5 year old has started pooing his pants

[omama]

DS has been potty trained for almost 3 years & is in Y1 at school. Never been any problems with using the toilet/accidents.

In the last few weeks ds has started having accidents. He's leaving it too late before he goes, then he's running to the bathroom clutching his bum but by the time he's there its too late.

He has no health issues & we suspect it may be some sort of regression (he has a 14 month old sibling who is into everything so requiring a lot of attention at the moment). We are really not sure how to deal with this - we want to make sure he knows its not ok to keep doing this & that he needs to go as soon as he feels the urge rather than waiting til it comes & have said this repeatedly, but are getting concerned that if we give it too much attention he might do it all the more.

Any tips/advice on how to tackle this would be greatly appreciated!

[Believeitornot]

Does he only do it at home?

[omama]

So far yes, which is why I wonder if its a regression/attention thing rather than anything else. I'm a little worried what would happen if he does it at school though & just hoping he doesn't!

[Fugghetaboutit]

Could he be constipated? Sometimes the runny poo above comes past a blocked bit and it can't be held in.

[omama]

No pretty certain its not constipation. Sorry tmi but its not runny, just completely normal! Its not every time he goes either, but when it has happened I think its usually been tea time after school. Dont think its happened on a weekend yet.

[Believeitornot]

Maybe he doesn't want to go at school and holds it in until he gets home.

[Believeitornot]

Then he gets home and relaxes and it comes very quickly. I have to say (TMI) done that myself but made it to the toilet in time.

Ask him if he likes the toilets at work

[Believeitornot]

at school not at work!!

[omama]

He does go at school sometimes (though i suspect not often) & says theres no problem with them.

Anyway he's just thrown that theory out the window - its half term so no school & he just announced to dh 'I need a poo I need a poo' jumped up & before he'd even got out his bedroom door he full on shat himself . The bathroom is right next door to his bedroom - he is almost 6 & really should be able to get there. DH has had to strip him throw away his pants & bath him as he's covered in it - we should not be doing this at his age! Help!

I just said to DH not to make a big thing of it (after I heard him telling him he must stop doing it) but how do you not? Its disgusting!

[amarmai]

Find out about school rules for bathroom visits. If he cannot go when his body needs to go then he has to hold it in and soon he may start ignoring the urge to go until too late. There have been several threads on the topic of cc having peeing/pooing difficulties after starting school. Ask that he be allowed to go as needed.

[TheLesserSpottedBee]

This could well be that school discourage children from going to the toilet during lessons so he is used to ignoring the feeling of needing to go, then it just gets too late once his body tells him he needs to go again.

We had this with Ds1 in year 1. Had a very inexperienced teacher (I know the TA who worked with her) and she literally banned anyone going to the toilet during lessons. It meant there were children with wet pants and soiled pants daily. I was called in to clean my son up when it ran down his thighs. It was around 2.30 and I had a toddler so I just took him home rather than deal with it in school.

Re the half term bit it could be that he needed the poo earlier but as usual ignored the need to go until his body can not hold it anymore.

We were advised to "make time" to go the toilet, as your son is pooing between tea and bedtime, have him sit with a book or activity on the toilet after tea at some point. It may work.

[BarbarianMum]

We had this with ds2. I was sure it wasn't constipation. It was constipation and he is now on Movicol long term. Not wanting to go at school and not drinking at school were contributory factors.

[whatdoIget]

My dc went through a stage of doing this, just down to a reluctance to stop what he was doing and go to the toilet. I still have trouble getting him to sit for long enough to actually do a full poo, instead of just the bare minimum required to stop himself from pooing his pants. He'd just rather be doing something else.

[Cuttheraisins]

Has he had a cold/flu recently? My DS used to do that during/after a bad cold, as if his muscles were not strong enough to hold it in when he needed to. In your shoes, I wouldn't make a fuss over it, just take him to the loo when you get home from school every single day, get him to sit down for a few minutes just to 'check' that there's no poo in his tummy. Then reward with a snack/cuddle/story whatever. Keep an eye and mention it to GP if it carries on.