Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Pediatr. Dec 9, 2025; 14(4): 109590
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.109590
Published online Dec 9, 2025. doi: 10.5409/wjcp.v14.i4.109590
Occult constipation in children: An unaddressed problem of our day-to-day practice
MD Benzamin, Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Sylhet 3100, Bangladesh
MD Ziaur Rahman Chowdhury, Akhlaq Ahmed, Tuhin Barua Tamal, Tanmoy Deb, Department of Pediatrics, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Sylhet 3100, Bangladesh
Pranto Chakroborty, Research Unit, Dr. Benzamin’s Paediatric Liver Research Center and Nutrition Clinic, Sylhet 3100, Bangladesh
ASM Bazlul Karim, Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Bangabandhu Shiekh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
Author contributions: Benzamin M and Chowdhury MZR were the guarantors and designed the study; Benzamin M and Chakroborty P participated in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data, and drafted the initial manuscript; Chakroborty P, Tamal TB and Deb T participated in data collection; Ahmed A and Karim AB revised the article critically for important intellectual content; all of the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.
Institutional review board statement: Prior to the commencement of this study, the research protocol was approved by the Departmental Review Board, Department of Pediatrics, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Sylhet.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent for publication was obtained from the parents.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data can be provided on request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: MD Benzamin, MD, Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, Kajalshah, Sylhet 3100, Bangladesh. drmd.benzamin@yahoo.com
Received: May 16, 2025
Revised: June 4, 2025
Accepted: September 3, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 169 Days and 7.2 Hours
Revised: June 4, 2025
Accepted: September 3, 2025
Published online: December 9, 2025
Processing time: 169 Days and 7.2 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Occult constipation has a wide range of presentations, including abdominal pain, anorexia, vomiting, nausea, frequent defecation with small volume stool, altered bowel habit, failure to thrive, and recurrent helminthiasis. If we unable to address this condition, it will lead to unnecessary investigations and patients suffering.