Constipation & Encopresis

Constipation is a common problem for infants, children and adults alike.  There are typical times when kids develop constipation: transitioning to a more solid diet, changes to diet with travel or stress, stressful environments around toileting (eg school bathrooms) and dehydration.

Chronic constipation can lead to more challenges like anal fissures, toilet avoidance, low appetite, gas pain and encopresis.

Encopresis is when we have stooling accidents that can be a small amount of leakage to larger stools.  This can be very uncomfortable and embarrassing for kids, especially for school-aged children.  

Because the rectum stretches, the nerves around the anal sphincter also stretch and can become less sensitive when there is more and more firm stool that is not moving out.  This is why it can take a long time to retrain your child's bowels.

There are a few other reasons that may be underlying your child's constipation that might need to be explored (eg. low thyroid function, Hirschprung's disease, Crohns or Celiac disease).  Some red flags include:  delayed passage of meconium after birth, family history of Inflammatory Bowel disease, slow development).

Follow this clinical pathway to understand what your primary care provider is sharing with you:

https://www.albertahealthservices.ca/assets/about/scn/ahs-scn-dh-pathway-pediatric-constipation.pdf