Parents are always worried when there is blood from the nose of a child. Often the reasons are not easy to establish. It is important to understand why this is happening as quickly as possible. Moms, who always carefully monitor the condition of their baby, often panic. Especially if the blood goes regularly. In most cases, this phenomenon occurs as a result of trauma, but sometimes it may indicate the development of pathology. It must be understood that to make an accurate diagnosis of one symptom, albeit so vivid, is clearly not enough. Therefore, the overall picture must be taken into account. From this article we learn about the causes of this phenomenon, which doctor it makes sense to contact, which treatment methods and methods to take.
Status Features
It can be a symptom of a serious illness if the baby often has nosebleeds. The reasons for this are very different. This phenomenon in the scientific world is called epistaxis. From Greek, literally, this concept translates as "dripping heavily." Moreover, it is under this definition that a symptom is included in the International Classification of Diseases.
The phenomenon is directly related to damage to blood vessels located directly on the nasal mucosa. In most cases, blood discharge is the result of damage to the capillaries. Only occasionally do they signal rupture of the artery.
Causes
There are many factors that affect regular bleeding. According to statistics, it is small children who most often encounter such secretions. If the child often has nosebleeds, the reasons for this may indicate a serious illness or temporary situation. In some cases, only the doctor can establish the etiology of epistaxis. When diagnosing this condition, the intensity of its manifestations and the frequency should be taken into account.
Here are the main reasons why children have nosebleeds:
- Mechanical injury (bump or bruise). This is the most common option. As a result of the blow, the capillaries of the mucous membrane of the anterior-inferior nasal septum are often damaged. Only in rare cases, epistaxis can signal the rupture of larger vessels.
- ARVI. Frequent nosebleeds in a child can be a result of frontal sinusitis, sinusitis, rhinitis. In some cases, all these diseases are accompanied by spotting.
- Ingestion of a foreign body. This is another common cause of childhood epistaxis. In such a situation, you should immediately seek medical help.
- Reduced humidity. This symptom begins to appear with the onset of the heating period.
- Picking. A bad habit characteristic of babies can lead to undesirable consequences. Usually it affects children with hyperactivity disorder and attention deficit. Often you can get rid of this symptom only after visiting a psychologist.
- Allergic reaction. Due to allergies, the mucous membrane becomes too dry. This can serve as an impetus to the fact that there is often blood from the nose of a child. The reason can be eliminated only by identifying the allergen.
Regular bleeding
As a rule, if nosebleeds rarely appear, this is not a cause for concern. Especially if all this is accompanied by minor blood loss. Seriously worry is with regular bleeding. Daily epistaxis, on the contrary, should cause increased anxiety among parents about the condition of the baby. When a child periodically flows blood from the nose, it may appear at the most unexpected moment. It is important to exclude some pathologies. This is arterial hypertension, heart failure, diseases that cause impaired function or structure of blood cells.
The reason that blood often runs from the nose of a child is lymphoma. This disease affects the lymph nodes and internal organs. Also provoke epistaxis of leukemia. This is a whole group of malignant pathologies associated with the hematopoietic system of the human body.
If a child’s nose is constantly bleeding, this is evidence of decompensated myocardial dysfunction or high blood pressure. True, parents need to be reassured, noting that all these diseases are extremely rare and occur infrequently.
Night bleeding
You should be wary if bleeding occurs exclusively at night. In such a situation, first of all, you need to make sure whether the baby has a habit of picking his nose.
In addition, blood discharge at this time of the day is often provoked by insufficient humidity and high temperature in the room. It is recommended to ventilate the baby’s bedroom before going to bed, if you can’t fundamentally change the situation, you will need to purchase an air humidifier.
When the house’s microclimate has years of problems, the source should be sought in blood pressure drops. Because of this, it happens that there is blood from the nose of a child in the morning. This may be an occasion to seek medical help.
Heat
Many parents are faced with situations where, at a high temperature, their nose bleeds. Why this happens, not everyone knows. It turns out that in itself, an increase in body temperature is already a significant reason for the baby to bleed. The higher the temperature, the more the peripheral vessels expand, the result of this is the development of epistaxis.
Blood from the nose, accompanied by fever, may indicate the presence of a foreign body in the body, heat or sunstroke, acute respiratory viral infection.
Foreign body ingestion is a common cause of epistaxis. It can be small parts of toys, beads, buttons - all this is a serious threat to kids. Temperature and spotting are a symptom of scarlet fever, hematological pathologies, measles. These diseases can be accompanied by nosebleeds. What to check the child, the pediatrician will tell you, referring to a specialist, as this is a very dangerous symptom.
Runny nose
A runny nose can accompany a large number of diseases of various etiologies. For example, the development of an inflammatory process that is localized on the mucous membrane leads to its occurrence.
Blood from the nose of a baby can appear quite often. Common diseases that are accompanied by this symptom are vasomotor or allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, acute respiratory viral infections, influenza, scarlet fever and some others.
If one of the causes of bleeding is in them, then to get rid of an unpleasant symptom, the disease itself will need to be cured.
Blood runs constantly
Having learned the exact cause of nosebleeds in children, treatment should be started in a timely manner. This symptom can often indicate a serious illness. Of particular concern is the systematic epistaxis, when the blood runs almost constantly.
Often, the constant appearance of spotting indicates a lack of vitamins, in particular, K and C.
The cause of persistent bleeding can be nasopharyngeal cancer. It develops in the upper part of the pharynx, such a disease is considered characteristic of representatives of the Mongoloid race.
Also, this symptom is caused by systemic pathologies of the connective tissue. These include systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyositis, Sjogren's syndrome. Finally, if blood flows almost every day, the presence of Osler's syndrome or persistent expansion of capillaries is likely. This indicates anatomical deformities.
Serious illness
As you can see, ailments can be very serious, so it is so important to establish the cause of nosebleeds in children in a timely manner. Treatment may be required immediately. For example, systemic lupus erythematosus refers to severe autoimmune pathologies. With this disease, the connective tissue and vessels that feed it are affected. A distinctive feature is the appearance of a rash on the patient's face. In this case, redness outwardly resembles the silhouette of a butterfly. The consequence of this ailment is disruption of the heart, joint pain, negative neurological manifestations.
Nasopharyngeal cancer is also called nasopharyngeal carcinoma. In childhood, it rarely appears, more often it can be found in adult men. Its main danger lies in the ability to rapidly grow throughout the affected organ.
But vasodilation, the so-called telangiectasia, develops in children aged six to twelve years. Some have a congenital form of the disease. Treatment of this pathology is possible using a laser or gluing the walls of blood vessels. As a rule, this is a non-dangerous disease, but it can adversely affect the appearance of the skin.
Given that nosebleeds can be a symptom of various diseases, if a systematic problem occurs, you should seek help from a pediatrician. He will prescribe the necessary tests and examinations, and then send him to a specialist.
Sudden bleeding
In some cases, epistaxis appears for no apparent reason. As a rule, the cause in this case is a blow or bruise. Sometimes a sharp rupture of the vessel is associated with the drying of the mucous membrane due to acute respiratory viral infections, allergies or air pollution. It is important in this case to exclude the presence of a foreign body in the nose.
When bleeding begins during the landing or take-off of an airplane, it is worth talking about barotrauma. This is physical damage to the membranes and blood vessels, which occurs due to the sharp pressure of the body cavities or the environment. To prevent this condition, it is recommended to suck on sweets, drink water in small sips or constantly swallow.
Teenage problems
In the puberty, adolescents experience significant fluctuations in hormonal levels, which can also lead to nosebleeds. As a rule, girls experience such a problem during menstruation.
The likelihood of a symptom increasing due to fatigue, increased training loads, violations of the normal regime of the day.
All these are periodic conditions that should not cause concern. If blood flows constantly, you need to seek help from a specialist. It is in the puberty that there is a risk of detecting most pathologies of blood vessels and the heart.
It is especially wary of scarlet blood from the nose of a child. This is evidence that the source of bleeding is in the lungs. If the blood is coffee-colored, the source of bleeding in the stomach. In such a situation, you should immediately call a doctor.
How to stop the blood?
If there is blood from the nose, it is important to stop it in a timely manner. At the same time, it is strictly forbidden to throw your head back, it is also not worth laying the baby, this can only aggravate his condition.
The best solution is to put the victim down with his head down. In this case, place cold turundas in the nose, and cool the bridge of the nose with an ice compress.
If even after this it is not possible to stop the bleeding, a vasoconstrictor can help. They are buried in the nose. With long-term and intense discharge, which is accompanied by a large loss of blood, an ambulance should be called immediately.
Instead of a conclusion
Summing up, it is worth noting that in most cases epistaxis in children does not indicate the presence of a serious pathology. Most often, this phenomenon occurs due to allergies, trauma, and develops against the background of the inflammatory process provoked by an acute respiratory viral disease.
However, if blood goes every day, a visit to a specialist should not be postponed. Moreover, discharge can accompany very dangerous diseases. For example, congenital malformations and malignant tumors.