Why does the child have blood in his stool?

Parents are more concerned about their children's bowel movements, because their children's bowel movements largely reflect whether their children are healthy. If a child has an irregular diet or indigestion, his or her bowel movements will become abnormal. Some parents find that their children have bloody stools, which requires parents to adjust their children's diet in time. So, why do children have bloody stools?

If after feeding, your baby has blood in his stools, as well as rash, swelling around the mouth, eyes, or face, wheezing, vomiting, diarrhea, or even unconsciousness and general paralysis, and these symptoms recur after each feeding, you should highly consider food allergy and seek help from a doctor.

It is relatively easy to determine whether a baby who develops typical allergic symptoms within a few minutes or two hours after contact with food is allergic, and the doctor can also help confirm the diagnosis through skin prick tests or blood allergen IgE tests. However, if the baby's symptoms develop slowly, it will be relatively difficult to judge, and the help of related allergen tests is also very limited. It is more necessary to record the relationship between symptoms and food through a food diary to determine.

2If it is confirmed to be a food allergy, what should I do?

If a baby under one year old who is fed formula milk is diagnosed with milk allergy, he or she needs to choose special formula milk to replace ordinary formula milk, including:

Soy protein formula: For babies aged 6-12 months, if they can tolerate soy protein, soy protein formula can be considered. If your baby is also allergic to soy protein, this formula should not be considered.

Deeply hydrolyzed formula milk: Usually the first choice for babies with cow's milk protein allergy. It should be noted that [partially] hydrolyzed formula milk is different from extensively hydrolyzed formula milk, and the former is not suitable for babies who are confirmed to be allergic to milk protein.

Amino acid formula milk: Almost all babies who are allergic to cow's milk protein or soy protein can tolerate amino acid formula milk. Relevant statistics suggest that about 10% of babies who are allergic to cow's milk protein may need amino acid formula milk powder.

At the same time, we should know that babies who are allergic to cow's milk protein often also have allergic reactions to milk with similar proteins, such as goat's milk. Therefore, goat's milk formula is not suitable for babies who are allergic to cow's milk protein. A2 formula milk mainly contains A2 casein (ordinary milk mainly contains A1 casein), and it is also not suitable for babies who are allergic to milk protein. Lactose-free formula still contains cow's milk protein, so it is not suitable for babies who are allergic to cow's milk protein.

3. If a breastfed baby has blood in his stool, is it also because of allergies?

Babies who are exclusively breastfed may also develop food allergies. This is because when the mother eats certain foods, some small molecule food proteins can enter the blood and then enter the breast milk, causing the baby to have allergic symptoms. The most common of these is milk protein allergy, but the manifestations of allergies are often not so typical.

If the baby becomes more crying and fussing than usual, is difficult to comfort, and has blood in the stool after the mother has eaten certain specific foods such as milk, eggs, nuts, peanuts, wheat products, etc., she can try not to eat the suspected food that the baby is allergic to for at least 2-3 weeks.

During the period of stopping eating suspicious foods, even if the baby is really allergic to the food, the symptoms usually will not improve immediately, because both the baby and the mother's body need a certain amount of time to clear the related proteins accumulated in the body. This is why it is emphasized that it is necessary to stop for at least 2-3 weeks. If the baby does have an allergy to a food in the mother's diet, the crying and restlessness symptoms may begin to improve slowly after a week of stopping eating.

In addition, to further help confirm whether the baby is allergic to the suspected food, the mother should stop eating the suspected food for at least 2-3 weeks, and then try again if the baby's symptoms improve. If similar crying and restlessness occur again, it can help confirm that the baby has an allergic reaction to that food.

If a breastfed baby is confirmed to be allergic to a certain food that the mother eats, it is usually not necessary to stop breastfeeding immediately and switch to special formula milk. The breastfeeding mother can temporarily avoid this food, such as milk. However, during the dietary avoidance period, it is necessary to pay attention to reasonable nutritional replacement. For example, if the mother avoids milk and other dairy products in her diet, she needs to pay attention to replacing them with other calcium-containing foods.

If food allergies affect the baby's growth and the breastfeeding mother's special diet cannot be well supported or implemented professionally, it is necessary to consider using the special formula milk mentioned above under the guidance of a doctor.

At the same time, we should know that milk allergies will mostly gradually disappear as children grow older. Relevant statistics show that by the age of 3-5, about 80% of babies with milk protein allergies will recover on their own.