Why Won't My Child Poop?

If you are a parent watching your child struggle to poop, you know how heartbreaking and frustrating it can be. You have tried everything from prune juice and fiber gummies to daily doses of MiraLax, and yet your little one is still uncomfortable and miserable.

Whether your baby, toddler, or even older child is struggling with constipation, you are not alone. Families from Columbus, Westerville, Lewis Center, Powell, and Galena walk into our office every week asking the same question: “Why won’t my child poop?”

For many parents, the journey starts the same way. The pediatrician recommends MiraLax or a stool softener. At first, it seems to help, but before long, you find yourself giving it over and over again. When it stops working, suppositories enter the picture, leaving both you and your child stressed, exhausted, and out of options.

And if your toddler has ever had one painful experience on the toilet, you know how quickly that fear turns into a battle. They start holding it in, crying, or hiding because they remember how much it hurt last time.

But what if constipation is not just a digestive issue? What if the problem actually starts with the nervous system, the master control center for every organ and function in the body?

At inThrive Chiropractic, we look deeper. The body’s ability to digest and eliminate waste is controlled by nerves that travel from the brain, down the spine, and into the gut. When these nerves are under stress, often from tension in the neck, mid back, or lower spine, communication gets disrupted.

Here is what that looks like in real life:

The vagus nerve, which runs from the neck to the gut, helps move food through the digestive tract. When it is not working properly, digestion slows down.

The mid-back nerves influence how efficiently the intestines move food forward.

The sacral nerves control the muscles that help your child push during a bowel movement. When those nerves are not firing properly, it is like trying to squeeze toothpaste with the cap still on.

You might even notice your child’s hips look uneven or tilted when they stand, a sign that there could be tension or misalignment in the lower spine affecting those same nerves.

When a child’s nervous system is overwhelmed or stressed, digestion naturally slows. Think about when you are nervous before speaking in public, your stomach feels tight, maybe even queasy. Children experience the same thing, only their little bodies do not know how to turn off that stress signal.

Through gentle, neurologically focused chiropractic care, we help restore balance to the nervous system so digestion can move again naturally. When those nerves are free to do their job, the muscles in the gut start to work properly, and the body can relax enough to release what it has been holding in.

Parents often tell me they notice changes within just a few visits, easier poops, happier kids, and a lot less stress at home. You can see the relief on both the child’s and parent’s faces when they realize it does not have to be a fight anymore.

If you are in the Columbus area and your child is struggling with constipation, know this, you and your child do not have to suffer unnecessarily.

If you would like to hear me explain this more in-depth, watch the full video on our page.