4yr old hardly uses the toilet

[Houseofvelour]

My almost 4yo dd has been withholding pee for months now. We're on the waiting list for a paediatrician (with no appointments for months) and I'm really concerned.
She usually goes once or twice a day and has had 3 UTIs in the past few months.
Sometimes she'll be dry all night and still not go before 3/4pm.

We have 2 bathrooms that she has constant access to (with toddler seats on and steps) and her sister's potty is always in the living room so it's not an access thing.

She has her water with her all the time and I encourage her to drink it. She loves juice but we limit it to a couple of times a week (DH is a dentist) but I'm considering letting her have some daily to get her drinking more.

I've offered rewards, bribed, been firm, begged...I'm at my wits end! I'm so worried about her getting more UTIs.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or does anyone have any advice? Willing to try anything at this point.

Give her more juice if it gets her drinking more, a daily cup of (dilute) juice isn't going to do any harm, especially if it's with a meal

Give her the juice!

Thanks, I decided to give her 2 cups of weak juice before and got her to go to the loo.
I may have to do this daily but am concerned that she'll decide she never wants water (I know a few kids like this)

I would definitely give her juice every day. When things improve I’d then very, very gradually start to dilute the juice more and more.

Are you more worried about juice or dehydration and UTIs? Sounds like dehydration to me, which would also cause the UTIs. My daughter (3) was also holding wee / not drinking enough and had a few UTIs. We give her a cup of water with a splash of juice in and now she drinks lots and goes to the toilet as normal. If you're worried about sugar then there are companies that do cold brew tea bags for kids to make their water tasty. Toms Teas do childrens tea and you can buy them at Holland and Barrett.

Would she drink milk? Or you can include more foods with high water content...soup, ice lollies made with juice etc.

Most dilute cordial doesn’t have sugar in it right? It’s fine to give. In your scenario, who cares if she’ll only drink juice for now. Get her back to a normal weeing habit however the hell you can and then sort out what she’s drinking!

Dilute juice and a straw?

Most squash is sugar-free nowadays anyway. Would def rather she was drinking something rather than nothing. I didn't drink enough as a kid and had a lot of headaches.

Just let her have juice all the time that's terrible

We have a soda stream and DS loves sparkling water, might that help?

She drinks a lot of water so it's not dehydration I'm worried about. She literally will refuse to go to the toilet.
If I ask her, sometimes she'll just stomp her foot and shout.
I've added extra juice and milk today (on top of her usual water and milk) so that her bladder gets too full to hold. We had 4 wees today which I was really happy with!

@cherrypie66

Just let her have juice all the time that's terrible

Thanks for your judgement but it's not necessary 🙃 we held off on juice when she was young as a lot of her baby friends had started on juice and then refused water and now will only drink juice. Previously she had refused cordial as she claimed she didn't like it so I should have been clear, the only juice she likes is froot shoots which are full of shit, hence not wanting her to have them all the time. But I'm sure you're the perfect parent so you wouldn't understand.