Blood in your infant stool also known as rectal bleeding is common among infants. Naturally, if your infant is well, then the blood should disappear pretty fast on its own.
The severity of the blood and how your child behaves should tell you whether to treat the issue as an emergency or whether to calm down and book a pediatrician’s appointment. However, as a prudent parent, it is advisable to check this out with the pediatrician.
Understanding the blood in your infant stool
The color of the blood in your infant’s stool is a strong lead to what exactly is the health issue. This way you can have a clue on where the blood is coming from. First, if blood is coming from the rectum or the colon, then it will appear bright red. If, however, the blood is coming from the lower digestive tract, the blood will appear dark, more of maroon, black or the dark brown colors.
Also, where the blood appears in the stool could guide you. For instance, is the blood on the outside of the stool or somewhat mixed with the stool. If the blood is outside of the stool, it could be an indicator that the anal tear has caused this.
Continuous and large amount of blood in the stool is linked to the problem in the digestive tract. This requires urgent medical attention.
Causes
1. Anal tear
As you may know, your infant’s anal tissue may be a bit soft thus highly susceptible to tear. Passing rough stool is highly likely to cause the small blood vessels in the anal tissue to rapture thereby causing bleeding.
2. Infectious diarrhea
The notorious of these infections is the salmonella, E.Coli and Difficile C. The difficile bacteria grow in the gut thus causing injury to the mucosa and bloody stools.
3. Diet reaction
Some foods cause a considerable change in an infant stool. For instance, beetroots cause a bloody like the change to the color of stool.
Treatment
1. Medication
Seek medical attention where the bleeding is heavy and continuous. The first thing the doctor will do is to stop the bleeding and then prescribe some medication to prevent the recurrence of the bleeding.
2. Endoscopy
Endoscopy is a specialized non-invasive medical procedure that targets the digestive tract. The endoscopy helps diagnose the reason for the bleeding. It is done by inserting a thin tube with a camera into the digestive tract. The procedure will allow the physician to have a view of the colon, duodenum and the stomach to determine whether there are any lesions in the organs.
The endoscopy is used as treatment by injecting medication directly into the organ that has been shown to cause the bleeding.
3. Laser therapy
The procedure employs the endoscopic technology whereby the organ causing the bleeding is treated using a heater probe.
4. Blood test
The physician may also do a blood test to determine whether the issue could be anemic. The blood test will also show the extent of the rectal bleeding and maybe whether the bleeding is chronic.
Natural Home Remedies for blood in infant stool
If the bleeding is low and the baby seems all happy and healthy, you may easily manage the bleeding by changing the baby’s diet.
Eliminating the cow milk and replacing with exclusive breastfeeding could help. If the baby is still on baby formula, they try changing the formula.
Further, consider increasing water consumption to help ease with constipation to reduce the bleeding that comes from the damage of the anal tissue because of the hard stool. Alternatively, add the baby feeding of fruit juice or the prune juice.
Where the bleeding is caused by anal tear, you may apply ice cubes to reduce the pain and the area stretching of the anal tissues. Also, bathe or sponge the area around the anus to prevent any infections.