Does anyone have any ideas on how to correct this behavior?

[Dchmomof3]

My youngest son (2.5) has been doing great using the potty for a while now. Initially he was very proud of himself (and still is when he uses the potty). He appears to have had a change of heart in the potty department. He purposefully pees and poops himself when he is both mad at you or just to do it in order to try and ask for a pull up. Both, the school and myself has tried everything we can think of to correct, redirect and reinforce with consistency and try to get him back on track. Everything we have tried has failed miserably. He is VERY strong willed. I have been reaching out everywhere to see if anyone ideas that maybe I have not tried.We went from only being in overnight pull-ups...to the point that he has been doing this so much that he's leaving me little choice but to have to send pull-ups with him to school again and having them on-hand at home for when he repeatedly just stops, stares at you and pees himself. We've tried rewarding, redirecting when we can see he is upset, he's had age appropriate punishments, we refrain from showing him he's "getting a rise" out of us and we're at a point that we're all drawing blanks at this point. Putting him on the potty often does not work. He knows what he is doing and will hold it sitting on the potty and reserve it for a perfectly timed stare down. I am just at a loss here. He is by far the most stubborn out of the three boys!

[Sharryn92]

My son had done exactly the same thing stubborn in the worst way possible tried all the rewards bought a cool potty and i just ended up putting him back in pull ups he got to about 4 and i said thats enough  there coming off he cried for about 20 minutes got over that than had 6 days of accidents than one morning its as if a light switch flicked over night and he said mum i think im going to use the toilet i  need to wee and thats it havent looked back its now over 6 months later just hang in there  

[specialmom]

I'm a mom of boys too.  Challenging at times!  So, really, please know that you potty trained really young. The average age for boys in the US to get potty trained is 3.5 years old!  I had one who did so around that time and another who didn't potty train until he was 4!  FOUR!  Finally I said to him "come on.  would you just get potty trained" and he said okay.  And was from that moment on without an accident.  Grrr.  

But what are you gonna do?  

I've heard that when kids potty train really young, they do often regress.  Happened to my friend.  She thought she was about done and bam, her daughter acted like she never had been using the potty before in her life.  

I'm sorry that he does it at times like he's mad or upset though although it could be a loss of control?  

My honest and heart felt advice is to back off.  Let it rest.  No praise though--  but if he uses the potty as you'd like then give HIGH praise.  Loudly and noticeably.  Wait a couple of months and revisit it.  You aren't going to win by trying to force it as this is something he really does have control over (in terms of when it officially is a done deal and no longer a worry that he'll potty outside the potty).  So, back off without a word and revisit in spring.  As big of a pain as this is, this is a temporary problem and not worth losing your mustard over.  good luck

[Sandman2]

Yep, I agree with Specialmom.  although, I do wonder if this started happening sometime soon after he started school?