Help, almost 4 year old & regression!

[WiiUnfit]

I seriously need some help / advice / wine.

DS, who will turn 4 early June, has been potty trained for around a year. He has previously had a couple of regression points where he has gone back to having several wet (no poo) accidents per day. These have attributable to changes in circumstance (moving age-group & room at nursery, starting pre-school, and most recently a family bereavement) and have only ever lasted 1-2 weeks. We have always managed to get him back on track with a lot of "don't worry, it's not a problem, you just have to remember to ask someone or go by yourself if you want to".

But now, here we are, no changes to trigger it and he's back to having daily wet accidents, at least two per day and as many as 4. This has been going on for probably 6-7 weeks now. Reassurance and gentle encouragement to tell someone or go to the bathroom himself has not improved the situation. At all.

This morning he had a wet accident at pre-school, where he has never had an accident before. As soon as we got home I started making lunch, he had another accident right in front of me during a conversation we were having. I took his trousers off and left him in a pair of clean pants in the hope it would help him remember & get to the toilet in time but about half an hour later, he'd wet those too.

I'm really struggling to maintain the reassurance thing as it's now been happening for well over a month. I don't want to shout, punish or shame him and I can feel my temper rising each time now. I'm washing several pairs of trousers & pants daily. Help please!

[Piratejones]

Before anything else I'd take him to see the doctor for a urine test, UTI's and can cause wetting, so rule this out first.

[Hurr1cane]

Half an hour isn't a long time between wees I was advised to wait till DS could hold his wees for 2 hours with the help of medication before potty training him. Definitely test for UTIs

[WiiUnfit]

Thanks for the advice both, I'll call our GP now & try to get him in this afternoon.

He isn't showing any symptoms, (no fever, pain, discoloured or smelly wee) but having experienced a few myself, I know they can sometimes be that way. I'm hoping he's not got an infection.

The pants wee (1/2 hour-ish after bit accident) wasn't a lot, more of a dribble so I'm a bit as to what could be causing it if it's not a UTI.

When I ask him why he didn't tell me or go to the bathroom, he just responds with "I don't know Mummy" and gets a bit tearful.

[Hurr1cane]

It's probably nothing. I'm trying to word this nicely so as not to worry you and don't read my other threads.

But my son was potty trained at 2 and at 4 and then his bladder sort of just stopped working, he's now getting trained again with medication aged 8, but that is VERY VERY rare.

There are a number of things they'll suggest you try first, no fizzy drinks, no black current juice at all and get him drinking a lot of water to train his bladder. Water though, not milk.

[Hurr1cane]

Also encourage him to completely empty his bladder after each see. It could just be that he started to wet himself but then held the rest in and then it sort of trickled out afterwards, or that he's weeing in a rush and not finishing properly and the left over wee is coming out in a sort of trickle when he can't hold it in anymore

[Piratejones]

Is he pooing everyday?
Constipation can cause wetting because the poo in the bowel pushes against the bladder.

[WiiUnfit]

Hi all, thank you for the advice. We've been to the doctors & there's no sign of infection, which is a relief.

Thank you, Hurr1cane. DS only has water / smoothies. I think part of it is him seeing if he can hold it in or being too engrossed in what he's doing to remember sometimes.

Piratejones, I hadn't thought of that but yes, he's pooing every day so I'm

While we were at the doctors, he told me he needed a wee and did make it to the toilet so I'm hoping it's just a blip but something DH & I will keep an eye on.