My son just turned 3 last month and has been fully potty trained since April. He was super easy to potty train and has been really great at letting myself and his teachers know when he has to go. He has occassional accidents (always pee) when he's busy playing and doesn't make it in time and he is never disciplined for accidents. We always just talk about how he can go back to playing when he's done on the potty. For the last few weeks, however, he has been having poop accidents. He never even had poop accidents when he was potty training. It is more frequent when he is with he dad, but his dad is also very good and getting him to the potty and reminding him to go. He will usually go pee and say he doesn't have to poop, then go off somewhere and poop in his underwear shortly after, despite encouragement to try and go. The worst one was tonight while we were driving home. He pooped in the car and never told me he had to go potty. And it wasn't a small accident. It had to have taken some work. I don't want to resort to using pull ups, but I don't want to be finding poop in his pants. The accidents are happening with more frequency, but nothing has changed in our life or routine. He has a very stable schedule and diet. What can I do about this?
I agree--no pull-ups and ask him to help cleaning it up. Take a moment and google "encopresis" and make sure it isn't something medical....if it IS encopresis, he needs fiber and can't help what's happening. Good luck!
hi J. - that is also my name J. c! ha ha
but my sister has the same issue with her son and he is now 5 so it is normal for boys. why? i have no idea. but she just keeps reminding him all the time and keeps him from doing what he wants to do until he does go. and she did go back to pull ups, too. i think she is also having him help with the clean up which he does not like but i don't think it has worked completely.
but i am going to read what others have suggested and tell my sister!
J. c! - the other one :)
Maybe he was constipated and it hurt a little and that has scared him from using the potty for pooping. That happened to my nephew. Keeping a close watch on his fiber intake and adding a prune in the AM eventually worked things out.
I wonder if having him help clean up would motivate him to get to the potty. My son just turned 5. He has been daytime trained for over a year. Just recently, he started having accidents (peeing) that I think was due to laziness and not wanting to quit playtime to use the potty. I have started having him help clean up. When he tells me he has had an accident I don't get mad. I just matter-of-factly tell him it is his responsibility to clean up and get new clothes on. He has had very few accidents since then.
You might also want to try putting him on the potty at certain times of the day that he can anticipate, such as first thing when waking up, right before lunch, before naptime, etc. We have made that a rule in my house and it has helped. Good luck!
If you think he has to poop I would try giving him some sort of entertainment while sitting on the potty to keep him there. My oldest son (3 yr old) poops his pants off and on and I've been finding if I get him to sit with his younger brothers (twins - 2 yr old) when they poop after breakfast and dinner (we read books, etc) then he has very few accidents. Also, we use a reward system for poops in the potty.
My daughter did the same thing this past summer. She had been fully potty trained for about 7 months and suddenly started pooping in her pants. I used the 3 Day Potty Method to train her at 23 mos and when my daughter started doing this, I couldn't believe it. I went back to the website www.3daypottymethod.com and you can message the writer, who gives assistance after you buy her book. Well she told me do not under any circumstances make a big deal out of it. That if you yell or punish or reprimand you will only cause set backs. You don't want your child to be afraid of the potty or fear any punishment. It was SOOOO hard because I knew she was doing it on purpose but I waited it out, cleaned up lots of messes in undies, DO NOT USE PULL UPS, and now she is back on track. She also chose to do most of these "accidents" with daddy. I did try a sticker reward instead of a candy reward and that only worked for a couple of days. She was completely off rewards and now every once in a while she asks for some candy, which I keep in a tupperware container under the sink.
Good luck! This will pass!
~A.
I too have this problem with my son who is 5 and has all of the sudden started this. I spoke to his doctor and he asked if he was constpiated. If your son is in some way constipated he could be having problems knowing he has to go until he has went. There really is a medical condition for this. (not saying that's it, but) I would talk to his doctor about it first and if it is medical you will know where to go from there. If it's not, it just takes a LOT of patience and work getting him to go on time. Good luck to ya.
