Accidents at 3 1/2 after being toilet trained for months - help

[glassofwine]

Hi, my DS has been toilet trained for ages now, we started in October and it took about 5 weeks for him to get both wee's and poo's. All of a sudden he keeps pooing in his pants it's happened about 6 times this week and I don't know what to do. I'm not sure why its happening, it could be that now the weather is great and he's playing in the garden a lot it's a long way from the bathroom (we have a long thin garden). Or is it due to some physcological reason? Just now he came to tell me proudly that he'd cleaned himself up and found clean pant and trousers, which I praised him for and tried to explain that it's not ok to poo in pants, but he just ignors me. Having said that I did get cross with him about it yesterday, so I think he does know its not ok. By the way I know I shouldn't get cross with him, but I am human. Any suggestions.

No suggestions - just sympathy! We have had the exact same problem with my DS, who has just turned 3. I started toilet training him back in Feb & much as he seems to have the hang of the wee side of things (still has the odd accident though), he NEVER poos in the potty or toilet. He either holds it in until I put a pull up on him, or poos his pants.
My HV told me to just completly ignore him when he poos & praise him when he actually goes in the toilet, but I have tried this & he is still pooing himself!
Will watch this thread with interest!

It is apparantly quite common in boys.

Funnily enough my 3 yr old ds has just recently starting doing this. He also, is always outside playing and runs inside to the toilet, inevitably too late and there are pieces of poo on the floor, smudged on the pan (do you get the picture). I do shout at him then feel guilty afterwards, I am not concerned though and feel if he was in the house then he would make it to the toilet quicker.

my ds did/does this too....afetr a little while thinking about it i remembered that everything else (weaning,sleeping,etc) about his development has not been linear either!

hang in there x

yws, my dd1 is 4.5 and still does this! basically the novelty of being toilet trained wears off and as far as my dd is concerned, she hates being interrupted by something as mundane as the loo!
it can be a bloody nightmare but it will come....so they say! you ain't alone thoug, and it's girls as well as boys!

Another one with a 4.5 year old who still has accidents regularly! In her case, she just can't be bothered to stop what she is doing and go to the loo. Also, I had a baby 3 months ago and I'm sure at least some of the wetting is attention seeking. My elder daughter also went through a bit of a regression at the same age when we moved house. Is your ds a bit unsettled by anything atm?
We've started a new thing in the last couple of weeks which has helped enormously - dd2 has her own little diary and every time she goes to the toilet, she gets a sticker in her book. If she has an accident, we mark a cross in the book but don't make a big deal about it. It's working a treat because she loves getting stickers and it is encouraging her to go to the loo more often, rather than trying to hold everything in. I'm also trying to be aware myself and reminding her to go to the loo. The teachers at her nursery are also doing this as well as the sticker book and the consistency is also helping.
BTW, it's completely understandable to get cross about it, even though we all know we shouldn't. Nappies are one thing, soggy pants and trousers smeared with poo are quite another!!! HTH

& it seems that no matter how carefully you try & remove the pants, the damn poo often escapes!! YUK!!

Sorry for the delay in responding, but thanks everyone, you've made me feel that both I and my DS are normal. Thanks