Abdominal pain after eating in children

If children or infants complain of stomach aches after eating, this can have various causes. First and foremost, food intolerance, especially lactose intolerance, must be considered in older children. This is an intolerance to milk sugar, which is caused by a lactase deficiency.

This enzyme normally serves to split the milk sugar into galactose and glucose. If there is an enzyme deficiency, osmotically effective amounts of lactose enter the colon and bind water there. The first symptom is diarrhoea.

In addition, the water leads to an overall higher filling level of the intestine and thus to abdominal pain. As the process continues, the lactase is broken down by the bacteria in the intestine, producing gases and flatulence. Diagnostically, an attempt can first be made to expel food containing lactose.

In many cases this leads to a spontaneous cessation of symptoms. If the diagnosis cannot yet be made certain in this way, an H2 breath test can be carried out. In this test, 50g of lactose is given orally and the hydrogen content in the breath is then measured.

This is pathologically high if there is no or insufficient enzyme to break down the lactose. An invasive method of diagnosis is a biopsy of the small intestine. In this procedure, small samples are taken from the small intestine during a gastroscopy and the enzyme lactase is detected.

The best therapy for confirmed and symptomatic lactose intolerance is to avoid or reduce the amount of lactose taken daily. Lactase tablets containing the enzyme can help before travelling or when taking lactose. In children, special care must be taken to ensure that no relative lack of calcium develops as a result of giving up milk.

In addition to lactose intolerance, other foods such as fish, nuts, shellfish or hen’s eggs can also cause gastrointestinal complaints, especially pain, diarrhoea and flatulence. In the case of nut or fish allergies, however, systemic reactions such as Also in this form of the disease the anamnesis and the discharge play an important role. In addition, laboratory chemical detection of immunoglobulin of the group G, as well as methylhistamine in urine can be detected.

The allergy diagnostic prick test is performed on the forearm and is intended to detect local allergic reactions there. Here too, the first therapy consists in the withdrawal of the allergenically active food. Hypo- or desensitization can also be performed.

Here the body is slowly accustomed to the allergen in order to reduce the reaction of the body. In some cases, a mast cell stabilizer must be used to treat the allergy. This is administered orally for food allergies and can cause coughing, burning and irritation of the nose and eyes.

This drug is not approved for infants < 3 months. The differential diagnosis must be based on 3-month colic, especially in infants with abdominal pain and flatulence. These lead to persistent crying attacks of the infants after meals, which peak around the 6th week of life.

The symptoms usually subside at the end of the 3rd month of life. An exact cause for this is not yet known. It is suspected that excessive drinking, swallowing a lot of air during a meal (aerophagy) and increased gas formation in the intestine leads to painful peristalsis (intestinal movement) and flatulence.

Therapy is not necessary in this case. Symptomatically, warming blankets on the stomach or a circular abdominal massage in the direction of the bowel outlet (clockwise) can help. – Circulatory instability

Itching or
Swelling of the airways

The body of a pregnant woman goes through a series of changes.

In particular, the severe impairment of the hormone balance can cause various complaints in the expectant mother. Especially the development of abdominal pain after eating can have different causes in a pregnant woman. During pregnancy, some of the expectant mothers develop intolerances to certain foods which they could originally eat without any problems.

One cause may be the hormonal changes in the organism. If women who have been pregnant for a longer period of time suffer from abdominal pain after eating, this symptomatology can be caused by an excessive filling of the stomach. If one is pregnant, the growing child increasingly pushes the organs of the abdominal cavity towards the chest.

For this reason there is no room for a wide stretching of the stomach. For women who often suffer from abdominal pain after eating, it is therefore not recommended to eat large portions. Those affected should eat small meals several times a day to avoid excessive filling of the stomach and to prevent stomach pain.