Trouble potty training

Hello,

We have a five year old son who is still not fully potty trained. We
believe that this is an emotional problem caused by the fact that I
was living far away from home for about 18 months while I looked for a
job and a house to buy while they stayed behind. This happened when he
was about 2.5 years old.

He will urinate in public restrooms and in our toilet 99% of the time.
In the last three months however, we have only been able to get him to
poop in the toilet twice. He will have a daytime accident about every
7 to 10 days. The rest of the time he seems to be on some strange
internal clock where he only will go at night in his sleep every other
day. We have tried high fiber diets, laxatives, etc. The only thing
that manages to accomplish is that he is VERY messy the next day and
needs a very thorough cleaning in the morning. He says he is not
afraid of the toilet, and that he wants to do it. He tells he will
start using the potty, and that he will quit having accidents.

We are totally at wit's end here. He is entirely too old to still be
wearing pullups and having these problems. We have tried everything we
can think of to convince him that this is a good thing. As a teacher,
I know that potty-training is directly tied to emotional growth and
maturity, and I am aware of the fact he has some issues, which we are
working on. But I'm about ready to lose it with this potty training
nonsense. If you have ANY advice at all, or have had a similar
experience, PLEASE contact me and let me know! We are desperate to
help our son. I am positive that if we can accomplish this, the other
problems he has will be much easier to work on. Thanks. You can email
me directly if you like, at one of two addresses below.

loctavius(at)gmail.com
loctavius(at)earthlink.net