3yo DS holds onto wee for HOURS, then gets UTIs - help!

[thelittlebluepills]

DS2 seems to be afraid to wee on the potty and will hold onto his wee for hours (e.g. 7hours) by which time he starts to develop a urine infection, weeing hurts and we have lots of distress etc

We have had some successful wees on the potty and he was really pleased with himself - we all cheered etc etc but then the next day he'll hold onto it again and then be in pain - so we have to put him back in a pull-up (which he doesn't want to do) so that he relaxes and actually does a wee

We are praising all his weeing -whether it's on the potty, nappy or all down his legs and all over the carpet, we are trying to get as much water into him as possible so that he has to wee

After 4 days in pants (with varying success) we've had to go back into pull ups today and he has had a rather painful and stressful day.

Please help

[RitaMorgan]

Will he wee in a nappy, but sitting on a potty? The maybe try weeing on a nappy laid in the bottom of the potty, then eventually weeing without the nappy there at all.

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

How old is he?

Tbh id stick him back in nappies for a few weeks and try again when he's forgotten about it a bit.

Also encourage him to drink as much as possible, anything to get the fluids into him

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

Sorry, meant is he just 3 or nearly 4?

[thelittlebluepills]

If he's got a nappy on he refuses to sit on the potty - "I got nappy, I no sit on potty"

He's just turned 3. He had a circumcision a couple of months ago (for medical reasons) so we've had a break from potty training until he got over that and got used to his "new" willy.

This is actually the 4th time we've started potty training and then had to stop because of infections/pain/distress. We get a little bit further each time but I'm just hoping there's some way we could crack it for good.

Potty training is my parenting nightmare so I feel totally inadequate with all this - DS1 is 6.5yo still wets his pants half the time (cos he can't be bothered to stop what he's doing and go to the loo) and is also in pull ups still at night

[RitaMorgan]

Maybe start with weeing in his nappy next to the potty/in the bathroom? Does he respond well to bribery?

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

3 is still young for a lot of boys. We tried at 3 with DS, total fail, gave it another try 2 months later (with no mention of potty inbetween) and he just did it. Sounds like it's causing all of you a lot of stress (him included) so why not just stop for a while.

Might save you months of agro tbh.

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

Oh, what did really help was this star chart. Every time DS did a wee he got a sticker. Once he'd filled up the chart at the end of the week he got a toy (even if he hadn't quite done it, jsut to spur him on)

[thelittlebluepills]

Stayfrosty- sorry to hear about your DD, it was actually a very helpful post as has inspired me to talk to paediatric urologist about possible physical causes/complications when we go for circumcision follow up appt

[nannyl]

if he actually has a UTI then (IMO) he needs to see a GP to sort it