Drugs are not the first choice to relieve constipation in babies.

Drug dependence hurts more than disease.

One day, a mother who bought medicine came to the pharmacy window. She wants to buy 30 kesselos for her two-year-old baby. I asked her why she bought so many, She said that her daughter would not defecate without Kaiseru, You need to use a dose of Kaiselu every day, It has been in use for more than a month, I plan to continue using it. Now the little girl will take the initiative to ask her mother to use a Kaisailu every night before going to bed, otherwise she will be agitated and difficult to sleep. I asked her if she had taken her baby to see a doctor and whether she had ruled out any abnormalities in the structural development of the intestinal tract itself. She said that the doctor diagnosed [functional constipation] and ruled out [organic constipation].

Therefore, I told her that Kaisailu was only used to temporarily relieve dry, hard and caked stool (i.e. Old stool accumulated in intestinal tract for a long time). It is only used to relieve symptoms and cannot eliminate the causes of constipation. It is no problem to use it once or twice occasionally, but it is not recommended to use it regularly once a day. Regular use is easy to make the baby rely on it mentally and physically. What she needs to do most now is to find out the causes of constipation in the baby and treat it according to the etiology.

If the baby only has a long defecation interval, The excreted stool is not dry or hard. The process of defecation is also effortless and painless. This kind of condition is not constipation. It’s like what we often say: Babies digest and absorb breast milk well, and the food residue in the body is less, so defecation interval will be relatively long, but defecation is not dry. This is a normal physiological phenomenon and does not need human intervention. Clinically, baby defecation frequency is usually reduced, defecation is laborious and painful, and constipation is defined as the symptoms of dry, hard, coarse and large volume of excrement accompanied by excretion.

Baby constipation is usually caused by unreasonable diet, lack of scientific defecation training or some psychological factors. Therefore, to eradicate the constipation problem of baby, we should start with the causes of baby constipation.

If you eat right, it is not difficult to defecate easily.

Less than 4 months of baby if eat milk powder, more prone to constipation symptoms, the reason may be that the concentration of milk powder blending is too strong, may also be the protein content in milk powder is too high. To eliminate the baby constipation caused by this reason, parents can adjust the proportion of water milk powder, or try to change the brand of milk powder.

When the baby is older, he can be added with supplementary foods. If he suffers from constipation at this time, two main reasons should be considered:

First, allergy to certain foods. Babies often suffer from constipation due to intolerance to milk, eggs, fish and shrimp, nuts, mangoes and other foods. To improve constipation caused by this reason, parents can suspend the addition of supplementary foods to their babies, or simplify their supplementary foods, and try not to let their babies eat supplementary foods that will cause allergy.

Second, among the supplementary foods added to the baby, Dietary fiber is not rich enough. Dietary fiber can absorb water in intestinal tract, To soften the stool, Make it easier to excrete. To improve constipation caused by this reason, just add rich dietary fiber to your baby, such as potatoes (such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc.), melons (such as pumpkins), vegetables (such as bamboo shoots, spinach, etc.), fungi (such as agaric), algae (such as kelp), and fresh fruits (such as pears, plums, apples, etc.) are all foods rich in dietary fiber.

If the baby is picky about food, Constipation symptoms occur due to not eating foods rich in dietary fiber, At this time, parents should try their best to make their babies develop healthy and reasonable eating habits. I have a neighbor, There is a little boy in her family, About two years old, I don’t like fruits and vegetables. She tried many ways to coax him. No success. After I heard of it, I suggested that she break up the vegetables a little and do it in the rice. For example, she can cook steamed buns, wonton stuffing or porridge, so that the baby can’t pick it out. In addition, I also reminded her that the staple food the baby eats should not be too fine, not always made with refined white flour, and whole wheat can be considered.

In China, there is also a phenomenon of artificial constipation of babies that cannot be ignored: Constipation caused by excessive calcium supplement. Calcium is taken orally into gastrointestinal tract, The absorption rate is usually very low, Most of the calcium will be excreted out of the body in the form of feces. When calcium passes through the intestinal tract, it is easy to combine with oxalic acid, fat and other hard insoluble substances in intestinal food residues. In this way, the stool will become dry and hard. For normal-growing babies, the daily intake of calcium from the diet is enough. No extra supplement is needed, just vitamin D is needed to promote calcium absorption. To improve constipation caused by calcium supplement, the method is very simple: stop calcium supplement!

Make defecation training a fun thing

For babies under one year old, Changing diapers many times a day, Some old people feel wasteful or troublesome, So according to the traditional method, Give the baby excrement and urine. In the baby does not urinate or defecate, let him try to defecate. This may make him suffer from anal fissure, and the pain of anal fissure will make him afraid of defecation, thus making him produce constipation symptoms. Therefore, too early to give the baby excrement and urine is one of the causes of baby constipation, is a wrong way.

In order to avoid constipation, It is better to wait until the baby is 18 months old before carrying out scientific defecation training: Prepare children’s toilets for babies, Or install children’s toilet covers on adult toilets, Or put a stable footstool at his feet, so that the baby has support at his feet when defecating hard, and do not directly let him use the adult toilet. Daily defecation training is carried out at a fixed time, such as requiring the baby to sit on the toilet after breakfast and receive defecation training for at least 5 minutes, so as to make it form the habit of regular defecation every day.

Try to avoid using the words “dirty” or “smelly” during training, Let the baby realize that defecation is a normal physiological phenomenon, Instead of holding back because of embarrassment. At the beginning of the training, If the baby rejects this kind of training, You can pause training, Try not to force him. During the pause, Parents can purposefully read children’s picture books related to the use of the toilet with their babies, such as < < the story of the toilet > > < < I don’t use diapers > >, etc., to guide the baby to imitate the main character in the picture book story, thus making him like the use of the toilet. My daughter Jiajia read < < I don’t use diapers > > this picture book and actively received defecation training.

To relieve mental stress constipation, first open the baby’s heart door.

Constipation caused by psychological factors is usually most obvious at the stage when the baby enters kindergarten. Leaving the familiar family environment, Come to a strange school, Having come into contact with strange teachers and classmates, Babies may refuse to defecate in kindergartens because they are not familiar with the environment. They have the intention of defecating all the time and hold back until they go home. The longer the feces are held back, the harder the texture is, and the harder it is when they want to discharge them at home. Moreover, when the feces are held back for a long time, the baby will also feel pain. The more pain, the more the baby does not want to defecate, the more not to defecate, the more serious constipation.

In view of the constipation of the baby caused by mental factors, parents should first relieve the baby’s nervousness.

If the child does not defecate because he is not familiar with the kindergarten toilet, More communication with kindergarten teachers, let teachers cooperate with parents, through various ways to tell him, defecation is a normal physiological phenomenon, other children also want to defecate, let the baby learn to imitate other children’s good habits. Children have curiosity, will imitate each other, so, to promote him and companions between benign learning and promotion.

At the same time, train the baby to defecate before going to kindergarten or after returning from kindergarten, In order to develop the habit of defecation every day. However, if the baby has constipation symptoms, don’t urge him again, so as not to make his spirit more nervous. Mental stress is more likely to lead to constipation. Rubbing the stomach can also improve constipation. Can press the belly button clockwise rubbing, promote intestinal peristalsis, improve constipation.

Drug Choice for Constipation: Kaiselu and Lactulose

Through the above three aspects of diet, defecation habits and mental factors to find out the etiology, And take corresponding measures to improve the etiology, most of which can relieve the constipation of the baby. If the constipation symptoms still cannot be relieved, you can consider using drugs for the baby under the guidance of a doctor to relieve the constipation symptoms. At present, the most commonly used such drugs are Kaisailu and lactulose.

The active ingredient of Kaiselu is glycerin, Belonging to stimulating laxatives, The drug is administered through anal insertion. The drug lubricates the intestinal tract and stimulates the intestinal tract to perform defecation reflex. Stimulate intestinal peristalsis and defecate. It is relatively safe to use it for a short time. Long-term use is likely to make the baby dependent on it, Form the habit of refusing to defecate without strong stimulation. Therefore, Kaisailu can only be used occasionally to relieve defecation. The usage method of Kaisailu is as follows: First of all, help the baby to take the left lateral position, And raise your ass moderately. Next, Cut off the top of the Kaiselu package, Squeeze out a little glycerin to lubricate the anus. Then, Take the kaiselou ball, Slowly insert the anus to the neck of Kaisailu, and squeeze the liquid medicine into the rectum (usually 10 milliliters for babies). Usually 5-10 minutes later can cause defecation. For non-serious defecation, if there is no Kaisailu temporarily at hand, you can also use an electronic thermometer measuring the anus temperature, coating olive oil on the thermometer to insert the anus, lubricating and stimulating the intestinal wall to cause defecation.

Lactulose is a synthetic non-absorbable disaccharide, It is an oral dosage form. After taking it, it is not absorbed in the intestinal tract, but it has high osmotic activity of disaccharide. It can keep water and electrolyte in the intestinal tract and produce hyperosmotic effect, thus softening feces and making them easy to discharge. Therefore, it is an osmotic laxative. Because it has no irritation to the intestinal wall, it is often used to treat chronic functional constipation.

The mother mentioned at the beginning of this section who bought Sailu, After listening to my analysis, Decided to go home and improve her constipation symptoms by changing her daughter’s diet and defecation habits. Since her daughter has been using Kaisailu for more than a month, As a patient with chronic functional constipation, I recommended that she buy less Kaiselu to relieve constipation occasionally, and buy a bottle of lactulose once a day to give her medication. After the symptoms are relieved, she can reduce the amount to once every other day or stop taking the medicine. She listened to my advice very convincingly.

This article is taken from the book “Ji Lianmei Talk: Chinese Should Use Drugs This Way”, which is reprinted by the author’s authorized clove garden.