Treating Stomach Aches and Pains in Kids

Stomach aches and pains are common in babies, infants and parents are always in search of quick fixer to help their little ones get a relief instantly. Though instant reliefs do not come always, and there are colicky infants and babies with common stomach problems, yet some remedies and treatments always help.

Stomach pain in older kids:
The common home remedies in not so serious pains are as follows:

• Let the child rest and lie down. This may help to ease the pain in 20-30 minutes.
• Give the child some liquid to drink, which is soothing, like light tea, soup, water or diluted fruit juice.
• Let the child go to the toilet and encourage him or her to pass stool. This may help ease off the pain sooner.
• Avoid any bulk food intake in one meal and divide it into smaller meals through the day until symptoms go away.
• Don't give oily and fried food. Give easy to digest food, mostly boiled or light fried.
• Avoid giving a medicine without medical advice.

These steps generally help and the pain goes away without going to a doctor immediately. If the pain is severe and is persistent in any one part of the abdomen, then it may require immediate medical attention. Common causes may be appendicitis or gall stone problem or may be a case of acute jaundice, diarrhoea, food poison, etc. Pain on pressing one part of the belly, or high body temperature with pain, and serious vomiting are serious symptoms which you must not ignore and take the kid immediately to a medical centre or doctor.

Stomach pain in infants:
Stomach pains in infants are caused due to extra air entering the stomach while feeding. This can be avoided by burping the baby manually. There are a few burping techniques which your paediatrician and baby care giver will show you.

If you are with a colicky baby, then you would try administering the baby's nursing bottle first. There are new age nursing bottle designs, which keep off extra air from entering the stomach. The extra air mainly causes the stomach pain, and therefore, the bottle which prevents mixing of air with milk or water keeps the baby safe from colicky pains. Keep baby colic pain syrups at home ready, and give the baby a dose as and when required. It will eventually give the pain a relief.