How is frothy diarrhea diagnosed?

Foamy diarrhea does not necessarily have to have a pathological cause at first. So the bowel movement can change temporarily for example due to certain food, so that it can come also without special disease value to foamy diarrhea. Symptoms that indicate that foaming diarrhea is pathological include persistent abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.

The timing is of particular importance in the case of foaming diarrhea. Complaints that only last for a few hours or one or two days and then disappear on their own usually have no disease value. However, if the complaints occur over a longer period of time or recur repeatedly, one should think of a pathological cause of the foaming diarrhea.

Symptoms such as alternating constipation and diarrhea can also indicate that the diarrhea has pathological causes. If there are further changes in the bowel movements, such as blood deposits, the foaming diarrhea can also be pathological. Flatulence is a sign that a particularly large number of bacteria are active in the gastrointestinal tract.

These can be both naturally occurring bacteria and special pathogens. The bacteria can produce gases during the digestion of food, which is noticeable by a bloated stomach and flatulence. In addition, gases and liquids can cause small bubbles to form in the bowel movement, which can be noticeable as foamy deposits.

Abdominal pain is a very general symptom and can therefore indicate a variety of different diseases. It is not uncommon for abdominal pain to occur even without a specific disease value. If, on the other hand, foaming diarrhea occurs in combination with the symptom abdominal pain, it can be assumed that the digestive tract is diseased.

The abdominal pain can make itself felt as a punctual complaint. Also diffuse abdominal pain that cannot be assigned to a specific point of the abdomen should not occur. The abdominal pain may become noticeable even before the change in bowel movement.

Constipation is an interesting phenomenon in combination with foaming diarrhea. Often the two complaints alternate, so that constipation occurs for a few days, followed by diarrhea and then constipation again. This often speaks for a change in the intestinal bacteria, which have different effects on the bowel movement and thus alternately cause constipation and foamy diarrhoea.

Whoever suffers from chronic constipation (particularly common in children) can also suffer from so-called “overflow diarrhoea”. This is actually constipation, so that more and more bowel movement accumulates. As a result, only particularly liquid portions of the bowel movement can pass the end of the intestine, resulting in small amounts of particularly liquid diarrhea.