4 Yr Old Will Not Poop in Potty!

He is old enough to understand what he is doing. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to care, so you have to make him care or want to use the potty.

My grandson's daycare/pre-school tells the kids they need to clean up after themselves. If they have an accident they need to go into the bathroom change clothes, rinse out their undies and then clean up any mess they may have made on the floor ect. While they are doing this the teacher tells them if they had just used the potty they could be playing as their friends are instead of cleaning up. The kids get it really quick, hhhmmmm play or clean-up hhhmmmm clean or play. They'd rather play.

Is he trying to make his way to the potty to poo? Can he tell you what is feels like when he has to poo (is he aware of his body's signals?).

I had my son clean up his messes. That didn't seem to make a difference. In the end a low key response to accidents and telling him I "knew he would do better next time", coupled with "it takes time to learn how to use the potty" worked.

And for a while I would walk him right to the potty and sit him on it, rather than him having an accident. ( He could tell me is was time, or he would do a potty dance). For a while I thought he was willfully having accidents, but now I think he just needed some intervention.

Have you sat him down and asked him why he is having a problem getting poop in the potty? His answer may shed light on what to do next.

We were having many issues with getting our daughter to sit on the potty to poop, to the point where she was getting constipated and we were having to give her Miralax, and then she often ended up messing in her pants because it was harder for her to control. We talked to our pediatrician, who suggested getting her in the habit of just regularly sitting on the potty twice a day, after eating (breakfast and dinner). She had to sit for 10 minutes to "give the poop a chance to come out" and she could play on my smart phone while she was waiting as an incentive to stay put. If she didn't poop after 10 minutes, no big deal - we let her know we were proud of her for trying. If she did do a poop, she could play on the phone for another 10 or 15 minutes after that. It did not take her long to get over her "fear" of the potty when she had playing on the phone as an incentive, and she finally started having some consistent results. But first we had to make it part of her daily routine, and get her to sit on the potty for a minimum amount of time.

Make him clean himself and rinse his underwear every time he does it.

I know it sounds so mean, but they usually have a time when they do poop. Right before that time have them sit on the potty. Put on something fun in the other room so they can barely hear it. Tell them to poop. Do not let them out of the room till they poop. Tell them they can stand every now and then, even play with a toy, but they have to do it in the bathroom. If they soil themselves while in there then tell them to clean it up and remind them that next time they must do it on the potty or they will lose tv or whatever for the rest of the day. Do this every day at whatever times they are pooping.
Really you have to just MAKE them do it by not giving them other options. At this age it has become a habit not to poop on the potty and breaking that habit is hard. Sorry, it is.

We had the same issue with my son at that age. The only thing that worked was spending time at my sister's house which happens to be out of town. He got to see his cousin (who is a bit older & who he idolized) using the potty. Within days of our visit he was trying it himself. Patience. It will happen. My son was 4 1/2 when he finally went on the potty.

He needs to go back into diapers, no praise, calmly, just let him know ,you know he's not ready for pull ups or big boy underwear. Tell him when he's ready to use a potty chair or the family toilet, he can start wearing pull ups and after he starts going in the family toilet, he can pick out some big boy underwear. He's old enough to understand.

Here's a very similar question asked earlier:
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/4760332705953153025
That O. involved constipation, but you might find a few good ideas/tips.

For my son, we had to kind of "catch him" in the act, plop him on the toilet, "knock" the poo into the bowl, then begin the super huge celebration. That got him motivated.
Good luck!