Abdominal pain
Every child ever has abdominal pain and usually in such cases do not have to worry too much. Discomfort can be caused by overeating, fast food and ingestion of air, constipation, accumulation of gases, temporary indigestion of food.
On the other hand, abdominal pain can be a sign of some serious illness. In order to determine whether the disease is dangerous or not, it is necessary to evaluate the pain by the following criteria:
• the dependence of pain on the child's age, some pains are characteristic precisely among certain age groups;
is whether abdominal pain is a single( acute) or recurring( chronic) - recurring abdominal pains most likely occur due to emotional and psychological disorders;
• Do pains occur with other physical symptoms( eg, chronic diarrhea, vomiting).
The following are the signs that parents should be alerted to potentially dangerous diseases:
pain appears before bowel movement;
pain at night, which can wake the child;
• Pain is observed during I meal or immediately after;
• recently suffered a stomach injury;
• The child has lost weight sharply;
, the results of recent blood and urine tests were abnormal, for example, anemia, low total protein content, increased ESR( erythrocyte sedimentation rate), or urinary tract infection were detected during the analyzes;
you press on the stomach, and the child responds to your touch;
pain in the abdomen does not go away and lasts for more than two hours;
• you can feel the presence of a tumor in your abdomen or observe undulating movements inside the abdomen;
while walking the child bends and clings to the stomach;
the child lies quietly and refuses to walk;
blood in the stool or diarrhea accompanied by pain;
pain in scrotum or testicle.
Possible causes of
Before you do diagnosis and treatment, you need to determine the nature of the pain. Pain in the abdomen is divided into two main categories: single or acute pain and pain returning or chronic.
Single( acute) pain
It is important that the doctor accurately identifies the acute pain in the abdomen, which is caused by a dangerous cause of the type of poisoning or conditions requiring surgery. In general, the most dangerous are those pain associated with vomiting accompanied by a slight secretion of bile, or with repeated vomiting. Severe abdominal pain can also be accompanied by bloating or widening of the abdomen, painful when touching the abdominal region.
Time of occurrence of high fever, vomiting and diarrhea can help determine the nature of the disease, can prompt whether it should be treated with medication or through surgery. For example, with gastroenteritis( which can be treated with medications) vomiting precedes abdominal pain .Conversely, with acute appendicitis( which is treated surgically), pain often occurs before vomiting.
Returning( chronic) abdominal pains
Chronic is called pain in the event that for a year three or more episodes of its occurrence are noted. Single abdominal pains, unlike returning ones, usually cause some physical condition, and those returning are more often associated with emotional or psychological reasons.
Studies in this area have shown that recurrent abdominal pains most often occur during the school year. Moreover, more than 50% of children with such a complaint have found emotional problems.
Common factors of the recurrence of pain in the abdomen are as follows: family troubles and dramas( divorce, constant fights, quarrels), death of loved ones or other stresses. Often such pains are present in a nervous, shy child who is constantly worried about his academic performance or for another reason.
In principle, with returning pain in the abdomen, there may be organic or physical causes. The physical causes of abdominal pain accompanied by diarrhea include factors such as poor absorption of lactose( milk sugar), vegetable protein and fat.
In addition, abdominal pain can occur as a result of excessive intake of caffeine or carbonated beverages. Other possible sources include ulcers, Crohn's disease( inflammation of the lower part of the small intestine) and ulcerative colitis( inflammation of the colon, bloody diarrhea, intestinal wall ulcers, weight loss and anemia).But if physical reasons are excluded, but pain continues to return, more serious attention should be paid all the same to the emotional state of the child.
In addition to determining the nature of pain, it is necessary to take into account the age-related characteristics of the child. Thus, colic in a baby aged 1-3 months is a common occurrence and is likely to be associated with a lack of enzymes and a functional immaturity of the neuromuscular apparatus of the intestine, while colic in a younger schoolboy, for example, may have psychological causes or be a symptom of a serious disease.
Abdominal pain is often caused by colic( air entering the stomach or intestines).The child can cry, stretch his legs, bend them to the stomach and in general feel bad for an hour or more. Crying can temporarily cease, if gases come out. Usually colic disappears at the age of six months.
Newborns may also suffer from blockage of the stomach or intestinal tract. This is indicated by vomiting or bloating.
A typical cause of stomach pains is inflammation of the stomach and intestines( gastroenteritis) from viral and bacterial infections that can be accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, fever, abdominal pain, nervous excitement and general anxiety. Sometimes a child's appetite is reduced, and in this connection a decrease in food intake. Usually, infections take place within two to ten days.
Older children may feel abdominal pain and due to respiratory illness, such as influenza. In addition to pain in the abdomen, there may be other symptoms: angina, fever, runny nose, headache and vomiting.
Another possible cause of abdominal pain in infants may be inguinal hernia( swelling in the lower abdomen, coming out in the groin area).The usual symptom is vomiting, as well as pain in the lower abdomen. In this case, surgical intervention is required. A swollen, painful, reddened testicle can also cause abdominal pain, crying and vomiting. These symptoms are sometimes mistakenly diagnosed as inguinal hernia.
Common causes of abdominal pain - constipation, urinary tract infections, pneumonia. If the cause is constipation, the pain almost
always disappears after a bowel movement. Infection of the urinary tract is often accompanied by fever and some discomfort when urinating.
If the child has pneumonia, cough, high fever and chest pain may occur. Anemia with sickle-shaped erythrocytes is accompanied by pain in the chest, back, arms or legs.
Another possible but less common cause of abdominal pain in this age group is food poisoning( convulsive abdominal pain, very loose stools and vomiting).
Most food poisoning and all surgical problems require the intervention of a physician.
A frequent cause of surgical intervention on the abdomen of
in children 5 to 15 years of age is acute appendicitis.
Appendicitis usually begins with cramps and pain in the center of the stomach, just above the navel. Then after a few hours the pain moves to the lower abdomen( the area of the colon, where the appendix is usually located).The child prefers to remain immobile, because movements such as jumping, walking, cause severe pain. When walking, the child can not stand erect, he clings to the lower abdomen and often cries for pain. There may also be a loose stool and a fever.
If the appendix bursts, the temperature rises, the pain increases and vomiting often starts, as the lining of the abdominal tissue( peritonitis) becomes infected. This condition is extremely dangerous. It is important that parents who suspect appendicitis from their child immediately report this to the doctor.
Parents can often cope with abdominal pain at home if the pain is not accompanied by other symptoms. The child needs to be reassured and fed with liquid food.
Do not give the child painkillers or medications for I fight against indigestion, as well as laxatives. All these drugs can complicate the work of the doctor in diagnosis. Obobeno this
is dangerous if surgical intervention is necessary.
Sometimes a child may need a diet change. For example, he needs to give more fruit juices( apricot, plum, pear, apple), coarse fiber( raw fruits and vegetables, green salad) and whole grains of oats or wheat to prevent constipation. Ask your doctor and nutritionist to give your recommendations.
Check again if the child has any additional symptoms, such as vomiting or fever, which may indicate a more serious illness.
And, finally, if the return pain in the abdomen can be explained by emotional factors, parents should discuss with the doctor the appropriate way to reduce the effect of such a factor.
The doctor is likely to ask the child the following questions: * when the pain began;• where does it hurt;
does the pain move( if so, show where it is moving);
Parents can fully cope with with abdominal pain in the child alone, if there are no anxiety symptoms such as vomiting, fever, or if the pain disappears within two hours.
Consult a physician, if minor, self-regulating abdominal pains are repeated regularly. There is no hurry in this situation, but there may be emotional or other considerations that need to be addressed.
Immediate presence of is required if abdominal pain is accompanied by symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, swelling or bloating, tenderness when touching the stomach or a past medical case associated with an unusual blood test result that may indicate a particular hazard.
Immediately call a doctor and hospitalize the child if you have signs of appendicitis. These include pain in the lower abdomen, high fever and diarrhea. In the case of rupture of the appendix may be high fever, vomiting and a stronger overall pain.
how long the pain lasts;
what type of pain - acute, dull or what( the child is not always easy to answer this question, sometimes the doctor should ask if the child had such pain before, and if so, describe in more detail);
why the pain intensifies;
why the pain decreases;
pain goes away, and then returns;
you only have this pain and nothing else bothers you?
After the doctor asks these questions, he probably will make some general conclusions.
If the pain is not in the navel, but is concentrated in some other place( usually on the periphery of the abdomen), the complaint is likely to be related to a serious physical cause. It can be a burst appendix, inflammation of the abdominal cavity.
The doctor will examine all symptoms such as vomiting, fever, "acute" abdomen and will conduct a thorough physical examination.
If the symptoms seem particularly troubling and serious, and the results of the physical examination will differ from the norm, the doctor will prescribe additional tests, including various blood tests, urinalysis, checking the presence of blood in the stool, protein( albumin and total protein) and other laboratory tests. In addition, the doctor will appoint tests for scanning the gastrointestinal tract such as sonography, barium studies and endoscopy.
In some cases, the child may be referred to |to the surgeon for a consultation. He may be hospitalized to monitor physical changes and undergo intravenous therapy. Sometimes it will take some time to observe to see if surgical intervention is required to treat the disease.
Pain in appendicitis
Signs of appendicitis in children are highly variable. But in typical cases, the pain begins at the center of the abdomen, around the navel, and then moves to the right lower region.
Removal of the appendix
The appendix( or appendectomy) is removed when appendicitis is appendicitis, which is a vermiform appendix that extends from the large intestine near its connection with the small intestine.
The operation should be done as soon as the symptoms characteristic of appendicitis appear, as there is a danger that the inflamed appendix will break and cause the infection to spread in the abdominal cavity( peritonitis).
The operation itself is simple. The child will be given anesthesia and cut the abdominal wall, after which the appendix will be removed. In most cases, recovery is rapid and without complications.