What causes flatulence in children?

It is also a common cause of intestinal gas in children. There are many reasons for this symptom. For example, children eat too fast, so they swallow more air. Infants and young children drink milk too quickly, and the position of the bottle and the child's mouth is tilted, which makes it easy to inhale too much air. In addition, children with indigestion have poor gastrointestinal function, which can easily induce intestinal gas.

The main reasons why babies are prone to bloating are as follows:

(1) Swallowing too much air: When babies are fed with bottles, they can easily inhale too much air if they suck too quickly. If the nipple hole of the bottle is not the right size or the bottle is tilted, air can be inhaled into the baby's stomach through the nipple gap. Excessive crying by babies can also easily lead to bloating.

(2) Indigestion: The accumulation of feces in the intestines causes the proliferation of gas-producing bad bacteria, or milk protein allergy, lactose intolerance, enteritis, etc. cause poor digestion and absorption, which easily produces a large amount of gas.

(3) Gastrointestinal motility disorders: They are divided into purely functional ones called "pseudo-intestinal obstruction" and "congenital megacolon" which is a true lack of ganglia in the gastrointestinal tract. Such problems vary in severity, ranging from chronic constipation and bloating to severe vomiting, and can be temporary or lifelong.

Flatulence caused by organ disease

How to tell whether your baby’s bloating is just benign gas or troublesome bloating? include:

(1) Enlarged organs or tumors in the abdominal cavity: such as hepatosplenomegaly, cirrhosis, etc. The organs and tissues in the abdominal cavity may develop tumors, and the larger the tumor grows, the more it will cause abdominal distension.

(2) Intestinal obstruction: Generally, upper gastrointestinal tract obstruction is more likely to cause vomiting, while lower intestinal obstruction is mainly characterized by abdominal distension. Intestinal obstruction in infants and young children, including severe complete obstruction, is often discovered soon after birth due to obvious symptoms. However, if the blockage is incomplete, it may still be missed after a long delay. As mentioned earlier, congenital megacolon is caused by the incomplete development of the intestinal ganglia from top to bottom during embryonic development, which stops the development and causes the end of the large intestine to be unable to relax, causing the normal large intestine above to swell very large. In addition to the baby's significant abdominal distension, there is usually delayed passage of meconium or constipation.

(3) Ascites: There are many causes of ascites, including liver cirrhosis leading to protein production dysfunction, nephrotic syndrome in which protein is lost in the urine, or intestinal diseases in which protein is excreted in the stool.