What to do if children have dry stools

Dry stool is a very painful thing for both adults and children. If it is not relieved in time, it will cause certain troubles to the body, especially for children in the growth and development period. If dry stool is not treated in time, it will lead to the child’s inability to absorb food better, which is particularly detrimental to the child’s growth and development. Let’s find out what to do if children have dry stool?

What to do if children have dry stools

Constipation is a very common symptom in infancy and childhood. When babies are constipated, they often cry incessantly due to difficulty in defecation. Over time, this can cause abdominal distension, loss of appetite, and restless sleep. Constipation in infants and young children is mostly caused by improper diet and bad habits, but it can also be caused by defects in the systemic or gastrointestinal anatomical structure. Therefore, correctly understanding and distinguishing the different causes of constipation will help provide good home care.

Constipation refers to slow intestinal movement and excessive water absorption, resulting in dry and hard stools, reduced frequency and difficulty in excretion. It is generally believed that bowel movements lasting more than 48 hours can be considered constipation, but some children are accustomed to having bowel movements once every 2-3 days, and the amount and quality of stool are normal, which should be considered physiological. Some children have difficulty defecating. Although they defecate several times a day, the amount of stool each time is very small. There is still a large amount of feces retained in the colon or rectum. This should still be considered as constipation. Constipation in children is often caused by the following factors.

1. Dietary factors

A common cause is improper food ingredients. For example, when feeding artificially, milk contains more casein and calcium, which can easily cause constipation. The food contains a lot of protein but lacks carbohydrates, the intestinal flora changes, the intestinal contents are less fermented, the stool is alkaline, and easily dries up, leading to constipation. In addition, children who are picky eaters, prefer to eat meat and not vegetables, whose food is fine and has little residue, and whose food contains too little fiber, are also prone to constipation. In addition, if babies eat too little, the liquid is absorbed after digestion, leaving little residue, resulting in less and thicker stools, which can also cause constipation.

2. Bad bowel habits

Irregular lifestyle, lack of normal bowel habits, failure to form a conditioned reflex of defecation, frequent delays in defecation, resulting in no bowel movements for several days and constipation.

3. Habitual constipation

This is a psychological and functional constipation. Children often suppress their bowel movements due to playfulness or excessive tension during bowel movements, which affects the establishment of normal defecation reflexes. It is common in 2-3 children. The main clinical manifestations are abdominal distension and constipation, and a lump filled with feces can often be felt on the left side of the abdomen.

4. Local organic lesions

It is common in patients with anal fissure, cryptitis, acute perianal inflammation or abscess, etc., who resist defecation and suffer from constipation due to local pain during defecation.

5. Systemic diseases

Malnutrition, rickets, hypercalcemia, dermatomyositis, cretinism, congenital myasthenia, etc. can all cause constipation due to weakness and dysfunction of the intestinal wall muscles.

6. Hirschsprung's disease

The reason is the congenital lack of parasympathetic ganglion cells in the intestinal wall myenteric plexus. In more than 90% of cases, only the rectum is affected or the distal colon is affected, and in some cases the entire colon is affected. The male to female ratio is 10:1. Acute intestinal obstruction usually occurs 1-6 days after birth, with clinical manifestations including constipation, vomiting, abdominal distension, empty rectal examination with no stool, digital examination stimulating the defecation reflex, meconium excreted with a large amount of gas when the fingers are pulled out, and abdominal distension relieved at the same time.

7. Drug-induced constipation

Children taking methylphenidate hydrochloride, diphenylhydantoin, imipramine hydrochloride, antacids, phenoxylate, etc. may suffer from constipation.

The above is an introduction to what to do if children have dry stools. I hope it can be of some help to friends whose children suffer from dry stools. In fact, dry stools can be well relieved if adjusted through diet, especially eating more light foods, and usually make sure that children drink more boiled water and eat some fruits, which can all help relieve dry stools.