4 year old started pooing in his pants

[TwoIfBySea]

Sufficiently worried to be taking him to the doctors tomorrow but dts1 recently started pooing his pants.

Previous to this he was happy and confident to use the toilet by himself but over the past couple of weeks the "accidents" have been becoming more regular. The worst is, he says nothing until I wonder what the smell is! Dts2 tends to be a bit pumpy at times but he is proud enough of them to tell me when he has let off! He seems to have no problems at all.

He pooed twice today and neither time told us, a couple of times he has started shouting "the poo is coming!" And accidents have been averted. He has also been getting up earlier than normal these past few weeks and his behaviour is going through that difficult 4 year old phase.

I really worry as he is already quite an anxious wee boy at times and this will harm his confidence especially at nursery where so far there has been no incidents. Has anyone else encountered this? I don't know if it is behaviour or medical, I suppose the doctor will answer this but I feel so bad for him as he is getting so upset with this and it breaks my heart when he says "sorry."

does he know he is doing it? has he been constipated at all?

My DS (nearly 4) started pooing about 8 months after potty training finished. He still does occasionally and is totally unfazed by it. He happened to have an appointment with a paediatrician for an unconnected thing so we mentioned it. He was given Senocot to helkp constipation which we used for a few weeks but it seems to have just been a phase.
Does he wet his pants too? DS used to but has stopped that now.

He doesn't wet his pants and I had thought he might be constipated so gave him some orange juice without diluting it with water. I always make sure they drink enough during the day.

They were both fully potty trained over a year ago now.

horrible question but what is the consistency like?

I only ask because my little cousin had a similar problem. She was getting an impaction (big hard lump) and more was backing up behind it and then being forced round the impaction and out.

She often didn't even realise she was doing it.
so it definitely could be connected with the constipation

The poos are just regular, not particularly hard or soft, normal except for the fact they end up squished all over his bum!

Lovely subject this, eh?