Our 4 year old has been pooping in his pants for a few months now. Not every time but probably 5 times a week. We remember our older son doing this around this age for quite a while too, but we don't recall what we did or how we got him to stop. Any advice on getting him to stop playing and use the toilet?
Retrain him...have him sit on the toilet around the times he normally poops in his pants and have him sit there til he goes...only kicker is what to do once you've done that and he gets up then poops in his pants anyway. Try staying on top of him til he gets the hang of it again...Sometime we're just having too much fun right? lol Good luck
Get him on a schedule, sitting on the toilet for 5 minutes after every meal. He's more likely to go then, it gets him thinking about it, and it may just head off accidents. Give him a stool for under his feet, set a timer, and give him something good to look at while he's there (book, video game, etc). If nothing happens, no big deal, good job for trying, carry on...
There are three things you can not make a child do, eat, sleep or pee and poop on command. (sigh) My son was finally "trained" when I went to meet his four year old preschool teacher before the class started. I told her that he was still in diapers. She said that she did not usually take children that were in diapers and did not ever change diapers, within earshot of my son.
All of my son's friends were going to that preschool, so naturally he really wanted to go to that school. He was completely trained in 24 hours. Easiest thing I never did.
Perhaps you can find something that will be motivating to him (not candy or stickers, etc...) that will make him want to use the toilet when he goes poop.
Google "encopresis". If that's what it is he needs medical help and he can't help it.
I have this same problem, and it is all due to laziness, and fearing he'll miss something while in the bathroom. I would love to hear something from moms who dealt with it, and it turned around for them, also!
Make him clean it up - taking his underpants off, dumping the poop in the potty, cleaning out the underpants, washing his hands, getting into the tub, etc.... Help him, but make him do as much of it as possible without making a HUGE mess. If he gets it on his hands, etc... he is washable. My son did this a few times, but stopped immediately once he realized he was going to have to clean it.
Have him clean himself up in the bathtub.
