My 8 year old still poops in his pants

I have an 8 year old that still poops his in his underwear.  He had several hard bowel movements when he was much younger which probably lead to him holding his bowels in fear of a painful bowel movement.  He has been put on miralax and has been taking it on and off for a couple of years.  I have taken away his privledges, made him sit on the toilet twice a day for 15 minutes even spanking (which I felt really really bad for spanking him)  He has dropped little poop balls in public (school, YMCA, other peoples houses) unintentionally and intentionally.  Often he notices the pooped that he dropped and hides it under the couch, in the faucet or whereever.  I have told him that it is okay to pick it up and put it in the toilet and he would not be punished but, he still hides it.  I am so afraid that he will get soooo embarrassed when some person or KID finds out.  What can I possibly do to help him overcome this severe problem.

[FromRachael]

I am sorry that you are experiencing those issues.  My nine-year old son has always had problems with constipation himself.  He is pretty much terrified of eating cheese, because it seems like everytime he does he has to have me to go in the bathroom, hold his hand and rub his belly for him.  I explained to him that he had to be careful about how much cheese he eats and notice when his belly hurt and it happened remember what he ate not too long before that made him that way.  This way he could avoid what foods he was eating so it won't happen again.  When he was a baby, I had to give him laxatives too.  Now since we have our "plan" he hasn't had too much problem and does pretty good.  [Oh, he don't like orange juice either, but loves cranberry-grape!]

Your eight your old seems like he is aware of his problem, but doesn't know what to do to help himself.  May I ask why you put him back on Miralax?  When you took him off did you supplement it with something that would be excreted shortly afterwards, such as prunes?  Did you try deleting constipation related foods such as cheese and orange juice?

Hope this helps,
From Rachael

[nikki924]

My 8 almost 9 year old is doing this too. He's been doing this for 4 years straight and it's got me so frustrated. I've tried punishment, rewards, spanking, doctors, ect. I even had him sit on the toilet for 15 mins every hour and caught him standing in the bathroom instead of sitting. We've asked him why and he said he's lazy. I've had those embarrassing calls from school, his teacher saying that he stinks and we've tried to work together to get him to stop. We've used Santa and that isn't working anymore. I would love to know if you have found some sort of advice that helped.

[Sandman2]

       We actually have had lots of posts on this subject.   I assume that when you said doctors - you had him checked to see that there was not a medical problem causing this?  How extensive was the exam and how long ago was it done?
     What type of dietary changes have you tried?
     When he does poop - what does it look like?   hard, liquid like, normal?  Is it a large poop.  or basically a series of small ones over time?
     And I would assume that his teacher will let him go to the bathroom any time he wants and not just at break time or recess time when lots of kids are in there?

[Sandman2]

   This post has lots of good info.  Scroll all the way down to the end to the posts for Sept 11 and Sept 14 - http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Child-Behavior/show/64?page=7

[supermomma531]

has anyone ever heard of ENCOPRESIS? This is something I just found out due to my nephew being hospitalised with this condition. It consists of the intestines being back up so bad and packed to the point of the kids honestly not being able to porperly use the toilet because they can't get rid of the pack poop. My nephew was hospitalised for five days and was given a high fibre diet along with sone laxative medication he had to take 2 times a day along with getting enemas and eating lots of fruits and veggies and lots to drink. The way they were with him was he was only allowed to eat for a half hour, then wait 10 mins then go sit on the toilet for ten minutes. A whole week of this along with x-rays and other thing to check him and he finally got out yesturday but this is a condition that he'll have to deal with his whole life. They also used a sticker program with him for pooping and peeing when he did then he would get rewarded somehow. According to his dr's, bananas, cheese and milk product dont bind you up unless you eat too much of it. Consuming it in moderation if fine. So like only 1 banana a day, 1-2 slices a day of cheese, and a cup or two of milk or milk products aday if fine. Anything more than this can bind them up again. Eating fruits like apples, pears, peaches, berries, grapes, etc are all recommended. Veggies like corn, peas, carrots, any type of beans, and whatever else you can think of is fine as well. Meat and potatoes, rice, pasta is all fine as long as you watch what you put on them is absolutely fine. Drinking lots of water, real juice not something like kool-aid is fine, reduce the amount of sugar and salt intake. I hope this information helps you all out there dealing with this problem with your children. There are tests that the dr's can do for ENCOPRESIS so if you think this maybe your childs case for this problem please get them in asap to their family dr. or a pediatrician. Good luck!

[Sandman2]

   Thanks for the repost supermomma.  I just realized the link I gave which was to your post and another good one was incorrect.  Her is the link to the whole thing.   http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Child-Behavior/why-does-my-10-year-old-son-still-poop-in-pants/show/521820#post_8319131