Potty Trained but Still Having Accidents

4 months of potty training is not much.
He has not yet "mastered" it yet.
Pooping, in a toilet, is often attained after peeing. In time.
Just don't pressure him or a child may start to on purpose "withhold" pooping altogether... which will then cause constipation and pain when they can no longer hold it in. Then when they poop, they will be constipated and it will HURT. Then because it hurts, they will withhold pooping more. Then a vicious cycle arises. And the more constipated they get, the harder it is to undo it.... sometimes taking months. It then becomes a 2-pronged "problem"- emotion based because it hurts, and then medical based because the child is constipated.

I learned all this because we had to take my daughter to a Pediatric Gastroenterlologist, when she was learning to potty. We didn't force her... but the process just caused her anxiety. It took months, just to undo the constipation and her anxiety about it all.

Him pooping in a diaper for now, is fine. That is what the specialist told us. When the child matures and gets past this stage of pottying.. they will go in a toilet. It is just not by "our" adult time-line of expectations.

It is not him being naughty or stubborn. The body/mind connection also has to mature.

all the best,
Susan

my oldest did that and i honestly believed he couldnt tell when he had to go poop. it took me forever to poop train him. sometimes i felt like he couldn't define the sensation of having to go poop. jmo

my oldest did something similar. nothing seemed to work with him. he just didn't want to poop in the toilet. we went back to pullups when we realized he wasn't going to budge on it. he was a little over 4 when one day he just decided to poop in the toilet and came to tell me that he had. he always pooped in the toilet after that, with the rare exception of sometimes getting a little poop in his underwear because he didn't get to the toilet fast enough. but once he started pooping in the toilet, he actually cared if he got poop in his underwear and helped clean it. be patient. if you need him to be in pullups to cut down on laundry, there's nothing wrong with that. he can even wear underwear over the pullups if he likes his underwear a lot. it may help for him to be around other potty trained kids to see that it is ok. sometimes kids will trust their peers over their parents. good luck!

First, do you know WHY he poops his pants? Is he afraid of the potty? Uncomfortable on the potty? Just too busy playing to make it there? This is essential for being able to modify the behavior. If you can understand why he is doing it you can use that knowledge to make it more appealing to make it to the potty.
Two words of advice for you. 1. Make him clean up his underpants when he does it. It takes longer, is messier, and he'll hate it -- but I'm pretty sure it's not all that pleasant for you. The consequenses of pooping in his underpants (especially now that you KNOW he can control it and make it to the potty) have to be worse than the idea of pooping in the potty. So, if he doesn't make it to the potty because he's too busy playing, then while he's cleaning his underpants point out that is time he could be playing with his toys, etc. What finally worked for my son (who was having accidents because he wouldn't pause his video game to go) was to take away video games for the next day if he had an accident. It only took 2 times for him to get really good at knowing where the pause button was.
2. Try this song -- it at least helped with my son.
To the tune of "The Adam's Family"
Poop in the pot (snap,snap)
Poop in the pot (snap,snap)
There's poop inside your body
It wants to be in the potty
So let's go poop in the potty
and not in your underpants

How do you handle it when he poops in his pants is my first question. Our almost 4 year old had the hardest time with poop as well. Every time he had an "accident", we would take him to the toilet, take off his underwear and show him where the poop should go and dump the poop in the toilet. We used m&m's as rewards when he pooped in the toilet. It took a good couple of months of poop accidents, and it seemed like we just had to wait it out because reprimanding nor rewards weren't the end all to the accidents and eventually something just clicked and he started knowing when he had to go and the accidents stopped.

so been there and just recently! in fact today was our first regression on it in about 2 months--but I had it about 2 months ago and started making my 4 year old start cleaning up her poop messes. I told her I was done. she was a big girl I knew she could go in the toilet and I wasn't cleaning her up anymore. she had to dump the poop in the toilet from her underpants she had to swish them in the sink and put them in the dirty clothes (even help start the load if it was time for laundry) and she has to lysol out the sink afterwards to get rid of the poops it only took a couple of times with the yucky poops for her to realize it was less hassle to go in the toilet.
today she pooped in her pullup before taking it off this morning and wanted me to clean her up. I didn't. it would have been easier than the back and forth maybe but I think she just needs to remember its yucky to not poop in the potty.
good luck. so not the fun part!