Help...my 4 year old is pooping in his pants

[happy2bamom]

DS has been potty trained for almost 2 years. Three weeks ago he started having accidents, mostly #2. Now for the past 3 weeks he almost always starts pooping in his pants, says that "thinks that he pooped his pants", and usually finishes pooping on the toilet. I can't tell you how many pairs of underwear he has ruined. What would you do?

I currently put him back in a diaper. Which he doesn't want to wear, but does. He still has accidents in the diaper. I've taken away privileges. I've used punishment. I've rewarded him for not pooping in his underwear. I feel stuck. Any help would be appreciated!

[brittone2]

Is he going through any big transitions (new school where he's afraid to use a potty for example)? Has he had constipation problems in the past? Sometimes kids can end up with overstretched bowels from withholding and they start having encoperesis issues (where they actually lose the sensation of needing to go...)

Punishment is unlikely to get you where you all want to be.

I would just do pullups and have him participate in getting undressed, cleaned up, and dressed again (not in a punitive way, but just matter of factly...he'll experience that it takes longer to go through getting undressed, cleaned up, etc.). You can't make him have the desire to not poop in his pants, so getting into a battle over it is unlikely to change things.

Frustrating, I know. DS dealt w/ chronic withholding/constipation issues for a logn time and even after things got better, he still would have some leakage of poop that he couldn't control, and it meant having to clean him up 3-4 x a day sometimes (and I had a newborn). Not fun, but it may be out of his control even if it doesn't seem like it is.

[hillview]

What about letting him be naked over the weekend or something a la potty training 101. Sounds like either physical or emotional regression. See if there is something else big going on at home or school with him.
GOOD LUCK!
/hillary