What to do if your child has blood in his stool

Don’t think that only adults can change their hearts. Children can also have bloody stools because dry stools or gastrointestinal diseases may cause bleeding stools. Therefore, you must choose the appropriate response plan based on your personal physical condition. For children’s bloody stools, as long as the cause is found, active treatment can be given.

What should you think about when your child has blood in his stool?

If there is blood in the stool discharged from the anus, whether the color is bright red, dark red or tarry, it is called hematochezia. Most cases of blood in the stool are caused by digestive tract diseases, but it can also be part of a systemic disease. Sometimes, swallowing blood from outside the digestive tract can also cause "blood in the stool".

When children have blood in their stools, the first thing to do is to identify where the bleeding is occurring. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding often causes vomiting of blood. If there is blood in the stool, the blood is fully mixed with the stool and is like tar. In lower gastrointestinal bleeding, the blood does not mix with the stool, or only drips after defecation.

Secondly, it depends on the age of the child. Most newborns have blood in their stools because they swallow blood from the mother's birth canal or ruptured nipples, or because they suffer from neonatal spontaneous hemorrhage, hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis, gastrointestinal malformations, etc. Blood in the stool of infants and young children is often caused by intussusception, Meckel's diverticulum, intestinal polyps, rectal prolapse, anal fissure, etc. If children of preschool age or school age have blood in their stool, esophageal varices, ulcer disease, intestinal polyps, anal fissure, Henoch-Schönlein purpura, etc. should be considered. Common causes of blood in the stool include:

1. Digestive tract diseases are the most common cause of bloody stools, including esophageal varices, esophageal foreign bodies, ulcer disease, acute gastritis, gastric mucosal prolapse, intussusception, hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis, strangulated intestinal obstruction, Meckel's diverticulum, intestinal polyps, anal fissures, etc.

2. Blood diseases: neonatal hemorrhage, hemophilia, leukemia, aplastic anemia, thrombocytopenia and allergic purpura, etc. 3. Other systemic infectious diseases, such as sepsis, typhoid fever, etc., newborns swallowing blood from the mother's birth canal or ruptured nipples, swallowing of bleeding from the nose, pharynx, and gums, etc.

4. Influence of food or medicine Certain foods and medicines can also cause changes in stool color, which can sometimes be easily confused with blood in the stool. For example, eating a lot of watermelon and tomatoes in the summer can make the stool turn red. The stool of children with anemia can turn black after taking iron supplements. The stool can also turn black after eating animal blood. These changes in stool color caused by food and medicine do not constitute bloody stools.