Constipation concerns
Constipation can be frightening and if it's a painful experience, your child may well be put off going to the toilet, making the problem worse. But you can't blame your child. The problem stems from the fact that when it's difficult to do 'number two' he/she has to respond by straining harder than usual. If you don't take evasive action, your child's rectum could become distended and damaged, so do treat the problem seriously.
What's 'normal'
If your child isn't experiencing pain when passing a motion, you don't need to worry about variations in the number of times they perform each day. The frequency of bowel motion goes with age, so breastfed babies have about three bowel motions a day, bottle-fed babies about two. By the age of three, a child usually does one bowel motion per day, but this can vary a lot.
Once constipation sets in, it can be a vicious cycle
Faeces (poo) are stored in the rectum. This is a stretchy hollow tube just inside the anus. Nerves sense when the rectum is getting full and send a message to the brain that it's time to go. If a child finds it painful to pass motion, they'll ignore this signal. Eventually, the rectum will get so full of waste that only loose or watery poo manages to squeeze out. This will in fact be diarrhoea - but is actually caused by the constipation. Your child has no control over this, so they may have an accident and soil themselves.
Of course, once stools get hard, they're more difficult to pass. This can make the rectum distended and reduce the urge to go; making the constipation even worse.
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