In article , Carmey Bloom wrote:
Hello,
I have a 4 1/2 year old son who is pottied trained but gets lazy and
doesn't want to poop in the toilet. He rather go in his pants and not
say anything about it.

I have tried everything to get him to stop doing this. I have punished
him, by spanking, time out, taking the tv or playing time away for a
couple days, I even try just talking to him.

He doesn't do it to get attention because he gets so much attention.

Does anyone else have any ideas on how i can get my son to stop doing
this?

It may not be about a power struggle or laziness or calls for
attention or preference for going in his pants. Some kids get so
wrapped up in what they are doing that they pay no attention to what
is happening in their bodies. This sort of selective attention can be
a big asset or a big handicap, depending on what attention gets
focussed on.

Several years ago, when our son was still having poop accidents, we
made it a requirement that he had to use the bathroom before he was
allowed computer time at home or at the library. This change reduced
the number of accidents by about a factor of 3. (Somewhat unusually
for boys, he was potty trained for peeing and dry through the night
for a year or two before the poop accidents stopped.)

------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
Senior member, IEEE Board of Directors, ISCB (starting Jan 2005)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.