Disorder of the stomach and bowels is one of the most common diseases of infancy. Through effective prevention, the infant will be healthy and can reduce the need to visit the doctor. There are many causes which may give rise to these affections, as described below.
1) Breast-fed infant
The infant’s stomach and bowels may become sensitive if the breast milk becomes unwholesome. This may arise from the mother becoming less than healthy, for differing reasons. These causes are usually temporary, and when removed the milk becomes suitable for the child as before. The various causes affecting the quality of breast milk are:
- anxiety of mind of the mother – sudden and great mental disturbance (which has been known to cause the milk to disappear altogether) – an unhealthy diet – certain medication , – the return of the monthly periods whilst the mother is nursing
The breast fed infant will suffer, in varying degree, from flatulence, griping, looseness of the bowels, and vomiting. This can worsen if there is no sufficient interval between the feeding for digestion.
2) Teething
The bowels of the infant are generally affected by teething, but is usually not serious. It will generally be accompanied by a swollen gum.
3) During weaning
There is a great susceptibility to problems of the stomach and bowels of the child at the period when weaning ordinarily takes place, so that great care and judgment must be exercised. Usually, however, the bowels are deranged during this process from one of these causes:
* Weaning too early
The attempt to wean a delicate child, for instance, when only six months old, will inevitably be followed by disorder of the stomach and bowels.
* Effecting it too suddenly and abruptly or over-feeding
If too large a quantity of food is given at each meal, or the meals are too frequently repeated, in both instances the stomach will become oppressed and overloaded. Part of the food are perhaps thrown up by vomiting, while the remainder will not have the chance to undergo the digestive process. These will pass on into the bowels and irritate its delicate lining membrane, producing flatulence, with griping, purging, and perhaps convulsions.
* Use of improper and unsuitable food
Improper and unsuitable food will be followed by precisely the same effects. If the causes are continued, the problems may become aggravated.
It is therefore important that at this period when the mother is about to substitute an artificial food for that of breast milk, she should first ascertain what kind of food suits the child best, and then the precise quantity which nature demands.
The irritation caused by difficult teething may give rise to diarrhoea at the time when the infant is weaned. Slight diarrhoea during weaning in this instance, can be traced to the cutting of a tooth by observing the heated and inflamed state of the gum. Care must be taken not to be mistaken for stomach disorders arising from other causes, and a doctor should always be consulted if in the slightest doubt.
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