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Received Sep 18, 2017; Accepted Dec 18, 2017
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1. Introduction
Functional constipation is a widespread common chronic disorder in children. Its average morbidity is 14% and tends to increase with age. Approximately 2.9% of infants less than 1 year old have FC, while the rate increases to 10% in children aged 1-2 years [1]. It is considered to have relations with gender, family history, water intake, siblings, feeding patterns, age of toilet training, obesity, and so on [2, 3]. Typical symptoms include infrequent defecation, dry and hard stools, and encopresis, with accompanying symptoms, such as abdominal pain, decreased appetite, postprandial bloating, and even urine storage and urinary tract infection. Approximately 50~70% of all children with functional constipation recover and are taken off medication within 6 to 12 months [4, 5], but about one-fourth continue to experience symptoms in adulthood [6]. Constipation rarely has fatal complications, but has a significant impact on ultimately impairing health related quality of life for children and their families [7, 8]. A study found that children with FC are more vulnerable to anxiety and depression compared with healthy children and even children with asthma [9]. FC poses a huge financial burden on healthcare, with an annual cost of 3.9 billion in diagnosis and treatment, as evaluated by the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) [7]. The medical treatment of functional constipation in children often consists of two steps: disimpaction treatment and maintenance treatment. Oral mineral oil and polyethylene glycol electrolyte solution are widely used as the initial step to solve rectal disimpaction. Maintenance treatment medicine can be categorized into osmotic laxatives, fecal softeners, stimulant laxatives, and rectal laxatives [10]. Laxatives in clinical practice are widely accepted, we found that they can be tolerated by patients, and constipation can recur easily. Though there is a lot of evidence showing that acupuncture is effective [11, 12], children cannot accept it easily for pain, and it is a hard try to persuade them to stay in one position for a long time. In China, more and more parents prefer to seek help from Chinese medicine....