What does E. Komarovsky say about constipation?
When parents are faced with constipation in a baby, they want to help the child more quickly and correctly by referring to reputable specialists. Let's find out the opinion about constipation and their treatment of the famous pediatrician E. Komarovsky.
What is constipation?
Constipation, according to the dictionary, can be called the difficulty of defecation and emptying, which is too slow. Constipation is also called insufficient bowel movement from the stool. This problem is relevant for a person at any age, but attention to children should be heightened to constipation, since this is how congenital pathologies can manifest.
Psychological factor
The place in which the child is emptied can affect his chair. The baby may not like the location of the toilet, the temperature in it, the smell, sanitary conditions. This is especially noticeable when traveling with a child far from home. Then constipation can not lead to the peculiarities of the bowels, but psychological reasons. This should be considered before starting to treat constipation in a baby.
If a child has anal fissures or hemorrhoids, then he may want to go to the toilet, but be held back for fear of pain. In such a situation can help candles, based on sea buckthorn oil or glycerin. Komarovsky calls them one of the most affordable and harmless ways to cope with constipation in a baby up to a year.
Is it a disease?
If constipation develops after the age of three years, and the child does not have obesity, dystrophy or developmental delay, then congenital anomalies are thought of last.
In infants of the first year of life, constipation can mean a rather dangerous pathology - Hirshsprung's disease. With this disease, nerve cells are underdeveloped in parts of the intestines, which is why this area functions poorly. It is constantly reduced, causing an accumulation of feces. It is possible to cure such a pathology only through an operation, by removing that part of the intestine that does not work. It is good that this disease is quite rare (in one newborn among 2,000-5,000 thousand babies), so constipation is not a life-threatening problem for most children.
Is it possible to establish the reasons?
The reasons for the formation of constipation in a child can be a lot. And only a qualified doctor can help identify the exact cause of a particular child. Often this is just a symptom of a disease, and not an independent problem. Constipation may manifest pancreatitis, cholecystitis, hemorrhoids, peptic ulcer and other diseases.
Komarovsky says that quite often the causes of constipation are not detected even after a lot of research. However, attempts by parents to cope with this problem should be under the supervision of a medical specialist. And if during the examination the cause of constipation was established, then all efforts should be directed not at the constipation itself, but at the disease that manifested itself in this way.
If the child’s examinations did not identify a serious cause of constipation, Komarovsky emphasizes that parents do not consider constipation a tragedy or a disaster. With this trouble you can handle.
What is the treatment?
The famous doctor notes that for the normal functioning of the intestines it is required to provide the child with a normal amount of fluid.But at the same time enough potassium should be supplied to the baby’s body. When a child loses fluid (for example, when fevering or staying in a hot and dry place), this affects intestinal juices, impairing their work. Everything is compounded when parents are afraid to give the child any water other than boiled.
Yes, it is better to give the baby some boiled water than untreated tap water, but the water after boiling is free of mineral salts. And first of all, the lack of potassium in such water is unfavorable for the intestines. If this element is not enough, it affects the contractions of the digestive tract - they weaken, which eventually leads to constipation.
High content of potassium is different in dried apricots, prunes, raisins, figs. If the parents give the child boiled water, then Komarovsky advises simultaneously to give these products (or cook compote from them). According to E. Komarovsky, the main causes of constipation in nursing babies are overheating of the child and drinking boiled water.
Diet for constipation
Diet therapy with diarrhea will be aimed at eliminating protein-rich foods from the child’s diet.
Baby can be given one-day kefir, black bread (and white is better to limit or remove), yogurt, juice from apples, yogurt.
Having drunk sour milk before going to bed and eating steamed prunes, you will be able to eliminate constipation in 1 of 4 cases without using other medicines. Komarovsky also emphasizes that there are no products that are categorically not recommended and are mandatory for constipation. The approach must always be individual.
Medications
Concerning laxatives means, without consulting with a specialist, a well-known pediatrician considers only two categories of such drugs permissible:
- Liquid oils, such as olive, castor or almond oil.
- Drugs based on senna, for example, senade or senadex.
Giving the child these funds, the main task is to achieve a daily stool (preferably in the morning, so the drugs are recommended to be taken at bedtime). It should be chosen such a dosage to visit the toilet in the morning did not cause discomfort.
If you increased the dose to the maximum allowable, at the same time change diet baby, do not overheat it and give enough liquid, as well as products with potassium, and all these actions did not eliminate constipation for three days, you should go to a specialist.
Having picked up the current dose of a laxative, give the child the drug in such a dosage for 10-14 days, in order not only to make the baby’s stool regular, but to work out the reflex to be emptied every day at the same time. Then gradually reduce the dose every three to four days, and if constipation reappears, give the child the same amount of medication.
Komarovsky focuses on the fact that constipation, like any other health problem, should be treated comprehensively.
