Does anyone have any experience with 5 year old boys who resist doing poos?

Question

He dirties his pants several times a day as small amounts of poo come out when he tries to stop a poo. Doctors and child psychiatrists have been of little help. We've tried it all but to no avail.

Answer 1

here is some helpful info for you

http://kidshealth.org/parent/general/sic...

Answer 2

Just stay with it. Boys are so much harder. Sit him on the potty after every meal. Give treats, stickers and praise for everytime he does go in the potty. Ask him often if he needs to go.

Answer 3

my wife and I had some trouble, with this. We kept a chart and every B.M. our son got a small gift. after 7 he got a large gift.

He also got punished for going in his pants, nothing too harsh but something  that made sence, " I can't take little boys on an airplane ride if they p**p their pants" (Dads a pilot)

He missed one plane trip and that was the last "accident" we had.

Answer 4

Yes, I have experience with this.

Because my son was eating the same as his sister and she went poo every day, I thought that he was eating enough fibre in his diet, but for him it wasn't enough.  

He ate fresh fruit, cereals with bran but he was still constipated, in fact there was a plug of f***s in his bowel and the other poo just seeped around it several times a day.

I feel so bad that I got annoyed by it, as he really couldn't help it and needed much, much more fibre in his diet - cereals (with lots of liquids), fresh fruit and fruit juices, prunes & prune juice, we used to make a Prune Juice Cocktail with gingerale!

Emptying the bowels is a habit and once you have his bowels emptied, get him in the habit of going every day.

To a lesser extent my youngest daughter went through the same thing, but with her I didn't make the same mistake of thinking that because what was in her pants was soft and liquid, I knew that she could still be "plugged up"

Edit: I just checked out the link from Chattymom4 above, and it mentions there about the child having looser bowel movements leaking around a harder piece of stool.

Good Luck, I hope you are able to help your little boy.

Answer 5

Oh dear, this is encopresis.  I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but - from personal experience - you're in for a long struggle in which he will be given several enemas (and maybe get a colon x-ray) before he finally takes charge of his bowel actions and learns how to avoid constipation.