Help 7 Year Old Pooping in Pants!!

I would assume the problem is physical. See a specialist. It is very common for kids to be constipated. It his not his fault. Fortunately, there is something you can do. Good luck.

Did the doctor order x-rays to rule out encopresis? If not, you need to get that done ASAP! The fact that you said it smells VERY bad is a clue - it's worse than just normal poop. My son was diagnosed with it 3 years ago and we're still struggling with it... although now it's alot better. It went undiagnosed for almost 2 years which is why it's taking so darn long to resolve itself. :-(

Our pediatrician was clueless and said "boys will be boys" and said to discipline him... so now we feel guilty that we punished him for 2 years over something he had no control over! Take your son to a specialist like a pediatric gastroentrolgist (or however you spell it).

Encopresis is basically when a child is constipated but doesn't appear to be constipated. A child can be impacted >alot< (an x-ray will show it) and a hard mass of poop forms in the bowel. It stretches out the colon, loose stools flow around it and out -- and the child has no control over it.

Treatment is basically a clean-out (5-6 capfuls of miralax for 4-5 days until the kid is basically pooping water) and then 1-2 capfulls of miralax a day (experiment with the dose - every kid is different) to keep the stools very loose until the colon shrinks back to normal size and the feeling/nerves comes back (so the child can control). It can takes months or years.

Also look at the cause for constipation in the first place. Avoid all constipating foods as much as possible: apple juice, bananas, milk/dairy, etc. We've discovered our son can't tolerate more than a serving of milk/dairy a day or it binds him up. Also encourage lots of water and fiber (my son LOVES chocolate FiberOne bars and the yogurt). And lots and lots of exercise to keep things moving.

Good luck - I feel for you. If it gets too bad, have him wear the nighttime pullups for Big Kids (Goodnights and Pampers has a brand, too) during the day.

I haven't read the other postings, so perhaps someone has mentioned it--but did your doctor discuss impacted bowels?

My son had bowel issues and this is what the doctor said. He was 4+ by the time he potty trained, but once in a while (8 years later, there are still small accidents.

Good luck!

My older sister had a "thing" about using public potty's - she just didn't want to because she'd rather go at home. Maybe it's that - maybe he's worried about something. If that's the case, try to work with him to realize that other places have clean potties, and try to work through whatever he's worried about or that's causing him to not want to go.

Someone has suggested Miralax, someone else suggested making sure it isn't psychological (since we know it's not physiological).

I'll suggest the "poop first" rule (an adaptation of what we used for my now 6 year old's "Potty first" rule). Any time he wants to do something different, go somewhere, whatever - poop first. He'll probably say he doesn't need to or have to, but have him go do it anyway. Set the timer for 20 minutes, and when it goes off, it's potty time. If he complains, let him know that you wouldn't have to do this if he were taking the time to do it right himself - like big boys do.

Just a few thoughts for what it's worth...good luck!

My daughter is 5 and for the past year has been doing the same thing. She's been potty trained since 2 and then all of a sudden started having a-lot of accident's (pee and poop) in her pants (sometimes 3-5 times a day). She would get bladder infections from this. We finally went to a GI doctor and they took X-Rays and said she was very constipated. We started her on Miralax. We found out she couldn't take the full cap or she would have diahrea. We now give her 1 tsp. at night and have increased her fiber intake or can do Benefiber.
We also took her to the Peds. Psychologist and it has done wonders for her. They taught her that everyone has a pause button and they need to push it when they need to go to the bathroom. My daughter says hers is on her forehead so, she pushes it when she needs to go. I told her mine is my belly button. Her father's is his elbow. Her grandparent's even showed her where their pause button is (you get the picture). Now, I just ask her if she needs to push her pause button. This has been really good for her unless she's outside playing...sometimes when she's having fun with friends, she doesn't want to push her pause button.
She also does something the Psychologist told us about called SHARP 20-30 min. after eating she has to go to the restroom and try to go poopy and potty. While on the toilet she does the SHARP which is S=SQUEEZE (she will squeeze her butt muscles like she's trying to go poopy) H=HOLD (hold and keep squeezing)
A=ALMOST THERE (keep squeezing but say almost there) R=RELAX (she relaxes) and then P=PUSH (she tries to push the poop out). She has to do this once a minute for 5 min.
It is amazing when we go in the the restroom she will say that she doesn't need to go but a-lot of times she will end up having to go once she starts doing the SHARP routine.
She also had a test done at Cleveland Clinic by her GI doctor they sedated her and inserted a balloon into her rectum. The test was inconslusive because she was still moving too much even after being sedated. I don't remember what it's called but they explained that some kids don't have feeling down there and don't know when they need to go poopy that's what they were looking for.
Because of her bladder infections they also did the test to make sure her urine wasn't backing up into her kidney's (this came back fine) :)
Please feel free to contact me if you want to talk more.
Good luck, I know how frustrating this can be.

I understand your pain! I won't go into all the details as several other posters have done an excellent job of explaining what is happening. Have you seen a specialist? We didn't know about the constipation until a pediatric urologist ordered an xray. (My daughter also has overactive bladder). What a surprise as she was going frequently!

Be careful with the Miralax! There is no way my daughter could have tolerated capfuls of it. And once she has diarrhea it is very hard to get it to stop. To keep everything moving we give her 1 tsp of Miralax at night and 1/2 tsp Benefiber in the morning. The smell really will get better once some of the "old poop" is out of his system.

Good luck!

This sounds familiar with my daughter. Hers started because she needed to go at school and would not then when she would she was bleeding. The dr reccommended a couple of things. First was to give her Miralax daily. But make sure you give it to him when you know you are going to be home. About 30 minutes after you give it to him go into the bathroom with him with a stack of books and just sit there until he needs to go. Don't have him sit on the toilet the entire time just until he feels the need to go. In someways this will also create some bonding time. We would do this right after we would have dinner and it took about a month but it started to work to where she would go to the bathroom right after dinner on her own. I feel your pain and it is really hard cycle to break but this is what worked for us.

The smelling very bad could be that it is sitting in his stomach to long. Once you get him on a regular routine it should help with the smell.

My thought is that he is needing to go at school and won't.

I know you have talked to your doctor to verify that there is nothing physically wrong, but I would also consult a psychologist to try to get to the root of why this is suddenly a problem.

It may be that it hurts to go since he is holding it in, so he tries to not go as he is afraid of the pain. Or that he gets so busy, he doesn't want to take the time to go. Or - a friend of mine had a son who did this, and it turned out that a nursery worker at church sexually molested him, and the therapist said that her son's soiling his pants was a common reaction to that. Once you know why he does it, then maybe you can figure out how to help him. This is probably embarassing for him too, and I am sure he is not doing this on purpose.
I hope the answer will be found soon for his sake and yours.

My niece is 6 and going through the same thing. The doctor told my brother that she was constipated.Hard to believe since she is pooping her pants.
They put her on a stool softener and it got worse - daily for a week and a half.
the doctor said she has been so constipated she no longer knew how it felt to have to poop and since when she has felt that before nothing happened she had to re-learn the feeling of needing to poop.
Strange
but after 7 weeks she is doing better.
(she had to miss 2 weeks of kindergarten because of it)