Dietary fiber for treatment of chronic constipation in children

blinded control group

Dietary Supplement: Soy polysaccharide fiber First, disimpaction was carried out with phosphate enemas for 1 to 3 days. After the children have been "cleaned out", they received a soy polysaccharide fiber supplement (powder containing 70 g of fiber/100 g) or placebo (purified soy extract, with no fiber) for 6 weeks. Fiber and placebo were given as a standard dose for the different age groups (median of 0,57 g/kg/day) - 2 to 5 years, 10 g/day; 6 to 9 years, 15 g/day; and > 10 years, 20 g/day.

The child that had fecal impaction (a dilated rectum filled with a large amount of stool on rectal examination) during the follow-up was treated by administering phosphate enemas for 1 to 3 consecutive days.

Arms: Soy polysaccharide fiber, purified soy extract, with no fiber

Other Names:

Soy polysaccharide fiber (Pró-fibra®) Purified soy extract, with no fiber (Soyac®)

Frequency of stool passage, paiful defecation, stool consistency

Colonic transit time was evaluated by the technique of Metcalf et al. In brief, a plain abdominal radiograph performed after 24 hours from the last ingestion of 3 sets of 20 distinctive radio-opaque markers taken on 3 consecutive days. In the presence of > 20% of the markers, a further radiography was taken on the 7th day. The colonic segments were delimitated according to Arhan et al. The patients were instructed to collect the 3-day stools separately from the urine. The collected stools were used to determine the fecal weight and moisture.