Don't panic if you have blood in your stool
We are starting the new year with a not so appetising topic: blood in the stool. It happens once a week in our day-to-day practice that we receive a very excited phone call or a somewhat panicked email saying: "Oh God, my child has blood in their stool." In most cases, the excitement is unnecessary.
To put it bluntly: we would have it checked out quickly if the 72-year-old grandad had blood in his faeces. But with a child or a baby, it is very rarely necessary to get nervous immediately. Of course, there are illnesses that must be taken seriously and are accompanied by blood in the stool. But normally you will have a child in front of you who is clearly recognisably ill. Who is not well and/or has been weak for weeks or shows other symptoms such as extreme exhaustion, exceptional tiredness or real lethargy.
But if your child is completely fit and happens to have blood in their faeces, then my main message is that it's not an emergency. In 90 to 95 per cent of cases, it is assumed that there is a fairly banal explanation. For example, a small tear in the mucous membrane of the bottom or that some hard stool has scratched the mucous membrane.
It is certainly right to continue to observe the whole thing and, if the second or third stool is still bloody, to consult your doctor. For me, however, it is important that you don't get a super rapid pulse if you see blood in the nappy or in the toilet and your child is otherwise well.
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