4Yr with Potty Issues

Trying to potty train a child at 2 years old, is just too young. You need to wait until a child is at least 3 years old before you try to potty train the child. The early training maybe what caused this setback in his potty training. I waited until both of my children were 3 before starting to potty training them. I didn't have any setbacks in their potty training. Good luck.
P. S

My four year old also started doing this when he was 3 1/2. I had just had a baby and thought he was trying to get attention. I tried everything and would get so frustrated. I mentioned it to his pediatrician and he felt his stomach and realized he was impacted and had lost muscle control and so we had to take care of the impaction and work on controling it again. If the accidents your son is having are more like small amounts coming out I would check into this. I have talked to several people now who have gone through the same thing with their sons. I felt bad when I learned he couldn't control these accidents because I had been putting a lot of pressure on him to go on the toilet. It has worked out now, but I do now keep him on probiotics to help keep him more regular so he doesn't get impacted again. Good Luck!

This was happening to a friend of mine (many, many years ago) and she started making her boys clean the poo out of their own underwear. She said that cured them pretty quickly. You might try that!
Good luck!

I recently went through the same struggle with my little boy. My first approach was to be stern and give him a talking to every time he had an accident, but it back fired and he dug in his heels and wouldn't use the potty at all. So, I decided not to fight with him about it and put him back in diapers. Well, after about two days, he had had enough of being a "baby" and was ready to put back on his underwear and be a big boy again. He has been doing great now for about two months.

Hi. My 4 year old started doing this when I was training my 3 year old. I think he was jealous of the attention his brother was getting so I started giving him a reward every time he had a bowel movement on the potty and his brother got a reward every time he went pee pee on the potty. It worked. Almost too well. The older one started going like 5 times a day. It was only a little but he just wanted a reward. That only lasted for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I would try a reward. Good luck.

Hi J.,

Do you think his going in his pants is a response to the fact that you just started training the little one? I would just have them take turns sitting on the potty (around the time your oldest normally has a BM). Maybe he is a little jealous of all the attention you are giving his brother and is just looking for some of your time. I would just go back to having him sit on the potty regularly and maybe try to work in a little more time with him so he doesn't try to seek attention.

Good luck!

I don't know why exactly children do things like this, but when my oldest daughter was two, and her younger sister had just been born, whenever I sat to feed the baby, the oldest, who had long ago been potty trained, would come into the room, pull down her pants and poo on the floor in front of me! I was horrified! Soon I realized she was imitating the baby in order to get that attention back to herself. I dealt with it by involving her in the feeding process. I truly believe your older son is just trying to gain back attention lost to the younger son. Try to have him involved in potty training the two year old. Tell him you need his help to do this and have him "show" the younger one "how to go potty". Be sure not to fuss at him about his "accidents", but to tell him calmly as you can, "I need you to help me teach your little brother, who is a baby, how to be a big boy like you. Can you show him how to go potty on the potty chair?" I betcha you will see a different result than what you're seeing now. And remember this: to a child, attention is attention, so even negative attention, in their eyes, is okay, just as long as it is attention. So don't give in to the urge to yell at him or punish him, try your best to ignore his misbehavior in that way, and involve him in doing the "big boy" things that will teach the younger one. Good luck.