Pain during bowel movement in the child

If children have pain when defecating, this is usually due to constipation. If the pain persists for more than two months, it is called chronic constipation. Usually the pain is accompanied by abdominal pain, loss of appetite and flatulence, and during defecation the faeces appear very hard or as large lumps.

In about 95% of cases, constipation has no organic cause and is triggered by a gastrointestinal infection or stress. The diet can also cause the stool to become very hard, causing pain when defecating. After a fairly short time, constipation in children leads them to associate going to the toilet with pain and try to avoid defecation.

However, this leads to a worsening of the situation, because the stool hardens further and if at some point it can no longer be held back, the subsequent transactions become more and more painful. Often the only thing that helps is a visit to the pediatrician, who gives an enema or prescribes laxatives that lead to bowel emptying. If the constipation is already chronic, the children should be given stool-softening medication for the next few months.

In this way, the children notice that bowel movement need not hurt and they dare to go to the toilet again. However, this learning process can take a very long time. Through certain living and eating habits it is possible to achieve that the bowel movement is and remains of a soft consistency.

Sufficient drinking and exercise are an important basis. A glass of juice in the morning can be good for the intestines. In addition, pears, pumpkin and dried fruit are helpful to loosen up the stool.

Bananas and chocolate, on the other hand, have the opposite effect and should not be served to children in huge quantities. If, in addition to the pain during bowel movement, blood is also found in the faeces, this too is usually due to a harmless cause. If the blood is light red, it is fresh blood, which is probably due to a tear in the anal mucosa.

Dark red blood indicates a bleeding in the digestive tract further up. Often colon polyps are the reason. These are also harmless and do not actually cause any problems for an otherwise healthy child.

If, however, it is a diarrheal disease that is accompanied by blood, this is often an indication of a bacterial infection such as Salmonella or Shigella or a chronic inflammation of the intestine. These include Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. A pediatrician should be consulted urgently. But so-called fake bleeding can also worry parents. Blood in the stool can be faked by beetroot or tomatoes.