What should I do if my child has gastritis?

Chronic gastritis refers to various chronic inflammatory lesions of the gastric mucosa caused by different causes. Most patients are asymptomatic or have varying degrees of indigestion symptoms. The pain often occurs during or after meals and is mostly located in the upper abdomen, around the navel, and in some patients the location is not fixed. Mild cases have intermittent dull pain or pain, while severe cases have severe colic. So what should we do if such a serious and horrific thing happens to a child? The editor is here to give you some tips.

It is currently believed that the main causes of chronic gastritis in children are:

1. Improper diet: According to domestic data reports, 49 out of 60 cases of chronic gastritis in children were related to improper diet, such as excessive consumption of raw and cold foods and snacks, irregular eating, and uneven hunger and fullness. Bad eating habits and long-term uncontrolled eating stimulate the increased secretion of gastric acid and pepsin; excessive cold drinks and cold food cause the gastric submucosal blood vessels to contract and the mucosal layer to thin, thereby reducing the defense ability of the gastric and duodenal mucosa, increasing the invasiveness of gastric acid and pepsin, leading to mucosal edema and erosion, and forming chronic gastritis.

2. Related to Helicobacter pylori infection. According to recent domestic reports, Helicobacter pylori was detected in 81.6% of children with chronic gastritis, indicating that Helicobacter pylori infection is an important cause of chronic inflammation of the gastric mucosa.

The most common clinical symptom of chronic gastritis in children is recurrent abdominal pain. Someone has counted 184 cases of chronic gastritis in children, of which 176 went to the hospital for abdominal pain. Because children often express the location of pain vaguely, generally referring to the area around or above the navel, parents often think that their children have intestinal worms or intestinal spasms, and give their children anthelmintics or drugs to relieve intestinal spasms. However, even after taking the medicine or getting an injection, these children's abdominal pain still does not go away. The abdominal pain of chronic gastritis in children is mostly persistent dull pain or paroxysmal spasmodic abdominal pain, some of which may occur before or after meals, some may occur at night or without any regularity. In addition, patients may also experience poor appetite, vomiting, weight loss, upper abdominal pain, belching, anemia, and even gastrointestinal bleeding. Since the clinical manifestations of chronic gastritis in children are often atypical, young parents who find that their children have unexplained abdominal pain, poor appetite, weight loss, and upper abdominal tenderness should consider the possibility of chronic gastritis and take their children to the hospital for examination. If necessary, a gastroscopy can be performed to confirm the diagnosis.

The treatment of chronic gastritis in children mainly adopts:

1. Correct bad eating habits: Children should develop good eating habits from an early age, not to exclude food, not to be picky eaters, not to be too hungry or too full; not to eat too much cold drinks; not to be constantly eating snacks or candies. Otherwise, it is easy to cause gastrointestinal dysfunction and decreased resistance of gastric mucosa, leading to chronic gastritis.

2. Drug treatment is mainly aimed at Helicobacter pylori, and Dele Granules can be used. The treatment course is 6 weeks. Most patients’ abdominal pain disappears 2 to 15 days after taking the medicine, and the clinical symptoms basically disappear after one course of treatment. You can also take ampicillin or gentamicin orally, with a course of 3 weeks, which can also achieve good results.

When it comes to chronic gastritis, people always think that it is a common disease among adults. In fact, chronic gastritis can also be seen in children. According to research in recent years, the incidence of chronic gastritis in children has a tendency to increase year by year. Because the clinical manifestations of chronic gastritis in children are not as typical as those in adults, diagnosis and treatment are often delayed. Therefore, for the healthy physical and mental development of children, parents and even society should pay attention to chronic gastritis in children. So parents need to be cautious.