ABSTRACT
Constipation is defined as difficulty or delay in the passage of stool. This may lead to abdominal pain, anal pain or soiling. Soiling is the escape of stool into the underclothing; it is usually liquid stool which seeps around a hard faecal mass (spurious diarrhoea). Encopresis is the passage of normal stool in socially unacceptable places, e.g. behind furniture. In early infancy, constipation may be a sign of an anatomical disorder (e.g. Hirschsprung’s disease, anal stenosis) or a systemic disorder (e.g. hypothyroidism). In older infants and children, behavioural factors associated with fear and anxiety about defaecation are by far the most important aetiological factors.
