Digestive Issues And Common Stomach Ailments In Infants

Firstly, it’s important to know that it’s a myth that babies that are exclusively breastfed do not experience digestive issues. Babies and infants that are purely breastfed till the age of 6 months can also experience various stomach ailments and digestive problems.

Some common digestive issues seen in infants (0-1year) of age include

Reflux

In this condition, the mother commonly tends to complain about her baby spitting out milk while breastfeeding or when trying to make him/her birth. since the sprinters in the stomach are not properly aligned in the neonates. It’s completely fine to experience reflux and mothers do not need to be worried about it as it’s a functional problem that resolves by itself in a few weeks to few months.

Gas

The representation of gas in babies is in the form of bloating which leads to the baby feeling cranky or irritable and not wanting to feed. The reason behind babies experiencing gas could be that the baby is gulping air along with breastmilk while feeding (aerophagy). This condition may also lead to colic i.e stomach pain generally experienced in the evening time.

To manage this, make sure you feed that baby frequently every 2-3 hours and also give tummy time to your baby after an hour post feeding.

Diarrhea

Diarrhea is a condition when babies pass frequent watery stools. To manage this feed your baby frequently to fight dehydration caused by diarrhea and pay attention to the urine output (at least 8-10 times per day).

Constipation

For babies between 0-1 year of age, it’s completely normal to not pass stools for about 2-3 days. But if the baby is showing signs like excess irritability, not wanting to feed, excess crying, and excess bloating it might be due to constipation and you need to see a pediatrician for the same. Avoid panicking in such situations and using laxatives as it will just make their condition worst.