Children & Infants
Encopresis (Stool Soiling)
Passing stool in underwear or other inappropriate places past toilet-training age, almost always driven by hidden chronic constipation rather than defiance.
Also known as: Stool soiling, Fecal incontinence in children
📝 At a glance
Likely root causes: Chronic constipation with a stretched, desensitized rectum — by far the most common cause; Stool-holding after painful passage from an anal fissure, rash, or irritation; Constipating diet: refined foods, dairy, low fiber, low fluids.
First thing to try: See your child's doctor first to confirm and clear any fecal impaction — treatment cannot succeed while a hard mass remains.
See a doctor if: Always involve your child's doctor at the start to confirm constipation/impaction and rule out other causes
🔎 Start with the cause
Lasting relief rarely comes from covering a symptom. First find what is feeding the problem, change what you can, and then help the body do what it was designed to do — heal.
Likely root causes
- Chronic constipation with a stretched, desensitized rectum — by far the most common cause
- Stool-holding after painful passage from an anal fissure, rash, or irritation
- Constipating diet: refined foods, dairy, low fiberThe part of plant foods your body can't fully break down — it keeps digestion moving. More →, low fluids
- Stressful life change (move, divorce, new sibling, starting school)
- Irregular meals and no settled toilet routine
Change what you can
- See your child's doctor first to confirm and clear any fecal impaction — treatment cannot succeed while a hard mass remains.
- Set a same-time-every-day toilet sit in a warm, unhurried bathroom, with a footstool so feet rest flat.
- Shift the diet toward fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; add prunes and a modest spoonful of bran at a meal; trim refined foods, dairy, and sugar.
- Keep water intake high — urine should stay pale.
- Encourage daily outdoor exercise, which naturally stirs bowel function.
- Stay warm and matter-of-fact: teach self-cleanup without blame, and expect months of steady routine, not instant results.
🩺 When to see a doctor
- Always involve your child's doctor at the start to confirm constipation/impaction and rule out other causes
- Blood in the stool, severe abdominal pain, or vomiting
- No improvement after several months of consistent routine
🌿 The seven pathways to health
Seven pathways for your encopresis (stool soiling) — tap the circle to check one off (saved on your device), or ask Remy for help.
“Disease is an effort of nature to free the system from conditions that result from a violation of the laws of health... In case of sickness 1cause should be ascertained, 2go to work intelligently to remove the disease. 3Unhealthful conditions should be changed, 4wrong habits corrected. 5Then nature is to be assisted in her effort 6to expel impurities and 7to re-establish right conditions in the system.”
🌿 Overview
A child who soils is nearly always chronically constipated: a stretched, overfull rectum loses feeling, and softer stool leaks around the hard mass without the child noticing. Treating the constipation — not punishing the child — resolves most cases.
Encopresis affects roughly three percent of children, boys more than girls. It was once blamed on toilet-training battles, but constipation is the real cause in almost every case. Painful passing from a fissure or rash teaches the child to hold stool in; the retained mass stretches the colon, weakens its muscle tone, and dulls the urge to go, so leakage happens without the child's awareness or control.
Because the colon may take five or six months to regain normal tone, treatment has to be patient and steady: clear any impaction, then build a daily rhythm of toilet sitting, fiberThe part of plant foods your body can't fully break down — it keeps digestion moving. More →-rich food, water, and outdoor exercise. Secondary encopresis — soiling that returns after control was gained — often follows a stress such as a move, a new sibling, or starting school, and calls for extra reassurance.
Shame makes everything worse. These children already feel guilty and may hide soiled clothing. Never ridicule or scold — parent and child are on the same team against a stretched-out bowel, and nearly all children recover fully.
Common signs
- Stool passed in underwear or other inappropriate places, from small smears to full movements
- Soiling mostly in afternoon and evening hours, rarely at night
- History of hard, infrequent, or painful stools
- Child may seem unaware of the accident or try to hide clothing
- Often accompanied by bedwetting or behavior struggles
⭐ Community-ranked natural supports
Vote ▲ on everything that helped you, and ▼ on anything you tried that didn't — the ranking updates live. Tap 💬 to share what worked, so others can find it faster.
How the numbers work: this is a weighted voting system — every published book or article recommending a remedy counts as an endorsement vote, and your ▲/▼ counts too. Not medical advice. *Ties are broken by our editor score (sources, safety, simplicity, cost, lifestyle fit, eight-laws alignment).
🍽️ Eating to help
Food is one of the gentlest medicines — small, steady changes help most.
Favor these
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Whole grains
- Prunes
- Plenty of water
Go easy on
- Refined and junk foods
- Dairy products
- Sugar
- Between-meal snacking
A high-fiber, high-water pattern retrains the bowel; constipating foods undo the progress.
⚖️ Good to know
- Never punish, shame, or ridicule a soiling child — most have no control over it, and criticism deepens the problem.
- Enemas and disimpaction should be guided by a health professional.
⚕️ What a doctor may offerConventional treatments for this condition — for your information.Show ▾
RemedyRank's heart is natural healing — and honest information. Here is what conventional medical care commonly involves for this condition, listed to inform, never to promote. Decisions about treatment belong with you and your own physician.
Doctors treat the underlying constipation first, usually with a bowel 'clean-out' followed by a maintenance plan.
Commonly offered
- Initial disimpaction with a laxative or enema under medical guidance–
- Daily maintenance laxative (e.g., polyethylene glycol) for months–
- Scheduled toilet sitting times and fiber/fluid increases–
Worth knowing
- Never shame a child for soiling — it's usually involuntary overflow around a blockage, not defiance.
- See a doctor to confirm constipation is the cause before starting any laxative routine.
👍/👎 shares whether a treatment helped you — community experience, not medical advice. For full professional details, see the sources under “Learn more” below.
📜 A note from history
Traditional home care has long treated stool soiling as a constipation problem to be solved with diet, water, regular habits, and kindness rather than discipline.
📚 Learn more
Sources for further reading. These open in a new tab.
💚 Was this page helpful?
A quick tap helps us improve these guides. Saved on your device in this preview.