Daniel is 4 adn a half. He has been using the toilet consistently for at least a year, only wears a diaper at night.

Recently, he has taken to pooping in the bathtub.. its just a little, and started when he was sick so I was gentle and told him he needed to try harder to make it to the toilet... that worked for a while then he started doing it again...

fast forward to this week, he pooped in his undies... in his room, took them off and pooped some more on the floor. I was upset and asked him why, he said he didnt know he was going to poop.. it was regular firm poop... I would have understood this reason if it was diarhea.. but it wasn.t. Anyhow, I was gentle and told him that it was yucky to poop on the floor and to get to the bathroom fast next time he felt like pooping. The next day, he did it again. I got angry. I washed him up and put him in a time out. Today, this morning, he did it a little bit but tried to clean it up himself and hide it. He smeared some on his bed (he had pulled the sheets up, too... so it got on the mattress... I had to buy a new bed today.

I walked in on him tonight pulling his pants down in his bedroom.... He had no reason when I asked him why he was pulling his pants down and wouldnt let me check his pants...

What the heck am I supposed to do? Why is he doing this? I don't know how to handle this... I don't like it, but I don't want to scar him fr life, you know? but it's NOT ok to poop inthe bedroom, obviously...

has ANYONE gone through this? What did you do? He islying to me about other things, too.. silly stuff... like if he put his shoes back or if he asked his dad to do something... I don't understand anything...

"lying" is pretty normal 4 yo stuff. They are fascinated with the idea that they can know something you do not. My way around it has been to try not to ask things that might lead to a "lie". So, instead of, "Did you put your shoes in the shoe basket?", I go look and say, "Oh! Your shoes need to go in the basket," or "Great! Your shoes are in the basket." Parenting my son has always been an aerobic activity, and I figure it will just stay that way.

For the poop, gosh I am sorry that's happening. How frustrating and disgusting! I do not have this problem, so these are just thoughts that may or may not help. Does your DS poop at a pretty regular time? If so, you could just put him on the potty and offer to read to him. You might play up how much better his body will work after the poop is out, just like taking out the trash. My thought here is that he may be so busy playing the poop surprises him and he just reacts. So, if he had a poop ritual it might help him get back in the habit.

Another idea- are you completely against letting him have a training potty in his room? It is still gross, but maybe it would be enough to get him back on the program. Each of my kids had a potty in the bedroom when they were potty trained, but still a little freaky about the whole poop thing.

Could it be at all a privacy thing? He obviously feels some shame that he has this problem. Does he have the option of privacy when he is in the bathroom? My DS around the age of 4.5 wanted to shut the bathroom door to poop. He was adamant that his sister not be present. Well, I had mixed feelings, but I also hate pooping with an audience, so I acquiesced. I give pretty close aural supervision, and he seems to appreciate the privacy. He is NOT allowed to lock the door. Anyway, now, about 1/2 the time he shuts the door, and the other half he begs his sister to keep him company.

I sure hope the problem resolves itself.

I'm glad I happened to peek in this forum!

My son is turning 4 on Tuesday and he does the same thing. It's always in his underwear, though once he was going "commando" and it ended up on the rug! He's also into the lying. I see what you mean about it being a thrill. It's usually about things like whether he has his pullup on yet (he wears one to bed) or whether he brushed his teeth before bed. Sometimes, it's silly things like if I'm getting the baby ready and I call out "get your shoes on and we're leaving in a minute," and he yells back, "They are already on," then it's time to walk out the door and they're still in teh closet. :rolleyes:

Aaah, just when the two and three year old tantrums wear off, the joy of lying and pooping start, LOL.

Michelle