Since gastric problems can occur from a young age due to H. pylori, serious problems can occur if not treated on time.
What you should know
Children can also get gastritis, which is usually seen in adults. Children get gastritis due to infection with a bacteria called H. pylori.
This germ infection occurs from childhood. When a child eats junk food and is overweight, it becomes ‘gastric’.
‘Painkillers’ also make a child ‘gastric’, informed Dr. Sumit Agarwal, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Kanti Children’s Hospital. In adults, ‘gastric’ causes stomach pain, aversion to food, and sour taste in the mouth.
Even in children, problems such as sour water coming from the mouth, stomach pain in the morning and evening, some people have more stomach pain after eating, some people have less after eating, continuous vomiting, and bloating appear. After this, the child’s diet decreases and if treatment is delayed, weight gradually decreases.
If not treated in time, gastritis can cause stomach pain, bleeding from the mouth, narrowing of the small intestine, and ulcers in the first part of the small intestine, says Dr. Agarwal. According to him, two to three children with gastritis come to Kanti Hospital every day. Similarly, one or two patients who vomit blood come to the hospital every week.
Dr. Agarwal said that after three to five endoscopy procedures a week, 75 percent of children are infected with the H. pylori bacteria. Gastric acid production in the body is generally called gastritis.
According to him, H. pylori bacteria and gastritis are usually seen in children between the ages of 18 months and 14 years. Although the bacteria called H. pylori are present in the body from a young age, its symptoms appear only after seven or eight years. Dr. Agarwal said that ‘H. pylori’ can be cured after taking medicine for two weeks.
