5 Yo Boy Pooping in Pants!

I heard to make them clean their underware out themselves. They won't like doing this so they make sure they make it to the bathroom. I have heard of waiting to long and then peeing their pants (like my 2 yr. old. She has ran to the toilet and then peed with her pants half down in front of the potty) but I never heard of pooping their pants, unless of course they have diahrea. Good luck to you. I know how frustrating this would be.

unless he has loose stools from an illness etc. , he knows what he is doing and is acting out. i would try a time out so it is clear that that is not acceptable behavior. I would also try spending some one on one time with him like a movie or bowling and have mom or mom in law watch the baby.

Part of it is he is waiting too long. What is he doing at the time - my son was playing on the computer. He's acting out, but I would not overly discipline him as there is something underlying that is causing it - something small that could be stressing or upsetting him. This is his only way to 'get it out' so to speak.

My son did this last year after he started school. The cause was a change in teachers (we ended up having three different ones, if this gives you an idea of the instability they went thru.)

I am positive your husband's absence is a big part of this - if this is new for him or it has been more frequent. Also, look at school or any other small thing in the home. Parents do not realize that the smallest event can upset a child. In example.. My SIL redid her kitchen over...she repainted the whole kitchen and retiled the floor and had installed new window treatments. Doesn't seem like much when you think on it, but that made my nephew revert to accidents due to the stress over the change.

In many posts like this over behavior, I try to stress that it doesn't take much to upset the loves of our life. :)

For us, we remained constant and as he reverted back - we reverted back to the ways of potty training. I also sent him to the potty every hour - just as I did in potty training. Patience, understanding there is something there (and talking to your son - they will respond - even if you use a puppet as we do.), and knowing it will pass.

But I would say it is indeed a stage.

Hi Meridith, My oldest used "accidents" for power. When she wet or pood, I'd put a diaper on her for the entire day, being sure to point out to everyone that she was not big enough yet to wear her big girl underpants. When the embarresment was in her corner instead of mine, she no longer had accidents. Hope this helps. P.S., this was advice from a child pycologist.

I found a potty watch with a timer that goes off at 30,60,90 minutes. If he'll wear a watch it will remind him, you just set it to go off. Since he's older the 60 or 90 minutes should work. It's at www.onestepahead.com You might find even other ideas at that website.

Ann, what a caring and lovely response! My son had been doing this also, after we moved to a new home. It is exasperating, but if we are educated enough to know that sometimes our children are NOT acting out to be naughty or have control, but are trying to tell us their anxieties....then we are a listening parent. I've had close friends tell me to have him clean his poop out. Um...that would be disaster, and sometimes is a shaming thing....
Let's try to listen to our children, not in just words, but getting to the root of the problem. My goal with my son is not to condition him so he will "act right," but to understand and love him, so he knows he is heard, and can remove those fears underlying the problem.

My son did the same thing within a week of starting kindergarten and at the same time my husband went back to work after being off for a couple of years, and throw in a new day care. We finally figured that it was stress from everything new. He is now 7 and hasn't had any issues since kindergarten. He was doing it and not caring if anyone else found out or could smell it. He usually did it on the way home after school and he saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. We tried time outs, no snacks after school, no going over to friends houses because I told him that was unacceptable to do at his age at other peoples houses, but nothing worked until we grounded him for the day from any type of video games and he wouldn't get to choose any tv shows that evening. Those consequences hit him hard and he quit pretty quick after we started doing that. You just have to find what's important and he loses that privilege if he continues. My son had this issue for a month before we tried the withholding privileges and I was at my wit's end. Good luck to you. I'm sure it's just a phase because of change (if your husband doesn't usually go out of town a lot!!)