Your child's digestive or gastrointestinal tract includes his esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and his anus. Bleeding can come from any of these areas, and it may even occur without you or your child noticing it, according to Johns Hopkins Children's Center. You might panic if you notice blood in your child's stool, but the cause of bleeding isn't always serious. Still, you should contact your doctor in case the source of bleeding needs special treatment.
Common Causes
Blood in the stool can be caused by gastrointestinal tract bleeding and some types of infectious diarrhea, but most cases of blood streaking in a child's stool is from a small rectal tear, known as a fissure. A fissure occurs when a child strains against a hard stool and it is a somewhat common problem in children who have ongoing constipation, according to KidsHealth, a part of the Nemours Foundation.
Symptoms
Your child's symptoms---such as changes in her bowel habits, the color and consistency of her stool and any pain or tenderness---will tell her physician where the bleeding is coming from. Blood in the digestive tract can have a wide range of appearances depending on where it originates. It might show up as bright red blood coating your child's stool, dark blood mixed in with your child's stool, black or tarry looking stool or it might show up in your child's vomit as bright red blood or a substance that looks like coffee grounds, according to Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
What to Do
Call 911 as soon as possible if your child has passed out or if he is too weak to stand up. The Seattle Children's Hospital recommends calling your doctor right now if: your child seems very sick, you see a large amount of blood in the toilet bowl, your child's stool looks tarry or black, your child's urine is pink or tea-colored, your child has vomited blood, he has skin bruises that aren't caused by an injury, your child is under 12 weeks old, a small amount of bleeding has occurred at least twice, blood in the stool has followed an injury to your child's anus or rectum, your child has abdominal pain or he is also crying. Call your doctor within a day if you see blood in your child's stools with none of the aforementioned symptoms.
Diagnosis
Your doctor will take a complete history and physically examine your child to get information that might help him locate the source of bleeding. According to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, the doctor might use an endoscopy to view the inside of your child's digestive tract or use another method, such as a barium X-ray or an angiography, which uses dye to highlight your child's blood vessels.
Treatment
Chances are your child has a fissure that can be treated with dietary changes, some ointment and a warm saline bath, says the Seattle Children's Hospital. If your child is bleeding from the upper gastrointestinal tract, the doctor might control it using a chemical injection to the bleeding site through the endoscope, says Johns Hopkins Children's Center. Alternately, the doctor might use heat to cauterize the bleeding or use laser therapy to stop the bleeding. Rare cases call for surgery.
