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We rarely give a second thought to how our digestive system works. However, in order to understand why your child can become constipated and what to do to help, it can be useful to know a little about what happens in your child's body during a normal bowel movement.
The digestive system
After a meal
After a meal, the food passes to the stomach and through the digestive system into the bowels.
In the bowels
The bowels (also called your small and large intestines) consist of a long, muscular tube that runs from your stomach to your anus. The bowels remove nutrients and water from the food and eliminate the waste as solid lumps or stools from the rectum via the anus.
Stools build up and trigger the urge to go to the toilet
When stools build up in the rectum, the walls are stretched triggering an urge to go to the toilet and defecate. A ring of muscle around the end of your rectum (called the internal anal sphincter) relaxes and opens. This lets the stool pass into a small tube just before your anus, called the anal canal.
Opening the bowels
To push the stool out of your body, you must relax another ring of muscle around your anus (called the external anal sphincter). You also have to tighten your stomach muscles, so that they press on your rectum and help push the stool out.
You shouldn't have to try too hard to pass a stool. The stool should be soft and moist.
Most children need to empty their bowels just after they've eaten, when they wake up, or at both times. It's at these times that their bowels are most active.
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