By Renee Martinez, Founder of Raising Boys World
On Saturday, I was tidying up the house and as I walked upstairs I smelled this terrible poop smell. I couldn’t find anything. I thought perhaps the dog had an accident. My nose led me to where we keep the dirty laundry. There in the middle of the almost empty laundry basket was a fully-formed poop smeared in a pair of underwear.
I cleaned it up, but I still smelled the odor. Upon further investigation, I found nearly an entire roll of toilet paper, used and full of poop stains, in the wastebasket in the boy’s bathroom. On the floor was also some left over remnants of poop. To say that I was annoyed would be an understatement.
I figured out it was son #2. He is almost 6 years old. He’s been out of diapers for over 3 years, so what’s going on?
I had a talk with him and explained that sometime people have accidents and that it’s ok, but he should have told me. I assumed it was an accident because he’s never done this before. He’s not irregular and has never had any issues related to BM’s. I told him I was upset that he hid his soiled clothes… it wasn’t necessary and he should have come forward to talk to me. It was getting late at this point, so I told him he should get some rest, but asked him to promise to be upfront if ever he has an accident. Then he gave me another pair of underwear he had hidden in his closet, also poop stained.
Last night we had a nice dinner, everything was fine. He went to the bathroom and it took a little longer than normal, but I really thought nothing of it. He didn’t rush to the bathroom, just strolled in and out. No big deal. As we were walking upstairs, my husband was behind him and said that something smelled like poop. Lucas confessed he pooped in his pants, again.
We were livid. We also feel badly about the situation because we don’t understand.
So I did some research online and found that there can be medical reasons for this as well as behavioral. There’s not much out there. The stories I read didn’t seem like what we’re dealing with. I contacted our pediatrician this morning and hopefully we can come to some understanding of why this is happening.
Here is some of the info I found online, if this is an issue that concerns you:
Anyone ever have any issues with their son suddenly having accidents using the potty for #2? How about at 5, almost 6 years old? Anyone out there? If so, I need to hear about your experience.
About the Author: Renee Martinez consults and speaks professionally on social media marketing, integrated marketing communications, public relations and branding. She is the president of Ruby Marketing Communications (www.rubymarcom.com), a boutique marketing communications company that specializes in providing branding, social media strategy and integration, and creative services. Her blog (www.lisac95.sg-host.com), provides resources on everything marketing and social media for her active audience.
Renee has contributed as a featured monthly columnist in the monthly jewelry industry publication, JCK, on matters related to internet marketing as well as in InStore Magazine as a featured blogger where she writes about developing effective marketing strategies for the jewelry industry using social media. She is the founder of: Social Media Biz Summit (www.socialmediabizsummit.com), the first large-scale SM conference to come to Buffalo, NY; #jewelrychat, a weekly twitter chat for the jewelry industry and www.RaisingBoysWorld.com. Renee teaches social marketing courses at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY for the business school as well as offers small group social media marketing training and educational seminars for businesses in Western New York and beyond. Renee has dabbled in the internet marketing arena since the early 90′s and is not ashamed to call herself a “marketing geek”. From chatting in AOL, “sharing” music on Napster, and teaching HTML classes before it was considered “cool” to developing comprehensive social media strategies, effective public relations campaigns and managing online communities (most recently Chevy Girls Buffalo).
She enjoys being able to help people find their voice online and to create buzz about their product or service that will give them the results they desire.
Renee can be found on Twitter (@reneemmartinez) and Facebook (http:/www.facebook.com/RubyMarCom).
Photo by Mary Anne Enriquez, Urban Woodswalker on Flickr
