Justin cried loudly and drew his tiny legs up to his chest as his bewildered parents tried to soothe him. Their 7-month-old had been colicky before, but this was something new - his crying was more urgent, his mood much more irritable. As the afternoon wore on, Justin's dad noticed that his son's small belly was distended, and when it was time to change the baby's diaper, he suspected that something was wrong.

After speaking with Justin's doctor, Justin's dad bundled him up and took him to the emergency department, where he was diagnosed with and successfully treated for intussusception (pronounced: in-tuh-suh-sep-shun), the most common abdominal emergency to affect children under 2 years of age. Keep reading to learn about intussusception, its symptoms, its treatment, and more.

What Is Intussusception?
Intussusception occurs when one portion of the bowel slides into the next, much like the pieces of a telescope. When this occurs, it creates an obstruction in the bowel, with the walls of the intestines pressing against one another. This, in turn, leads to swelling, inflammation, and decreased blood flow to the intestines involved.

The most common cause of intestinal obstruction in children between the ages of 3 months and 6 years, intussusception:

• occurs most often in children between 5 and 10 months of age (80% occur before a child is 24 months old)
• affects between one and four infants out of 1,000
• is three to four times more common in boys than in girls

Signs and Symptoms
Children with an intussusception have intense abdominal pain, which often begins so suddenly that it causes loud, anguished crying and causes the child to draw the knees up to the chest. The pain is usually intermittent, but recurs and becomes stronger. As the pain subsides, a child with an intussusception may stop crying and seem fine.

Other common symptoms include:

• abdominal swelling or distension
• passing stools (or poop) mixed with blood and mucus, known as currant jelly stool (60% percent of infants with an intussusception will pass currant jelly stool)
• vomiting
• vomiting up bile, a bitter-tasting fluid secreted by the liver that's often golden-brown to greenish in color
• lethargy (i.e., drowziness or sluggishness)
• shallow breathing
• grunting

As the illness progresses, a child will become progressively weaker and may develop a fever and appear to go into shock. Symptoms of shock include lethargy, rapid heartbeat, weak pulse, low blood pressure, and rapid breathing.

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