7 year old boy pooping his pants

[Stephaniet66]

My 7 year old son frequently poops his pants.  He says he doesn't know when it's happening, and feels really bad when it does.  We've tried setting times for him to sit on the potty, talked about listening to his body and taking the time to go, but it is still happening very consistenly.

How can we help him with this?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Is this a recent development, or has this been a chronic condition, with your son never having been able to control his bowel movements? If the condition is of more recent origin, it is quite likely the result of impacted bowels. His doctor can determine this, often with the help of an x-ray procedure called KUB (kindey-ureters-bladder). The treatment would involve a medication regimen to clean out the bowels and then establish a regular routine. Please arrange an appointment with his pediatrician.

[tiredstepmom]

A related discussion, Does pooping in pants indicate sexual abuse?? was started.

[Tami707]

A related discussion, my 7yr old son still poops in his pants was started.

[Poopleftbehind]

A related discussion, Leaving poop in boxer in trash can & wash cloth's was started.

[lakecountrylady]

I feel so uncomfortable or embarassed I may be preoccupied but I cannot help but think I should respond to Stephanie66 to also consider bowel movement in pants (not uresis but the other one) as possibly symptomatic of sexual abuse.  It is so common in our society and certainly common in his age group.  While this is probably not the cause, it should still not be ignored.  Perhaps, professional evaluation would be optimum.  What do you think?  Should I just stay out of it.  I don't want my own background of finding our my own 3 year old son was being sexully sadistically abused with toyss by our foster child.  Yet, when parents sees such puzzling behavior, we can not imagine the unimaginable.  Our doctors need to help cover all possibilities.  I had taken our son to specialists at the Children's hospital who gave me anal suppositories to give him.  You can imagine his response and my gulity feelings later.  Should a doc also suggest this as a possibility or not?  Please respond.

[MLWTR]

One, he could be constipated, and some of the stool is leaking out involuntarily around the backed up portion. Two, he could have an anal fissure. In that case, again, the stool could issue without warning, and without him being aware of it. Both of these would require a visit to the pediatrician because it's not something that is under his physical control and training him to know when he needs to go won't help. Good luck with this.