Pediatric Functional Constipation and Whey Protein: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: Functional constipation is a chronic gastrointestinal disease in children. Pharmacological treatment of constipation is mostly based on the prescription of laxatives. In addition to this treatment, complementary therapies were also proposed to treat constipation. In this study, the effect of whey protein in the treatment of constipation was investigated.

Method and Materials: A total of 56 children with functional constipation within the age range of 1 to 16 years were included in the study. Patients were randomly divided into the intervention (n=28) and control (n=28) groups. The intervention group received 15 g whey protein and the control group received 15 g placebo. Both groups received 0.4 - 0.8 gr/kg PEG powder. The amount of PEG was adjusted every four days based on having soft stools. Demographic information were collected and recorded. Furthermore, fecal consistency, stool frequency, symptoms of stool retention, fecal incontinence, and abdominal pain were recorded prior to the intervention and at the second and fourth weeks of the intervention.

Results: All patients had soft daily stools at the end of the intervention. At the end of the fourth week, the mean required amounts of PEG powder were respectively 0.62 and 0.28 g/kg in the control and intervention groups, which showed a significant difference (p value ≤0.001).

Conclusion: Based on these findings, whey protein is safe and can improve constipation. However, more studies with larger sample size and longer follow-up period are needed to confirm the results of this study.