What do you do if you find that your child is often constipated? Do you leave it alone and think it is nothing and can be relieved by itself? Do you coax your child to eat a few more bananas and drink a few more glasses of honey water? Or do you buy some laxative and feed it to your child? Experts remind, care for children with long-term constipation, for their physical and psychological healthy growth, should promptly go to the regular hospital pediatric gastroenterology clinic for help. What causes constipation in children? About 10% of children with chronic constipation have secondary constipation, which may be caused by organic abnormalities of the intestinal tract (such as congenital megacolon, anal stenosis, etc.), neurological disorders (such as spina bifida, psychomotor retardation, etc.), endocrine or metabolic diseases (dehydration, hypothyroidism, diabetes, hypercalcemia, etc.), side effects of certain drugs, lead poisoning, etc. About 90% of constipation is functional, mainly due to inadequate diet, improper food composition (more protein, less fiber), gastrointestinal disorders (irregular life, no regular bowel habits, etc.), mental factors (sudden mental stimulation, changes in living environment and habits, etc.), lack of exercise, etc. What harm will long-term constipation bring to the child’s body and mind? 1, direct harm Damage to the rectum and anus of the child, resulting in anal fissures, hemorrhoids, blood in the stool, prolapse and other local damage. 2, affect the physical development of children because of metabolic waste can not be discharged in a timely manner, easy to cause abdominal pain, abdominal distension, loss of appetite in children. For a long time, it can cause malnutrition and growth retardation in children. 3, induce a variety of diseases A large number of feces in the intestinal tract for a long time to accumulate, many of its toxins into the blood circulation, resulting in a decline in the body’s immune function, prone to acute tonsillitis, bronchitis and other respiratory system infections. 4, affect the intellectual development of children and character formation long-term constipation, many toxic substances absorbed by the intestinal wall through the blood to reach the brain tissue, so that the brain nerve stimulation, as well as nutrient absorption is insufficient, poor brain nutrition, resulting in weakened brain function, not only affect the memory of children, but also affect the logical thinking and creativity. And long-term constipation is easy to make the character become impatient and irritable, slow to respond to external things, distracted. 5, resulting in children’s enuresis Modern medicine believes that, due to long-term swelling of the rectum continued pressure on the bladder, resulting in reduced bladder capacity, and repeated stimulation of the bladder, can cause uncontrollable contraction of the bladder, can produce enuresis. 6, resulting in skin problems long-term constipation, the toxins in the stool act on the body, can affect the metabolism of the skin, resulting in children with poor facial color, rough skin, prone to boils, boils, sores, carbuncles, etc.. What can parents do for their children with constipation? In addition to timely consultation at a regular hospital pediatric constipation clinic, parents can cooperate with the doctor’s treatment in the following ways: 1, bowel habits – regular and quantitative. Encourage the child to sit on the commode for 5 to 10 minutes at a fixed time every day. Depending on the child’s behavior and the time of day when he or she is likely to have a bowel movement (e.g., after sleep and meals), parents should explain to the child that this is the appropriate time to have a bowel movement. Parents praise the child after a successful bowel movement to increase self-confidence. The backwardness may occur during training, such as holding back stool without relieving it, but backwardness is normal during training and does not mean failure. Parents should accept the fact and do not need to be anxious and stressful. Timing is mainly arranged by the “early postprandial response” and “late postprandial response” of the gastrocolic reflex. Generally, 30-60 minutes after a meal, 5-10 minutes / time is more appropriate, avoid defecation squatting, sitting for a long time and strong efforts resulting in anal muscle fatigue. 2, a reasonable diet – do not over-refined, adequate amount of water. A reasonable diet for children with constipation should focus on dietary fiber intake. The World Gastroenterology Organization clinical guidelines clearly point out that the prevention and treatment of constipation in children, high fiber diet and sufficient water is the first. However, at present, the diet of urban children in China generally has a reduced intake of coarse grains and an excessive intake of fine rice, noodles and meat. Dietary fiber is abundant in plant foods such as cereals, potatoes, vegetables and fruits, and the more finely processed cereals are, the less dietary fiber they contain. Cereals containing more dietary fiber is sorghum rice, corn; vegetables are spinach, leeks, radish, eggplant, green pepper and mushrooms; fruits are pears, peaches, bananas, apricots and dates; beans are red lentils, kidney beans and soybeans. Children drink enough water varies according to age and body mass, < 1 year old, 1-4 years old, 4-7 years old, 7-13 years old, >13 years old water needs [mL/(kg?d)] are 110-155, 100-150, 90-110, 70-85, 50-60. 3, appropriate amount of exercise – run and jump, play happily. Happy playing. Nowadays, children’s daily activities are affected by the changes in the content and rhythm of life in society, especially children over 6 years old, who spend most of the daytime in classes and study, and then go home to do homework, watch TV and operate the computer, which makes the amount of activities decrease greatly. Encourage the child to participate in various physical activities, cultivate the habit of working, try not to take the car when walking, climb stairs when going up and down, and have more than one hour of physical exercise (jogging, dancing, swimming, rope skipping) every day. 4, psychological counseling – more encouragement, less scolding. Need for psychological and behavioral treatment of pediatric constipation are the following situations: (1) painful defecation, without systematic treatment of constipated children often occur fecal impaction leading to “dry stool vicious cycle”, at this time forced defecation can lead to anal fissure, prolapse, so that the child painful abnormal, this painful experience is enough to make the child fear of defecation, refuse to defecate and cause The painful experience is enough to make the child fearful of defecation, refusing to defecate and resulting in “stool tolerance” and drier stools. In this case, the child should be given enema and softeners to relieve fecal impaction, and psychological guidance and soothing to eliminate the fear; (2) sudden shock and occasional faecal faecal faults (such as soiled clothes and pants) are overly blamed, resulting in psychological trauma leading to abnormal defecation. In this case, we should create a good environment to reduce psychological pressure and take care of the child, gain the child’s trust and cooperation, and eventually eliminate the psychological trauma step by step; (3) children with constipation may experience failure in the treatment process, parents should understand and give psychological support to make it go smoothly, which is one of the important aspects of the basic treatment of pediatric constipation.