Bathroom accidents

My 5 year old son recently has started pooping in his pants. He complains of no abdominal pain and says he doesn't know why he does it. He has been fully potty trained for several years at this point. Any advice?

[AnnieBrooke]

Please look up encopresis.  If he is in preschool or kindergarten, he might be "holding" or in the habit of doing so, and might have lost the signal the lower intestine says that warns that a poop is coming on.  Also ask him how the bathroom situation is at school -- there can be a lot of bathroom teasing in kindergarten among little boys, who of necessity have to pull down their pants even to pee, and there is no boys' room attendant or supervisor in boys' bathrooms in a lot of elementary schools due to the predominantly female population of the staff.  There are ways to treat encopresis if he has it, but if he will continue "holding" because he doesn't want to get teased in a school bathroom, the technical methods (stool softeners and all) won't do any good.