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Help for children with occasional or chronic constipation

	Constipation can be very uncomfortable and cause your child to complain of a stomach ache or avoid going to the toilet. Treatments vary from child to child. ConsumerReportsHealth.org can help you discover the best constipation treatment for your child.
	Subscribe to ConsumerReportsHealth.org today and find out if medication, dietary supplements or therapy rates best for treating constipation in children.

If your child has been diagnosed with constipation, you're not alone. Consumer Reports Health is here to help with the best research about constipation, and expert evidence and advice about how to treat it.

Key points for children with constipation

• Many children get constipation from time to time, and usually it goes away on its own after a few days. But in some children, it turns into an ongoing problem.
• Having even one experience of pushing out hard, dry stools can make your child afraid of going again.
• So your child may form a habit of holding in stools to avoid the pain.
• This can lead to the kind of constipation that lasts and isn't likely to go away on its own (called chronic constipation).
• If your child typically has small, hard stools (like pellets) or passes stools less than two times a week or says that it hurts, he or she could have this kind of constipation.
• Chronic constipation is most likely to happen between ages 2 and 4, when your child is potty training.
• Treatment may help your child break the habit, get back to normal, and keep constipation from coming back. But it's difficult to say how well treatments work since there is not much research on this.

Many children get constipation at some time, but when it lasts more than a few weeks, it can be more serious. Most children who have ongoing constipation don't have anything physically wrong with them. They just start holding in stools because they've had one experience when it was painful. Or there may be something else that makes them avoid passing stools.

If your child has chronic constipation, the good news is that treatments can help your child start going regularly again. But it can take a while for treatments to work, so you'll need to be patient. We encourage you to read our entire condition report and to consult with your child’s doctor to learn more about their constipation. As a Consumer Reports Health subscriber, you’ll have access to our expert research and recommendations, and you’ll be more confident and knowledgeable about which treatments are best for your child.

Our in-depth, complete report on constipation in children including Treatment Ratings, is available to subscribers