My 5 year old son will not poop on toilet

[starley6466]

My 5 year old son will only poop in his underware.  He has been urinating in the toilet without help since he was 3.  He never wets the bed.  I have tried rewards, reward charts, positive reinforcement, bribes, and taking away priveleges such as Play Station and the computer.  The last time I "put my foot down" and refused to let him poop in his pants, he held for 10 days and I had to give him an enima.  During those 10 days, I set him on the toilet every time he said he had to poop.  I tried relaxing him  by reading, doing puzzles, and coloring.  He just said I can't push it out.


HELP

[jdtm]

Could he be frightened of sitting on the toilet?  Have you tried a small potty chair or just the potty?  Just a couple of suggestions...

[schoolsurehaschanged]

My son had a similar problem.  As he grew and was able to express himself better, he explained that he thought toilets were disgusting.  Very simply, I searched for answers and the single most comment I ran across while looking for answers was a parent explaining that most college level kids don't poop their pants!  That thought helped me until I was able to get answers directly from my son, who still wants nothing to do with a public toilet.  At one point, we had to give him an oral laxative to get him to poop because he would regularly hold it and discussions ensued that such behavior is not healthy for anyone's body.  Our son also never wet the bed and bribes did not work either.  Only time has helped.