Stuck: Kids and Chronic Constipation
Not feeling so good.
Sometimes everyone gets a little constipated, but gastroentorologists at Johns Hopkins are noticing a disturbing trend: Constipation in children is on the rise and it’s not mild.
Constipation is defined as having fewer than three bowel movements in a week; it’s chronic if this happens for three non-consecutive months in a year. Symptoms of constipation include bloating, feeling full, lumpy or hard stools, pellet-like stools, or a feeling like a bowel movement isn’t complete. Doctors emphasize that the earlier the treatment, the better. What causes constipation in kids?
Some of the causes of constipation include when kids don’t drink enough water, when they don’t eat enough fiber from fruits and vegetables and eat too many processed foods, and if they get enough physical exercise.
Also, if kids hold bowel movements it can disrupt the brain-colon connection that tells the colon that stool needs to get out. This disruption is a sneaky thing that can happen over a long period of time: Stool builds up, the colon gets stretched out, the stool gets harder, bowel movements get more painful, the cycle starts.
Kids can hold stool during potty training (when you’re potty training a toddler, make sure his feet are propped up on a stool), and for older kids, the start of the school year is also a time when constipation can set in. Kids may not want to go to the bathroom at school or they may not be allowed to go except during designated periods (lunch, recess, at specific breaks).
Again, the earlier the situation is understood and treated the better. More water, more fiber, and more exercise can help prevent the condition, but if you suspect it’s already happening put a call into your doctor to help your child get some relief.
Does exercise help? (Curious – I am completely irregular unless I get in my daily 45-60 minutes of exercise…prunes, fiber, water, and all else beflustered, I must exercise or no poo!)
Yes, exercise does help. Also, the OTC osmotic powders that you mix with water would also help – but I’d check with a medical person first before giving anything to a child.
Hahaha – this picture is hilarious.
And p.s. – I’ve been dealing with the after-effects of this for nearly a year. It’s not pretty.
Worst part is when you tell your child to pay attention to his body and the signals- but the school won’t let them go except for before lunch.
We try to keep the stool small. Big ones are harder to move.
goddess, that would make me so angry. When my dd was in third grade, her teacher wouldn’t let her use the bathroom one afternoon and she almost wet her pants in front of the entire class. I was so livd. I sent a note to her teacher informing her that dd had her father’s and my permission to use the bathroom whenever she needed to, and I also called the principal and told him that if my daughter had actually wet her pants in front of the class, I’d be in his office reading him the riot act instead of doing it over the phone. I’d think that if you sent a note in explaining that your child has a medical issue and neesd to use the bathroom when nature calls, they should accomodate him.
@goddess and Linda – I can definitely see this from the POV where I would be livid as heck and at the school. (I dealt with some, um, GI issues in HS. I argued loudly with a substitute teacher who didn’t want to release me from a test to go use the facilities. I walked out of the classroom, did my biz, then went and found my vice principal and he escorted me back to class AND gave the sub a verbal warning. My medical issue had been noted in the teacher’s plans, BTW, she just didn’t bother to look) I suspect its because some feel that little kids “abuse” the privilege? I mean, if you ask my toddler if he needs to use the potty right before we leave, he’ll say yes. And then when he’s “ah dun”, and we’re out the door, before we get to the car its “pah-yee? pah-yee Mama Pah-YEE!”. And I did babysit more than one child who used the “I hafta go I can’t go to bed yet” excuse on a nightly basis, for hours if you let them. But seriously: school kids should be able to use the facilities when they need to. And you know what? So should teachers. Two of my teacher friends battle constant UTIs…
we are having cronic constipation wuth my almost 15 month old right now and the pedi that we are going to thinks nothing is wrong. we think is has something to do with something he is eating but cannot pin point what it is. we have changed numerous things in his diet btu are still having this problem. im not sure what to do. we have sone all the things listed in this article on how to prevent it but still nothing has helped.
My now 2 yr old has been chronically constipated for almost a year, and has been toted to the pediatrician, been tested for several different disorders, and takes fiber on a daily basis. I recently stumbled across an article about IBS in toddlers and young children, and I’m fairly certain that’s what we’re looking at. I’ve started keeping track of what happens after eating certain foods (lots of yogurt recently, and horrific diarrhea)