04/09/2026
💩 Does your child really need laxatives?
One of the most common questions I get asked is:
"But their diet is really good. Surely they don't need laxatives?"
The reality is that for many children who withhold poo, diet alone is often not enough.
🌽 Yes, fibre matters. 💧 Yes, hydration matters. 🥦 Yes, a balanced diet supports healthy bowel habits.
But when a child is withholding, the challenge isn't always what's going into the body. It's what's happening when poo stays in the bowel for too long.
⚠️ When stool is held in, the bowel continues to absorb water from it. This makes the poo larger, drier, and harder to pass.
As a result, many of the benefits of a healthy diet can be lost because the stool becomes dehydrated while it's sitting in the bowel.
That's why the NICE guidelines do not recommend managing childhood constipation through dietary changes alone.
For many children, the goal is to create a poo that is:
✅ Softer
✅ More predictable
✅ Easier to pass
✅ Less painful
This is where macrogol-based laxatives can play an important role.
💧 Macrogols work by carrying water into the bowel and helping to keep stool soft. Unlike water already in the stool, this water is not easily reabsorbed by the body, helping stool remain softer even when a child is withholding.
❤️ A healthy diet is absolutely part of the long-term picture, but for many children with stool withholding, addressing the withholding cycle often requires more than dietary changes alone.
📌 The aim isn't simply to get children pooing today. It's to create comfortable, pain-free poos that help rebuild confidence and break the cycle of withholding.
✨ Follow for evidence-based support on childhood constipation, stool withholding, and toileting difficulties.
🔗 Tap the link in my bio for more resources, or explore my books and support materials.
