potty accidents at preschool

jc&cat

In the 6 or so weeks DS has been back at school, he has been having poop accidents there. I would say 1/week or every other week. He has been trained for a year and hasn't had an accident prior to this stretch in a long time. He even had a stomach bug in August and never had an accident during that illness.

I am trying to find out what the issue is. He says he can't feel it sometimes. I think he is messing around and doesn't want to stop what he is doing. But I can't help but think that perhaps he is having trouble feeling it? Is he BS'ing me?? Today he said he was in the bathroom washing his hands after peeing and he pooped and didn't know he had to.

Not sure how to handle this ladies. Any advice?

neverblushed

Does he think it's just going to be a fart and then it turns out to be poop?  

It might be that he's rolling along, sort of having to poop but he's able to hold it back and not deal with it while he's having fun playing, sort of ignoring his body's signals. Then, because he's distracted anyway, he interprets the "gotta poop" signal as a "gotta fart" signal.  

If poop is just sneaking up on him while he's washing his hands, it probably means he's been holding it, ignoring it, for a while.  So you are both right.  He is getting distracted, but he doesn't realize it.  Maybe encourage him to try to poop at home before he goes to school? 

I am astonished at how long my son, who is 8 and has been potty trained for a LOOOONNNNGG time, will ignore the need to poop, especially in school.  Twice this year he has reported that he felt sick at school all afternoon and then felt better when he finally went to the bathroom and "made a huge poop!"  Now, you know he was holding it if he had to go badly enough to make himself feel sick to his stomach.  And he was probably holding it for a while even before that. 

I don't want to overgeneralize, but I would say that I hear about this type of thing far more often from moms of boys than moms of girls.  Boys are just goofy about their poop, for some reason. 

golfbride11

DS has had a few pee accidents since going back to school.  For us I think it's that he's having too much fun and doesn't want to stop playing and then it's too late.  This could be what your LO is going through.  The same can happen for poop, I guess.  Could he have been hurrying up to get back to the fun?

Good Luck! 

Mama-Bear

Not sure about your DS, but my DS has a problem feeling when he has to poop.  EVERY time he has to poop, he has an accident unless we get him to the potty before he has to go.  He's 5 and has never been able to feel when he's had to go.  We tried 1 specialist, quack.  As soon as DH is employed again and we have insurance I'll be taking him to another specialist.