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Behaviour/development

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4 yo weeing pants regularly for last 4-5 months

8 replies

33goingon64 · 04/03/2015 19:33

I know there are lots of threads but this feels slightly different as DS is a bit older. We trained him at 3.4 and he got it really quickly. However a few months later he went back to having wee accidents fairly regularly. This started before we told him we were moving house, but in the following few months we have moved house and he's started at a new nursery. We told him in January that we're having a baby in the summer. He was 4 last week.

I know the common feeling is that disruption like this can cause regression but it has been several months now, with the odd week of dryness followed by endless days of 1-4 wettings and recently the odd poo.

He seems absolutely unfazed by it and even told me tonight it made him happy to wee in his pants. We suspect it's laziness as it often happens when he's engrossed in playing or watching tv, but not always, sometimes it's just at random times. He does sometimes tell us he needs to go and we reward him with praise and marbles in the jar when he does this. When we wees in his pants we take a marble away. Trouble is we think the novelty of the marble jar has worn off.

We've also tried ignoring it and he does have to get himself changed, going upstairs to find new clothes, but this has been the case for a month now and it hasn't helped.

So not sure whether to go down the no attention route (although we don't think he's doing it for attention), the laziness punishment route (i.e. sorting it out himself to the point where it should be less hassle to just go for a wee), or the material reward/punishment route (marbles, chocolate coins etc).

We've got another 20 weeks to go before the baby comes - if it is connected to that, I've got a LOT of laundry to get through, and then what happens after the baby's born?

Any ideas?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
KellyElly · 04/03/2015 19:39

Have you had him tested for UTI

33goingon64 · 04/03/2015 19:51

No we haven't. He seems so unbothered about it though - I assume he'd be embarrassed if it was something he couldn't control, and we have had weeks/months at a time of no wetting.

OP posts:
33goingon64 · 04/03/2015 21:02

bump... Please. ..

OP posts:
KellyElly · 04/03/2015 21:48

My dd was exactly the same and it turned out to be that. You should get it checked out just in case. I thought it was behavioural too but turned out to be that.

kimistayingalive · 05/03/2015 17:40

Have you tried prompting him to go to the toilet or even taking him and asking him to go. If you start taking him regularly even interrupting his play or activity to do it this hopefully will stop accidents as he's already been.

GandalfsOtherHat · 05/03/2015 17:59

DS2 also started wetting himself after being totally potty trained for months. Turned out he was seriouly constipated. This went on for a few weeks till we figured it out, some days he was wetting himself 4+ times. I used sweets to bribe/reward poo's, sorted in 3 days.

33goingon64 · 05/03/2015 20:40

Yes we've tried all that kind of thing. He has ample encouragement from us and it's just so hit and miss. We had an accident free day today so we really praised him. Think we might start using more consequences e.g. losing TV time.

OP posts:
tobysmum77 · 12/03/2015 07:03

my dd is exactly the same (3.3). She has been checked for uti. Been fine for several months then major regression. I think all you can do is keep going and just have faith it will sort itself. I've been moaning to lots of people in rl and it's surprising how many have similar issues (my first Just did it).

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