Ds1 is 4 in a couple of weeks and sounds very like gingernut's in terms of reliability. Ever since he potty trained at about 2.5 he has had good phases and bad phases - his main problem is that he leaves it too late to get to the loo and invariably has a wet patch on his pants. He seems to have very limited capacity to hold on once he says he needs to go. Recently it has been particularly bad and I can't remember the last day he didn't need at least one change of pants. I have been trying the 'bladder training' technique, increasing his daytime fluid intake to about 6 cups a day, which of course is making it harder for him, and doesn't yet seem to be improving matters.
I have in the past used the same approach as gingernut - insisting he goes regularly - and this will certainly keep him dry - but I feel he is getting to an age where he needs to manage this himself, he is now in preschool nursery where they are not supervised so closely, and so I am consciously leaving the decision to him. Is this the right approach or should I be continuing to monitor it for him? We do institute star charts during bad phases but this time he has yet to score a success....
I am also keen to get him out of night time nappies - 6 months ago he was dry about half the time but now he is doing massive wees in his pullups that leak out - I'm sure he is doing this first thing in the morning when he could perfectly well get to the potty - I am trying to incentivise him to keep his pullups dry but so far no success.
Please help anyeone! When I set out on this potty training lark I really thought it woudl all be done in a few weeks - had no idea it would still be such an issue 18 months later and feel very demoralised about it....please give me faith that there will come a time when I can just forget about it and not have to carry spares everywhere.....