What is my twelve-year-old son doing, and why does he like it so much?

Question

Just the other day, I walked in on my son, who sat on the toilet with his hand behind him. When I looked to see what he was doing, I saw that he had a thick pad of toilet paper that was held about three inches from his butt by the biggest pile of poop I had ever seen, and he was holding the poop against his butt. By the look on his face, I could tell he was getting some sort of pleasure from doing this. Though I just turned and walked out, I wonder why he is doing this, and should I be concerned. He usually spends up to twenty minutes in the bathroom at a time. I have spent all night on line, looking for reasons as to why he likes holding his poop against himself, and I found nothing at all. Have you ever heard of this type of behavior before? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

Answer 1

From the sounds of it your son has a poop fetish also known as Coprophilia.

Coprophilia is the paraphilia involving sexual arousal and pleasure from feces.

Some people with a poop fetish may also be aroused by watching others poop or watching others poop their pants or even being pooped.

But your son may just be interested and aroused by the poop itself.

It's normal but a rare fetish to have.

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Answer 2

If your 12 year old son is playing with his poop and finding pleasure from holding the poop against his skin it could be caused by ADHD or sensory issues.

Some children love the feeling and texture of their poop and some kids who have ADHD or even high functioning autism are that way as well.

He may also have scatolia.

No one likes to talk about it, but fecal smearing, also called scatolia in medical literature, is surprisingly common among children and adults.

Playing with warm slime, play dough, shaving cream, or even adding sensory-friendly toys into their bedroom for quiet time can be a great outlet for stopping scatolia.

Restrictive clothing, such as sleepers or onesies, can be a useful tool to help keep the poop mess contained in toddlers and babies until you can give baby a change.