If your child is straining, crying, or telling you their poop won’t come out, there are several things you can do at home right now to help. Most cases of stuck stool resolve with a combination of positioning, gentle massage, and hydration. Here’s what to do, starting with the quickest relief options.
Help Them Into the Right Position
The single fastest thing you can do is fix how your child is sitting on the toilet. Place a step stool under their feet so their knees sit above the level of their hips. This mimics a squatting position, which relaxes the pelvic muscles and opens the pathway for stool to pass more easily. Many kids sit with their legs dangling, which actually tightens the muscles that need to relax.
Have your child lean slightly forward with their hands on their knees. Encourage slow, deep breaths rather than straining or pushing hard. Straining can cause the muscles around the rectum to clench tighter, making everything worse. If your child is too young for the toilet, you can hold them in a supported squat position.
Try a Belly Massage
Abdominal massage can physically help move stool through the intestines. Use the flat of four fingers held close together and apply light to medium pressure. It shouldn’t tickle, but it also shouldn’t cause pain. If your child says it hurts, stop immediately.
Always massage in a clockwise direction, which follows the natural path of the intestine: up on the right side of the belly, across the top just above the belly button, then down the left side. Start on your child’s right side, just below the natural curve of the waist, and stroke upward. Repeat this 5 to 10 times at a slow, steady pace. Then extend the stroke so it goes up the right side and across the top of the abdomen, forming a backwards “L” shape. Repeat that 5 to 10 times as well. This technique is used at Children’s Minnesota and can be done while your child sits on the toilet or lies on their back.
Get Fluids In Quickly
Water softens stool from the inside. If your child hasn’t been drinking much today, getting fluids in now can make a difference within hours. Warm water or warm prune juice is especially helpful because warmth can stimulate the gut. For reference, daily fluid targets by age are roughly 4 cups (32 ounces) for ages 1 to 3, 5 cups (40 ounces) for ages 4 to 8, and 7 to 8 cups (56 to 64 ounces) for ages 9 to 13.
Prune juice, pear juice, and apple juice all have a mild natural laxative effect. For toddlers, start with 2 to 4 ounces. Older children can drink a full cup. Avoid milk and cheese temporarily, as dairy can worsen constipation in some kids.
When a Glycerin Suppository Can Help
If your child has been struggling for a while and nothing is moving, a glycerin suppository provides direct lubrication to the rectum and typically triggers a bowel movement within 15 to 60 minutes. These are available over the counter at any pharmacy without a prescription.
For infants and children under 2, use half to one pediatric-size suppository. Children ages 2 to 5 get one pediatric suppository, and children 6 and older can use one adult-size suppository. You can use them once daily for up to three days. Glycerin suppositories have essentially no side effects and work locally rather than throughout the whole digestive system, which makes them a good option for immediate stuck-stool situations.
Over-the-Counter Stool Softeners
Polyethylene glycol 3350, sold as MiraLAX and store-brand equivalents, is the most commonly recommended stool softener for children. It works by pulling water into the colon to soften hard stool. It won’t produce instant results like a suppository, but it’s the go-to for getting things moving over the next 12 to 48 hours and preventing the problem from recurring.
Typical daily maintenance doses based on age: half a capful mixed into half to one cup of water or juice for children under 5, three-quarters of a capful in one cup of liquid for ages 5 to 12, and one full capful for children 12 and older. If your child is severely backed up, a pediatrician may recommend a “clean out” protocol with higher doses given multiple times per day for two days, but that should be done under medical guidance since the doses are weight-based.
Recognize Stool Withholding
Many children, especially toddlers and preschoolers, develop a fear cycle around pooping. They had one painful bowel movement, so now they hold it in to avoid the pain. This makes the stool harder and larger, which makes the next attempt even more painful, which reinforces the fear. It’s extremely common.
Signs of stool withholding include stiffening the body, squeezing the buttock muscles together, crossing the legs, crying, or hiding in a corner. Parents often mistake this for straining to push stool out, but the child is actually doing the opposite: clenching to keep it in. If you see these behaviors, your child needs the stool softened first (with fluids, fiber, or a stool softener) so that going doesn’t hurt anymore. Once the pain is removed, the fear usually fades.
Building a toilet routine also helps break the cycle. Have your child sit on the toilet for 5 to 10 minutes after every meal, since eating naturally stimulates the intestines. Use a footstool, keep the atmosphere calm, and praise the effort of sitting, not just the result. Over days and weeks, this retrains the body’s signals.
Foods That Keep Stool Soft
Once the immediate crisis passes, fiber is your best long-term tool. Good options for kids include berries, pears, apples with the skin on, oranges, broccoli, carrots, green peas, oatmeal, whole wheat bread, and beans or lentils. The “P fruits” (pears, prunes, plums, peaches) are especially effective because they contain natural sugar alcohols that draw water into the stool.
For picky eaters, try blending spinach or pear into a smoothie, adding ground flaxseed to pancake batter, or offering popcorn (for children old enough to eat it safely, typically age 4 and up). Cut back on constipating foods like white bread, white rice, bananas, and excessive dairy while your child’s system is getting back on track.
A Tricky Sign: Liquid Stool Leaking Out
If your child has been constipated and you suddenly notice liquid stool or smearing in their underwear, this is probably not diarrhea. When a large, hard mass of stool gets stuck in the rectum, newer liquid stool from higher up in the intestine leaks around the blockage and seeps out. This is called encopresis, and it’s a sign the constipation is significant, not that it’s resolved.
Children with encopresis often can’t feel the leakage happening because the stretched rectum has lost some of its sensation. They aren’t doing it on purpose. This situation typically needs a thorough clean-out with a stool softener, sometimes over several days, to clear the impacted stool before regular bowel habits can return.
Signs That Need Medical Attention
Most stuck stool resolves at home, but certain symptoms signal something more serious. Contact your child’s pediatrician if constipation lasts longer than two weeks despite home treatment, or if you notice any of the following: fever, blood in the stool, vomiting combined with a swollen or distended belly, weight loss or refusal to eat, pain during every bowel movement, or any tissue visibly protruding from the anus.
In infants specifically, a baby who didn’t pass their first stool within 48 hours of birth, or an infant under 6 months with persistent constipation, should be evaluated. These can occasionally point to a structural issue like Hirschsprung disease, which affects roughly 1 in 10,000 births and involves a segment of the intestine that doesn’t move stool forward normally. It’s rare, but it’s diagnosed early when parents and doctors catch the signs.