Enterocolitis in newborns

Enterocolitis in newborns is an inflammatory disease of the small and large intestine that develops in newborn children, primarily due to the immaturity of the digestive tract.

The cause is infectious agents, but additional factors (prematurity, dysbiosis due to improper antibiotic use, respiratory distress syndrome, asphyxia in childbirth, diabetes maternal, late toxicosis) contribute to the development of the disease.

Types and symptoms of enterocolitis

Symptoms of enterocolitis in newborns are:

• regurgitation;
• bloating;
• increased frequency of stools;
• the chair is most often greenish in color;
• in feces appears mucus and there can be blood veins;
• in most cases, the disease is accompanied by a rise in temperature.

1. Staphylococcal enterocolitis in newborns can develop if infected with staphylococcus breast milk, if the mother has cracked nipples or mastitis. Also, the source can be any purulent foci in the body from which the infection enters the intestine with a blood stream. The course of such enterocolitis is quite turbulent: vomiting, stool more than 10 times a day, with greens and mucus, bloating, rising temperature to high figures. The child becomes flaccid and pale, does not eat and does not gain weight, his liver and spleen increase. The disease is prone to recurrence and prolonged course. Staphylococcal enterocolitis requires isolation of the baby from other children.
2. With ulcerative enterocolitis in newborns, the inflammatory process in the intestine progresses, and ulceration occurs, after which often tissue necrosis occurs in these areas of the intestine and the enterocolitis rapidly turns into necrotic.
3. Necrotizing enterocolitis in newborns is directly dependent on intrauterine and extrauterine hypoxia, so most often this is the fate of premature babies, children with respiratory problems, or after asphyxia during childbirth. It is also important toxicosis and extragenital pathology of the mother. With necrotic colitis, the child can very quickly get perforation of the intestine in places of tissue necrosis and develop peritonitis . Symptoms are accompanied by severe pain in the abdomen, discharge from the rectum with an admixture of blood, vomiting with bile, marked swelling.

How to treat enterocolitis in children?

Treatment of enterocolitis of newborns provides for the isolation of the child. Examination and therapy occur only in a hospital. In no case can antibiotics be prescribed or withdrawn on their own, In the case of peritonitis, the treatment is performed only surgically. The child should be under the supervision of a doctor, as the rapid development of the process and untimely treatment can threaten the life of the newborn.

Mom needs to provide a diet for the baby and fulfill all the prescriptions and recommendations of the doctor in charge. If the baby remains on breastfeeding, the mother should limit the sweet, as sweet breast milk promotes the development of dysbacteriosis in the baby. Of drugs with enterocolitis prescribe antibiotics, preparations of live bifidobacteria, vitamins, etc. Each child is treated individually.