Introduction: Constipation is described as a bowel movement disorder. Its main symptoms include infrequent bowel movements, passage of hard stools and difficulty in passing stools. Constipation can be associated with pain in the abdomen and lack of appetite. The condition is treated in pharmacological and non-pharmacological way. Health education is the key factor in preventing and treating constipation conditions in children. Its success rate depends mostly on good cooperation between the nurse, the parents and the children. Nurses in the multidisciplinary healthcare teams have a critical role in the process of treatment and education since they are present during the entire time of the treatment. Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation is to present constipation in children and define methods of treatment and their effectiveness. A clear emphasis is given on the role nurses have in health education. Methods: The descriptive method with critical reading of the literature was used. Among others CINAHL, Science Direct, Medline and COBIB.SI databases were used to gather information. The research was carried out between February and July 2017. Results: Constipation is a health problem for the child as well as his parents. Even though lifestyle change is very important it is often necessary to use laxatives for the treatment to fully succeed. Nurses play a key role in the process of treating constipation. They act in a health-education way as they admit the children into care, escort them through the entire process and teach them different ways of eliminating the problem. Parents are the basic support for the children during the treatment. Discussion and conclusions: Educating the children as well as their parents on the measures to be taken during constipation is very important. It improves the peristalsis of the intestine and prevents for the constipation to reoccur. Attention needs to be taken to ensure adequate nutrition and drinking of fluids, recreation, proper bowel movements, physical activity and proper use of laxatives. To further improve preventative measures instruction manuals would need to be published and workshops addressing normal bowel movements in children should be organised for the parents at the kindergarten level. Mobile app addressing normal bowel movements in children should be written and health education workshops at the basic healthcare level should also be organised.
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