4 year old suddenly having accidents - any clues?

[HippoPottyMouth]

DD1 (who is actually 4 today) has been having accidents for a couple of weeks now - pretty much every time she goes for a wee she has wet pants, it seems.
To top things off she has just done a poo in her pants at the park today.

Prior to this she had been perfectly dry etc for a year and a half. She's still dry at night.

Part of my brain thinks its to do with her starting school in 2 weeks time, but I don't understand at all why this would translate to having accidents. She doesn't seem overly worried about it, I've tried chatting to her about it and she says she's fine, but obviously it's bound to be playing on her mind.

Anything I can do to stop it? I'm trying to be patient but she is getting a fairly exasperated "why have you done that?!" these days. To which she has no answer and tries to change the subject. :(

How do I persuade her to stop waiting til she's desperate / hold it in?

My DD went through a stage of this, it was almost like she didn't want to stop playing/ what she was doing, so she held on too long, even with poo's she hold them in and marked her knickers. Going to the toilet was too inconvenient for her play

It did drive me bonkers, so I had to start watching her more carefully and if she was jigging about I'd send her to the loo.

It has improved greatly since she began school.

I do not have any great tips tbh, but I did talk to my DD about how bad it was to hold it in and praise her when she did go. It's a phase

Get her checked for a wee infection. My GP said when ds started having accidents that if they've been dry for that long there has to be a reason, be it medical, or emotional (eg. as you say, starting school). Ds had a foreskin infection, it can also be thrush or worms causing it.

If she hasn't got a wee infection, then go back to sending her to do a wee every hour or so.

Ah thanks, yes I will get her checked. Will see if I can just take in a sample without having to see a doc first.
I think emotional is more likely though. She keeps talking about people dying at the moment too. I just don't understand the psychology being why being upset causes accidents but it's certainly not an uncommon theory.

But yeah, just a phase :)
Wish I could just fast forward the first couple of weeks of school to the bit where she is settled in and happy