At my wits end with my little boy pooping his pants

[ameliaoshea]

my little boy has been potty trained since before he started nursery last September. We started late since i didn't he was ready but he got using the potty and toilet pretty much right away with the peeing. But he has never gotten the pooping. He isn't scared, i think he is just lazy but i don't know what to do. He is almost 4 now! there are days he'll go 5-6 times. I've tried rewards, punishment, yelling, saying nothing and even having him clean up himself so that he sees how much work goes into it. he doesn't care! Please, can someone help me? Anyone?!

5-6 times a day is quite a lot.

I would say one of two things might be going on - and they are at complete opposites to each other!

We had to really cut back on DS1's fruit to solidify things. that made a massive difference to getting to the toilet on time.

The other possibility is that he is constipated, and the material coming out is bypassing a partial blockage - in which case, I guess its a laxative to get things moving?

Might it be worth posting in general health?

I had something similar with my younger boy (now 6). My first suggestion would be to take him to your GP (or consult GP without him there if you don't want him to get worried about it) but if there's nothing medical wrong unfortunately in the end the only thing that works is saying absolutely nothing. Not being cross, not saying a word, just clearing it up without saying anything and then acting as normal. Believe me I know how hard that is. I usually took it out on my poor other children after the insane amounts of patience it took. Good luck.

My Dd is younger but had trouble with Poos, it seems she likes privacy. This method had produced results:

Work out when/where ds likes to poo, for us it was playing alone in her room. Leave them to it with a bare bum and a potty nearby. Hope for the best.

Not sure if that's helpful but dd's turned a corner since and has done a few Poos on the loo!