6 year old refusing to go to toilet any more. HELP

[blondeassassin]

Hi everyone. I pray you can help.

My 6 year old son was potty trained years ago and we were happily over that stage in our lives. Or so we thought.

About 2 months ago now our son just started pooing in his pants. Of course at first we assumed he was poorly or upset stomach or even just lazy because he was watching tablet at time. But time went on and on and it continued. We are at the end of our tether because we have no idea what to do now.

He has now gone at school in pants - at home, at grandparents. We have tried talking to him 100 times and he says he does try - but he will hide when he's doing it so it's not an accident.

I'm so upset because I just don't know what to do at this point. He uses toilet for weeing but not pooing. And we have tried not giving him attention and giving him attention. Everything. Bribes. Nothing works.

Please can someone explain what on earth is going on and please tell me this is a phase....

An exhausted mother

Bump

I'm sorry this may seem obvious and you've probably already thought about it... but have you addressed what happened a couple of months ago to make him poo his pants in the first place? I think you need to get to the rout of the problem, especially if he's done it at school and isn't embarrassed.

What are his bowel habits, diet and liquid intake like? Any signs of constipation?

Could it be IBS?

Google encropresis.

I learned from Mumsnet that little kids can have constipation and that they may get 'overflow'. It would then seem there is no constipation due to the overflow, while there actually is a serious problem. So please also consider this as an option and maybe consult a doctor?

Good luck to you all. Difficult situation to be in!.

Oh and this is called encopresis as mentioned by the poster above.

www.urmc.rochester.edu/childrens-hospital/gastroenterology/conditions/encopresis.aspx

Google.
Encoperisis
Poo nurses video
Movicol mummies

Ask for continence service referral and laxatives from gp. Took us 2 years to sort but got there in the end.

I can't thank you all enough for this - thanks so much. We feel so much better and we have a plan for him. Thank you

That's good news. Best of luck!

That's really good you feel positive.
Buy tons of cheap pants from primark. Life is too short to scrub the grainy stinky sh*t classic of this condition.
Medication can need experimenting with. If he can't stomach movicol consider dulcosoft, expensive but so worth it. My dd needed a stimulant too, that was the biggest step to recovery I think.
Drinking enough was very important.
Regular toilet sits.
Feel free to come back with any questions. We never did a full disimpaction but others do. It wasn't in the best interests for my dd though after lengthy discussions with specialist nurse.