Recurrent constipation resolves itself at the end of childhood

I recall that I was constipated quite frequently as a child, but do not recall such episodes, or at least not as frequently, in teenage years.

One possible reason is that I was reluctant to go #2 in school toilets in elementary school, and I did in the better organized toilets of middle school, so maybe in elementary school my body trained itself not to "go" when feeling the urge. However, I seem to read similar testimonies here ­— people who received enemas or laxatives because of frequent constipation as children and then the problem went away in teen age.

Is this like a documented physiological phenomenon? More regular bowels after puberty, in general?

My mother gave me laxatives for a variety of reasons when I was a kid, acting cranky and irritable, not eating all the food on my plate, eating a bunch of candy or other "junk food", even though I wasn't constipated very often. She also expected the laxative to make me go first thing the next morning. If it didn't she gave me a glycerin suppository, let that work on me for about 20 minutes and if I still hadn't had a big bowel movement she'd give me a hot soapsuds enema. I also got a daily soapsuds enema whenever I was too ill to go to school to keep my bowels emptied out during the illness as suggested by the family doctor even though I rarely got constipated. Once I was a my teens and 20's in Junior High, High School and University I actually got constipated more frequently than I did as a kid, probably because I had a heavier load of schoolwork that I stayed up late on Friday night to finish and then slept in on Saturday, missing breakfast and sometimes even lunch as well as my usual morning urge for a bowel movement and then I found I couldn't go. My Mom kept a close check on my bowel movements and if I hadn't gone on Saturday she'd give me a dose of laxative Saturday night to make me go on Sunday morning. This continued the whole time I lived at home into my mid 20's.

When I was a child, sometimes my mom gave me microenemas if I missed my bm for a day or two. They're essentially glycerin with some herbal extracts, something resembling Fleet liquid suppositories I think. It could have happened that sometimes I got constipated, especially during change of seasons, but it was not quite often.

One time, when I was a young teen, one of those microenemas didn't work, so shortly after I was given a bulb enema, the first time something bigger than a couple drops of glycerin entered my butt. Strangely enough, apart from some isolated cases, my bms were quite regular after that bulb.

I had problems both as a child and as a teenager.