Five year old with large stools!!!!

My five year old son is holding in in his stool and when he does go to the restroom it is extremely large!!! He does this off and on, he can go weeks no problems. We will think everything is OK then it happens again. I hope this isn't damaging his colon. I heard of megacolon, could this cause him to get this when he gets older.  
Kat

[hopefullx3]

Not sure if this will help you at all but my daughter was doing the same thing at the age of two for about a year.  I took her to the doctor and he told me that some kids will have a painful bowel movement and they become fearful of going again because they think that it will hurt.  They will hold a bowel movement until it is impossbile to hold and by that time it has become so large it once again hurts for them to go causeing a chain reaction.  I was told to give her a mild stool softener for a while and when she realized it wasn't going to hurt anymore she started going alot more often and then things returned to normal and she no longer held them in.  I am not telling you in any way that this is the right thing for you to do but it worked for us and it was okayed by my family doctor.  I hope this will help.