What causes stomach pain in children?

In our daily life, we often find children suffering from stomachache. Most children experience stomachaches as they grow up, and parents are the ones who worry the most when their children have stomachaches. There are many reasons why children may have stomachaches. Today, the editor has collected some reasons why children suffer from stomachache and shared them with all young parents.

The common diseases causing abdominal pain in children of different ages are also different. For example, intestinal spasms are more common in infants under 3 months old, often due to improper feeding or swallowing too much air. Intussusception, incarcerated hernia and intestinal infection are more common in children under two years old, while acute appendicitis and intestinal parasitic diseases are relatively rare. Gastrointestinal infections, intestinal parasitic diseases, mesenteric lymphadenitis, biliary ascariasis, lobar pneumonia, abdominal epilepsy, and allergic purpura are more common in older children.

The acuteness of onset is often important for differential diagnosis. Sudden onset or paroxysmal exacerbation are often surgical diseases, such as acute appendicitis, strangulated intestinal obstruction, gastrointestinal perforation, intussusception and incarcerated inguinal hernia in children with abdominal pain. Patients with slow onset and persistent pain are often medical diseases, such as intestinal ascariasis, gastric and duodenal ulcers, enteritis and viral hepatitis. However, it should be noted that sometimes the causes of chronic abdominal pain and acute abdominal pain can be the same. This is because the nature of the disease changes at different stages. For example, ulcer pathogens are chronic abdominal pain, and when combined with perforation, it is an acute abdomen. Therefore, for patients with chronic abdominal pain, if the abdominal pain turns into persistent or sudden severe pain, they should pay attention to the possibility of acute abdomen.

Abdominal pain may be paroxysmal, continuous, or mild. Paroxysmal pain or colic is caused by obstructive diseases. If the abdominal pain is relieved after local pressure or hot compress, it is often due to spasm of hollow organs such as the stomach, intestines, and bile duct. Persistent and aggravated abdominal pain is often caused by gastrointestinal perforation. Persistent dull pain that worsens when changing body position and is resistant to pressure is often caused by inflammation of abdominal organs, capsule stretching, tumors, and irritation of the visceral peritoneum. Dull pain is common in peptic ulcers. Radiating pain is pain from a local lesion that spreads to other parts of the body through nerves or adjacent organs, such as lobar pneumonia causing pain in the ipsilateral upper abdomen.

I believe that after reading the above introduction, you will have some understanding of some of the reasons why children have stomach pain. Although stomachache is the most common disease among children, parents should also pay special attention to it, as severe abdominal pain can lead to very serious consequences. Once a child has symptoms of abdominal pain, he should go to the hospital for examination and treatment as soon as possible.