5 Year Old with Potty Training Issues

I am unfortunatly right there with you. I have triplets who will be 5 the end of this month. 2 have been trained for over a yr. Logan was potty trained (day and night) for 3 months and then just stopped, no reason what so ever. I am constantly changing poopy underware, he has to wear overnights to bed. He pees in his pants also (he is too involved in whatever he is doing and wont take the time to go pee). I get so frustraited, I just don't know what to do either.

M.

Well what worked for me is I made them clean their mess up. If you clean them up and take care of the nasty mess it's not a big deal to them. At 5 years old a few times of this and I'm sure things with change.

Is there something scary about the toilet that he doesn't like? It's wierd that he would pee but not poop in the toilet. I'll check on my other mom's boards and see if anyone has any ideas.

Hi J.,

I am going thru potty training right now with my 2 1/2 yr old, so I have read every bit of material I can find in books, magazines and online about the subject. My suggestion is to make him clean up after himself when he has an accident. I would try to be as calm as possible about it and say "oh you had an accident, go into the bathroom and get yourself cleaned up and then you can go finish ....... With my daughter, I know it's a control issue, so what better way to put them in control then to make them clean up the mess and get their own new clothes and put them on, right??? It hasn't worked for me quite yet, but my issue is with #1, kinda backwards huh. Best of luck to you. H.

My son had issues with this too. We let him pick out his favorite character underware but when he pooped in it, we threw it away. It might sound mean, but the idea of watching his teenage mutant turtle underwear being wrapped up in the garbage was too much for him to handle and it worked. Still, when I can tell he's "working" on something I'll gently remind him that it sure would be a shame if sponge bob had to be thrown away and that's all it takes for him to run into the bathroom.

Hang in there! K. :)

Are there any punishments when they wet/poop their pants? Take away privliedges or toys. They cant have them back until they go potty like they are supposed to. I would be just as lost as you are with this situation. Its not something that I've run into.
My daughter is 5 1/2 and didnt potty train until she was 3. All has been good since. But, I do know that at 5yrs old, unless there is something physically wrong than they know better than to wet/poop their pants.
I personally would skip the rewards and bribes. Punish him every time he does it. After a while he will see that its not such a good idea to poop his pants and maybe he'll stop.
Best of luck!!

I suggest making him clean up the mess, so that he understands the importance of using the toilet. He is old enough that he should be taking care of his own poopy pants, washing them out and cleaning himself up (all of this with supervision of course). Just once having to handle poop might make the difference.