Anyone here have a child with no shame? Damian doesn't appear to have any and it is really bothering me. He had an "accident" (#2)in school and when he was asked to go to the nurse and change his clothes, he refused!

Most kids would be embarrassed! Does anyone else have a child that seems to have no social boundaries AT ALL?

The doctor says he has no underlying issues. He is 8.

My son had this issue. There are reasons this happens. ADHD children for instance, are often focused for so little time on so many things that they don't pay attention to their needs until it is too late. Gifted kids hyper-focus and may have this issue. My son's way of dealing with it when it happened was to pretend it didn't, not because he didn't care, but because it kept his peers from looking at him funny.

DS9 had encopresis and it took us and our pediatrician nearly a year to diagnose. It was an extremely stressful time for our entire family and we went through anger, dissapointment, and confusion as to why our extremely bright 8 year old was suddenly having "accidents". All is well now, but I remember the feelings well. Good luck, it took us a while to realize he wasn't being lazy or unconcerned, he truly had no control over it.

DD5 has encopresis also, but it seems to be a real problem when she has a lot of ice cream. She doesn't drink milk so that is not an issue and yogurt and cheese do not seem to be a problem.

And we really work with her to just go to the bathroom if she even thinks she just has gas.

But when her diet is really good and I am wicked at making her have 3-4 servings of fruit, first thing each day before anything else. And then yogurt. On holidays when she eats ice cream daily or even twice a day, then she has a problem with releasing material with gas. Not much, but enough.

Ren

DH is a pediatrician and he sees this Very frequently. Don't think it's uncommon. I agree with eema about constipation cause and with Artana about possible link to ADHD/ADD.

Ren, this sounds a WHOLE lot like lactose intolerance...have you looked into trying a lactase enzyme with the ice cream? DH and I are both lactose intolerant, and the lactase enzymes work really well at controlling it.

Encopresis is very rarely intentional and 99% of the time means your kid has severe and undiagnosed constipation. You really need further evaluation, unless he already was evaluated for constipation/withholding.

Okay, I'm going to march in the parade too… encopresis BTDT.Underlying issues don't have anything to do with it.. they just start withholding for whatever reason and it creates a vicious circle. You have to break the cycle, and it can take a while for them to get out of it.

I should add that I'm a pediatrician, so this is my thing. In my almost 20 years of practice I've never encountered deliberate soiling. Almost all cases of encopresis are due to constipation with a very small group caused by anxiety/emotional distress.

You need to be sure your child isn't constipated before doing anything else. A simple x-ray will show this as constipation severe enough to cause encopresis is obvious on x-ray.

Guys, you should be aware that this thread is five years old. It is very unlikely that the OP is still having this problem.

Hahaha, I never noticed that. It came up as highlighted like there was a new post, which is why I replied.

There was a new post in it by a newer poster who obviously didn't know to look at the date, and then others started offering advice.

Well it may be useful for current readers to realise it is common and seems very common in gifted kids. We have it in our house too.