All pediatric doctors actively promote breastfeeding, as with the milk of the mother, the baby receives not only nutrients, but also antibodies, which are its first protection against all kinds of microbes, hundreds of thousands of which live in the environment. However, mother’s milk cannot save from all troubles. Confirmation of this is such an unpleasant phenomenon as loose stools in infants breast-feeding.
If he appeared at your baby, do not panic right away, because the cause of the problem can be quite harmless, not representing any danger. We suggest that you understand when loose stools in infants are a sign of illness, and when is a normal physiological process.
Features of bowel movements in children up to a year
I would like to warn young mothers that loose stools in infants are far from always a disease. Immediately after birth, he does not have feces in the intestines as such, because he has never eaten humanly. Therefore, in the first day and a half in the diaper you should see meconium. It looks like a tarry paste, and its color is from brown to green in various variations of combinations. This is the norm! You need to worry if the first “stool” in the baby is different, which may be a sign of problems with his intestines.
At about the second or third day, the crumbs become grayish-green and semi-liquid in consistency. This is also the norm, meaning that the child receives enough colostrum.
Fluid stool in infants per month is considered good if it is consistency like thick pea soup or semi-liquid semolina porridge. Its color may be yellow-brown in various variations (more yellow, more brown). White blotches in the feces - this is also the norm, indicating that the baby has not yet properly established the digestion process. Even a greenish shade of the stool, if the baby feels fine, is not an indicator of the disease. The number of trips “to the diaper” at this stage can be up to 12 times. This is not diarrhea.
From about 2 months, the number of bowel movements in a baby decreases. The norm is already their number up to 4 times a day, and in some children 1 time every 3-4 days.
By six months, the child’s stool becomes more formalized, and the number of bowel movements is reduced to 2-3 times per day.
After another 3 months, the baby already goes to the potty, like an adult.
If the infant is breast-fed only, its bowel movements should have a sour-milk smell.
If your baby has deviations from the above norms with defecation, the first and most important thing to do is to call a doctor.
Consider why there may be problems with feces.
When is loose stools, but no disease?
Breastfeeding is certainly a blessing. It consists not only in the fact that the baby receives mother's antibodies, but also in the fact that there is no need to worry about the sterility of the bottles, to spend money on far from cheap baby food. However, for a mother, breastfeeding is a great test, because she is obliged to constantly monitor her diet, denying herself many tasty and healthy products, and at the same time maintain her immunity.
If she is suddenly seduced by ripe strawberries or aromatic apricot, you can immediately expect problems with the contents of the baby's diaper. Even green loose stools may appear in infants, because the intestines are still very weak in an unfamiliar product.
So the mother will have to carefully select dishes for her diet and monitor which products did not fit her baby. As a rule, the liquid stool in a breast-fed infant caused by eating his nurse is established without treatment, as soon as mom stops eating dangerous foods. These include all citrus fruits, plums, apricots, grapes, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles and pickles, coffee, cabbage, legumes, garlic, onions.
Chest
Another harmless reason for loose stools in infants is the inability of the mother to properly give her child a breast. Some parents fear that their beloved babies will remain hungry. Therefore, during each feeding, they put one nipple in the mouth, then another. As a result, the child eats only the "first milk", and does not have time to get to the healthy fats located in the chest a little deeper. This also leads to diarrhea. The stool may have a greenish tint, be foamy, but without blood and mucus. An indicator that this is not a disease is the condition of the child. As a rule, with the establishment of a diet, his chair returns to normal.
Lure
Even if the baby is only breastfed, there comes a time when he needs to start giving adult food. It is called complementary foods. As a rule, he is first given applesauce. Next, gradually introduce other fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meat into the diet. Not in all children, the intestines immediately take them, responding to innovations with loose stools. In a breast-fed infant, diarrhea quickly stops without treatment if the mother cancels his complementary foods and continues to give only his milk. In some cases, doctors recommend drinking the baby with probiotics.
When stool becomes a problem
Above, we examined situations in which infants may have stools that are fluid, with a green tint and even foam, but this is not a disease. However, everything is not always so wonderful. Young children, although they still do not play in the sandbox, do not go to kindergarten and do not pick up non-sterile objects, also suffer from serious enough ailments, one of the symptoms of which is loose stools. In babies, the following can happen:
- Dysbacteriosis
- Rotavirus.
- Dysentery.
- Salmonellosis.
- Enterovirus.
These are the most common diseases. With the exception of dysbiosis, all of them are the result of non-compliance by the mother or the staff caring for the baby with hygiene rules. They are as follows:
- Baby's dummies, nipples and bottles (for example, for water) should be boiled, since almost all microbes die.
- Rattles and other items that a child picks up must be washed thoroughly.
- All children's dishes should be inaccessible to flies and cockroaches.
- Breasts should not contact older brothers or sisters if their children's groups are quarantined, or if they themselves have health problems (runny nose, cough, diarrhea).
- Relatives of the baby, and especially the mother, returning home from work, from the store and so on, must first change clothes, wash their hands, and only then approach the baby, pick him up. You can grab germs anywhere - in transport, at the workplace, in your own entrance. They will not bring harm to adults, since they have already developed immunity. But for the crumbs who have just come to our world, to get sick a lot is not necessary.
- If adult family members feel the slightest discomfort, they should stop any contact with the baby. An exception is a nursing mother, who is obliged to care for her child by washing her hands thoroughly and wearing a medical mask.
These rules are very simple, but they prevent the baby from becoming infected with many pathogenic bacteria and viruses that live in the environment.
Consider what stool happens with the above ailments.
Dysbacteriosis
All babies come to our world sterile. Microbes are introduced into their small body at the time of birth and continue to colonize the intestines for another three months. Only by this time in infants is normal digestion. Intestinal microflora includes “good” microbes and “bad” ones. The former are involved in the digestion of food and control the numbers of the latter, who are just waiting for this control to weaken in order to begin to multiply in huge quantities.
If this happens, an imbalance occurs in the microflora. This causes dysbiosis. Its indicator in infants is loose stool with mucus. In this case, bowel movements are often foamy, greenish in color. Their number increases up to 20 times, and sometimes even higher.
Reasons for imbalance:
- Unsuitable food for mom.
- Non-observance of hygiene (adults do not sterilize bottles and nipples for a child, do not wash toys, do not wash their hands before starting to work with a baby).
- Diseases of a child or mother, in which they had to drink antibiotics.
- Mom's problems during pregnancy, which forced her to take medication.
- Long stay in the hospital.
- Complex birth.
- Bad ecology.
If there is a suspicion of dysbiosis, the child is carried out with feces. He will definitely show what is happening in his intestines, but it takes a long time to prepare. Therefore, they perform a rapid respiratory test, which in a matter of hours will show if there is dysbiosis or not.
Treatment of infants is carried out comprehensively. It includes taking the drug "Bacteriophage", enzymes, sorbents, antibiotics, probiotics, prebiotics.
Rotavirus
These microorganisms infect more than a million babies each year. The source of the disease is only a person. The transmission route is fecal-oral, that is, this virus can get to the baby if the people caring for it do not observe hygiene, do not wash their hands and toys, and do not boil bottles and nipples. However, until six months, the baby does not get sick, as his mother’s immunity protects him from rotavirus.
One of the symptoms of the disease is loose yellow stools in infants. So it happens the first 2-3 days, and then it becomes similar in texture to gray-yellow clay. The child walks "in a big way" up to 25 times a day.
Other symptoms:
- Temperature.
- Vomiting
- Refusal of food.
- Runny nose.
- Cough.
- Red throat.
- Sour eyes.
- Plaque on the tongue.
- Enlarged lymph nodes.
Treatment of infants is carried out in a hospital. Basically, it consists in preventing dehydration, for which purpose droppers are given to the child. Also they give him "Rehydron", sorbents, antiviral agents.
Dysentery (shigellosis)
This disease is extremely rare in infants. Shigella bacteria, parasitizing in the intestine, cause it. Risk groups: premature babies, weakened, poorly gaining weight, recently undergoing any infection, suffering from diathesis, rickets, anemia.
The cause of infection is poor hygiene.
Symptoms of dysentery:
Green loose stool in infants. It may contain mucus, and after a while streaks of blood. The child "walks on the potty" up to 30 times.
Other symptoms:
- Pain in the tummy, due to which the child cries a lot.
- Increased gas formation.
- Bloating.
- Temperature.
- Fever.
- Dehydration.
Treatment of dysentery in infants is carried out exclusively in a hospital.
The therapy includes the administration of enterosorbents, Regidron, antibiotics, antipyretics (if the temperature is high), probiotics and prebiotics.
Salmonellosis
This disease is caused by rod-shaped Salmonella bacteria. You can pick them up even in the maternity hospital. There salmonella is the most "harmful". They have been struggling with people for a place in the sun for so long that they have learned to bypass all traps, recognize antibiotics and avoid destruction. Treating “hospital” salmonellosis is unusually difficult. Causes of infection:
- Non-compliance with hygiene. Salmonella die already at a temperature of +55 degrees. Therefore, do not be lazy to boil children's dishes.
- Infection of the fetus during pregnancy.
- Airborne droplet. It rarely works, but it cannot be ruled out.
- Infection through unboiled water. Her baby is not necessary to drink. You can catch a microbe when bathing in the bath.
Symptoms of salmonellosis can be as follows:
- Fluid stool in infants, foamy, watery, with a pungent odor.
- Heat.
- Frequent spitting up. Vomit with an unpleasant odor.
- Colic.
- Anxiety, sleep disturbance.
- Sinking of the fontanel.
- Strong bloating.
Diagnosis and treatment are carried out exclusively in a hospital.
Enteroviruses
This type of parasite includes several tens of microorganisms, through the mouth penetrating the intestines and developing violent pathological activity there. Among them are the following virus groups:
- Coxsackie.
- Polio
- Enterovirus.
- Echovirus.
They all feel great in a standard apartment, where they can live on surfaces for several days. Enteroviruses in the body of an infected person are found in feces and in saliva. Therefore, they can be infected by airborne droplets and fecal-oral routes.
This parasite gets to the baby during games with seeded toys, when touching surfaces with microorganisms, in close contact with relatives who are carriers of enteroviruses. Many babies have passive immunity, coming from mother’s breast milk, and children get vaccinated against polio. Therefore, infection with an enterovirus infection of a child up to six months is unlikely. In the future, this may well be. Symptoms
- Heat.
- Fever.
- Runny nose.
- Red sore throat.
- Cough.
- Baby's capriciousness, crying due to pain in the tummy.
- Fluid stool in infants. Usually the color of the bowel movements is the same as without diarrhea.
Treatment of infants, if the disease is mild, can be done at home. In the room where the baby is, you need to create a suitable microclimate for him - fresh air, the humidity of which is not lower than 50% and not higher than 70%, the temperature in the room is from 18 to 20 degrees.
Of the drugs, sorbents are recommended, with severe diarrhea "Regidron" and heavy drinking.
Dehydration
Regardless of the reasons for which loose stools occur in infants, with repeated acts of defecation dehydration occurs. Its symptoms are:
- The baby is crying, but there are no tears.
- Sunken eyes.
- Loose skin.
- Decreased urination (counted by wet diapers).
- Dry mucous membranes.
- Pointy nose.
- Weakness, indifference to everything.
- Low pressure.
- Tachycardia.
If with loose stools in the baby such symptoms appear, you should immediately call an ambulance. While she is traveling, the child should try to drink plentifully.
This is a very important element in the treatment of diarrhea in absolutely all cases, even when the baby's condition is satisfactory.
If a baby has problems with a chair, it is necessary to call a pediatrician at home. If he offers hospitalization, you need to agree, since only in a hospital can they find out the reliable cause of diarrhea and cure the baby, without waiting for complications.