Patient's question:
A seven-year-old boy often wets his pants with feces. This phenomenon has been going on for over a year, and now it happens every day. He has seen a doctor and undergone an (anal examination) and a B (ultrasound), but no abnormalities were found. However, he frequently complains of stomach pain and has vomited a few times at school due to it. Sometimes, when he looks very urgent, asking him to use the bathroom, he always says he doesn't need to. When he can no longer hold it in, he loses control. Many methods have been tried, including scolding and hitting him, as well as talking to him calmly, but none have been effective. I don't know if it's a physical problem or a psychological one?Doctor's answer:
Adults remind them not to go when they need to defecate, but when they actually feel the urge and go to the toilet, it's too late, and they end up soiling their pants, for which they are beaten every day. Later, a hospital check-up revealed it was colitis.When my son was around four or five years old, he also had a period where he would soil his pants, and even occasionally in the first grade (when he started school at five). Learning from my own childhood experience, I didn’t punish or scold him but instead observed the reasons behind this behavior. Later, I found that (during kindergarten) a lot of the time, he would play so happily during breaks that he forgot to use the restroom, and when he wanted to go after class, he wouldn’t dare to ask for leave, so he ended up soiling his pants. On one hand, I told him to use the restroom before breaks, and on the other, I asked the teacher to remind him to use the restroom at regular intervals.
After starting elementary school, the reasons for him soiling his pants became even more absurd: because he was an early reader and quite short, the toilet stalls in the school were too far apart, and he feared he might fall into the pit when squatting. Therefore, he wouldn’t dare to use the restroom. So, I gradually trained him to defecate at home. In reality, the child was very reluctant to do this, and excessive scolding could harm his self-esteem. Parents should keep this a secret for him and help him solve the problem.