Self-management of childhood constipation

Aim

This project aims to make it possible to improve symptoms of constipation in young children by asking parents and carers what they need to help them manage their child’s constipation

Why is this important?

Constipation affects 1 in 3 children in the UK. Symptoms are unpleasant for children and challenging for parents/carers to cope with. Constipation can resolve, but around half of children with constipation continue to have symptoms over several months or years. Spotting and managing symptoms early can help reduce the time children have them.

Recent research suggests parents/carers can find it hard to ask for help and get useful advice online. Parents/carers also report feeling dismissed by health care professionals when help is sought. This means we need better support resources (or interventions) to help parents/carers manage their child’s constipation. To provide this, we first need to:

Find out parents/carers thoughts about constipation and resources they have used before so that we can identify which topics need to be included in a new resource.

Know the ups and downs of managing constipation from parents/carers perspectives so that we can decide how to provide advice in a useful way.

Know the best ways of reaching parents/carers with different characteristics (e.g. age, gender, culture, family structure, geographical area) so that we can share new resources that are relevant to all parents/carers of young children.

What will we do?

We will use our team’s skills to conduct research that will help us find out what parents/carers of children aged 6 months to 5 years need from a new support resource.

We will

Carry out an online survey to find out parents/carers thoughts about constipation and resources they have used before.

Chat to parents/carers about the ups and downs of managing constipation from their perspective. We will invite parents/carers to tell us what is important to them, then ask about other topics they have not mentioned.

Plan, try out, and improve a strategy for reaching parents/carers with different characteristics using online, social media and community groups.

Patient and public involvement (PPI)

The proposed project was first shaped through conversations with 30 families attending a community event run by a local Sure Start centre. Our PPI co-applicant has additionally helped to refine the project aims and methods and will continue to contribute to data collection, analysis and next steps.

Next steps

We will share the project findings with participants, community groups, and academic communities to start conversations about creating resources that provide parents/carers with better support for self-managing constipation. We will use the findings to build a case for further funding that will allow us to create this new resource and make it possible to improve symptoms of constipation in children.