for analysis, why do this and how to decipher the test result?
Indications
Comparing the indicators of the baby's feces with the norm, you can find out:
- Are there any irregularities in the work of the pancreas, stomach, liver, intestines.
- How fat, protein or carbohydrate foods are digested in the child's body.
- Is there no infection with ascaris, lamblia and other parasites.
- What pathogen caused the intestinal infection in the child and what antibiotics will help to cope with it.
Kinds
- Stool microscopy - performed to detect helminthiasis, infection with protozoa or bacteria. For this analysis, it is very important to bring fresh feces to the laboratory.
- Bacterial analysis (tank seeding) - helps to identify the pathological flora that caused intestinal infection. It is not recommended to take antibiotics for 3 days before the test.
- Coprogram is a general study of feces, which studies its physical parameters, as well as the content of organic compounds, blood cells, bile pigments and other inclusions in the feces.
- Scraping for enterobiasis - helps to identify the eggs of parasites in the anal folds of the child.
- Occult blood test - allows you to quickly identify intestinal bleeding.
- Analysis for dysbiosis - examines the composition of the normal microbial flora of the intestine, and also determines the sensitivity of pathogenic microbes to antibiotics.
Where to take it?
The child's stool can be taken for analysis at a hospital, clinic, or a medical center with a laboratory. If you donate feces to a government agency, keep in mind that tests are only taken there at certain times (usually before 10 am).
How to collect feces from a baby?
Feces should be collected in a clean, dry container with a minimum volume of 5-10 grams. For this purpose, it is best to use a special container that can be bought at a pharmacy. A spoon is added to such a container in the kit, with the help of which it is convenient to collect the child's feces.
It is best to collect a stool sample in the morning and take it fresh to the laboratory (up to a maximum of three hours after a bowel movement). In some cases, it is permissible to bring feces collected the night before to a health facility if the sample is stored in a refrigerator.
It is important that before passing feces for analysis, the child does not take any medication that can affect the functioning of the digestive tract. Also, you can not do an enema to take feces. The anal area should be rinsed well. In addition, care should be taken to ensure that no child's urine gets into the feces taken for analysis.
It is better to collect feces not from a disposable, but from a gauze diaper, carefully taking some feces from its surface. Take particles of biological material from several points in the stool. If the baby is already planted in a pot, the feces can be collected from it, but it is important to wash the pot well and douse it with boiling water. Use an oilcloth or urine bag to collect liquid stool.
If you are in a hurry to take your feces for analysis, and there is still no bowel movement, you can use methods to stimulate emptying, such as the introduction of a gas tube and massage the tummy clockwise.
Norm
The feces of a healthy child are composed of microorganisms, mucus, epithelial cells, undigested food particles and pigments.
Normal fecal test results look like this:
- Volume - 100-250 grams (for children under one year old from 30 to 50 grams).
- The consistency is dense, shaped (in infants it looks like porridge).
- Color - brown (in infants, yellow or light brown).
- The smell is specific fecal, not sharp (in infants it is sour, and in artificial babies - putrid).
- The reaction is slightly alkaline.
- There should be no visible inclusions of mucus, blood, large particles of food.
- Test for bilirubin, protein, blood must be negative. Bilirubin is normally detected in feces only in children of the first year of life.
- In the feces of healthy children, stercobilin is detected in the amount of 75-350 mg.
- In infants, ammonia can be detected, and in older children, its concentration is less than 40 mmol per liter.
- Microscopic examination should be free of muscle fibers, neutral fat, soluble fiber, starch, fatty acids. Leukocytes in feces are allowed as single cells.
- Eggs of worms, protozoa, and yeast fungi should be absent.
Decoding
If the deviations from normal values are insignificant, they are most likely associated with changes in the child's nutrition. Parents and the doctor should be alerted to the significant difference between any indicator from the norm.
The detection of protozoa, helminths and their eggs and harmful bacteria in the feces indicates infection of the digestive tract with such pathogens.
Changes in the physical parameters of feces can be associated with the baby's nutrition, and often indicates intestinal infections. The solid consistency of the excreted feces will tell you that there are problems with peristalsis in the large intestine. Liquid feces with foam occur with rotavirus infection.
Changing the level of stercobilin and the detection of bilirubin helps to diagnose cholelithiasis and liver disease. Fibers of connective tissue or muscles seen under a microscope indicate that there is a problem with the stomach. The presence of fatty acids and neutral fat in feces is characteristic of enteritis, hepatitis and dysbiosis, and the detection of starch indicates problems with the pancreas.
If the sample shows blood in the stool, there is a risk that the child has colitis or peptic ulcer disease. An excess of white blood cells is also characteristic of colitis. If the consistency of feces is liquid or semi-liquid, there is mucus, carbohydrates, leukocytes and undigested fat in it, such a picture happens in acute enteritis.
