My Son Is Having Accidents at Almost Age 6, Is This Normal?

Doctor. Now. It's common, but it's not healthy. It's constipation - encoperisis. It happens for school age kids. Stop getting angry at him and believe him. Like Retta said, if it's bad enough, they leak, and they can't feel it. It's treatable with miralax and diet change, and some "retraining" - basically a more structured bathroom routine (for us it was 5 minutes on the toilet right after school/camp) to get the body back into routine.

My son eats a lot of fruit and a reasonable amount of veggies, but kids don't like to poop at school, camp or whatever, and they hold it. He even got a UTI from the constipation. X-ray showed he was backed up to the middle of his large intestine.

This is called encopresis. Google it to learn more. My friend's son had this and it nearly drove her crazy but there is help. Talk to your son's doctor.
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/encopresis.html

Take him to the doctor and ask specifically about encopresis. If that is his situation, he really *doesn't* know when he is going. He's in the age range for it to appear, too. So please get him help.

My son developed encopresis which is being so constipated he was still having bowel movements however loose stool would slip around the blockage and just shoot out/leak into his underwear.

It started in Kindergarden when he refused (unknown to me to go have a bowel movement at school). He would hold it so long he would then have no sensation of having to go anymore and the nerves down there became numb to the sensation.

The pediatrician took an x-ray of his bowels and there was at least 14 or more inches of compacted stool in his lower intestines.

It took us a bit to clean him out and then retrain him to use the toilet as soon as he got home from school. (The school nurse offered her private bathroom for him to use but he only wanted to go at home).

So get to the pediatrician and get him checked!! Good luck!!

JC's link is super helpful. I believe we went through something like this - one of mine had some near misses (little liquid accidents) and I didn't get it what it was. She got upset because it came on suddenly with no warning. Same age.

It can cause embarrassment, leading them to want to hold it in and it messes up how they go. Best to get him in soon - and figure out what it is.

Behavioral pooping issues - really are uncommon at that age, I think you'd see other signs of it - as you say, there haven't been any upsets in his life.

Yes, completely. There is a very valid reason why kindergarten teachers require parents to bring a ziplock bag and extra clothes to kindergarten and sometimes even first grade.

In child care we see this quite often. Either their body grows and their bladder has to catch up or they just have a growth spurt in their brain and the link to toilet training is put on the back burner until they get all the new information processed.

Still, it's so very very common at this age.

Like others moms said, probably he is constipated. It's not uncommon in kids. Just make a visit to his pediatrician. In addiction to Miralax or enemas that can fix it, let him have a healty diet with enough veggies and fruits. Like Diane suggested just use some protective underwear to avoid the embarrassment until accidents stop, it reduces stress too that play a good role in encopresis.