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- ERIC's Constipation and Soiling pages
- Info for Teens
- Info for Children
- Info for Parents
- Info for Professionals
- Message Boards
- Leaflets on Constipation and Soiling
Info for Children
Constipation happens when the poo in your body becomes hard and difficult to push out. Sometimes it hurts to poo when you are constipated and when it happens you need medicine to help soften the poo so it is easier to push out.
How your bowels work
How often should you poo?
Doctors say you are constipated if you poo only 3 times or less a week.
Sometimes we don’t know why children become constipated but we know that it helps to eat plenty of different foods including fruit and vegetables and to drink lots of water - 6-8 glasses a day is best and we know that having exercise helps to keep poo moving.
When you eat your body doesn’t need to use all of your food and it turns all the unwanted bits of food into poo.
We don’t want to keep our poo in our bodies so we sit on the toilet and poo most days to remove it.
We also know that if you make sure you sit on the toilet everyday to have a poo it will help to make sure you don’t get constipated.
Getting into a routine
Stay on the toilet for at least 5 minutes and try to push the poo out.
It is best to sit on the toilet for a poo when you get the feeling you need to poo. Don’t put it off until later as the feeling might go away.
What is soiling?
Soiling is when poo comes out by itself into your pants.It can be runny or lumpy.
Soiling happens when the poo in you bowel gets bigger and little bits either leak around the lump of poo or little bits break off – this is called sneaky poo as you don’t always know it has happened until you can feel it. It’s not your fault when this happens.
You will need to take the medicine for a while, maybe months, to make sure your poo stays soft and continues to comes out easily.
Read about Sam, aged 8, and his story about what he did when he had constipation and was soiling at school.
