James knew he had to go. But when he got to the boys' bathroom
at school, he sat down on the toilet and nothing happened. He
waited a couple of minutes and . . . still nothing. He tried
pushing but it kind of hurt. After a while a little poop came
out, but it was small and hard, sort of like marbles. James
flushed, zipped up, and washed his hands. He didn't feel much
better. Why? He was a little constipated. What Is Constipation?
Constipation (say: con-stuh-pay-shun) is not having a bowel
movement (pooping) as often as you usually do or having a tough
time going because the poop is hard and dry. Normal poop is sort
of soft and easy to pass, so it shouldn't be too hard to have a
bowel movement. When you poop, what ends up in the toilet is the
last step of digestion (say: dye-jes-chun), a process that
started way back with the grilled cheese sandwich you had for
lunch. After you chew and swallow food, it heads to your
stomach. From there it's on to the small intestine (say: in-tes-
tin), then the large intestine