6.5 year old dribbles in his pants every single day

[Alphabeaters]

Anyone else have a child who dribbles in their pants daily? He was potty trained at 4, but even since then he’s dribbled in his pants every single day. Sometimes a patch the size of a 50p, sometimes as big as your hand, sometimes half a wee and will hold in the rest.
We’ve tried reward charts, prompting him to go, taking things away from him, making him change himself and absolutely nothing works.
He tells us that he just forgets?
I think he’s being lazy and can’t be bothered to go, as if we make him go every hour then he doesn’t have this problem.
I’m seriously considering taking him to the doctor as he constantly smells like stale wee and his bits are getting red and sore.

It also happens more at school than at home, or more if he's at a holiday club day or birthday party etc. Which makes me think he tries to hold it as he's having too much fun?
Or could it be a medical problem that he needs help for?

Have you checked whether the school is allowing him to go to the bathroom during lesson time? My dd’s junior school wouldn’t allow them to go from year 1 except at break and lunch and it meant she hardly drank in school after she had an accident in year 1.
Also is he shaking enough after weeing? The smaller leaks could be because he isn’t making sure he is dry before pulling his pants up. The school nurse might be a helpful resource for advice.

My son used to do the same because he'd rather go out to play than waste time in the loo. Luckily he realised that it was better to go the loo and that grey school trousers show wee.

School are very good and at break time and play time they tell him he needs to go for a wee as they can see him doing the wee dance.
There's also toilets in the classroom they can use whenever they like.
When I ask him why he's wet he'll say things like "I was playing Lego"
Every day he promises he won't do it again (as he can see I'm at the end of my tether) and then the next day he'll do exactly the same thing again.
He's almost so preoccupied that wee starts coming out, and then he'll notice and hold the rest of the wee in. Even after he's dribbled he won't bother going to the toilet to empty the rest.

ive been so blunt with him and said that he smells, and that his friends will notice the patches, but he doesn’t seem to care.

My son is the same. We've worked and worked on it and I think it's getting better and then, like today, he does it again. I'm sorry that I can't offer better advice! I think he gets absorbed in activities and doesn't want to pause to wee but it isn't really a good excuse! I'm frightened the other kids will ostracise him as the kid who smells of wee but he seems completely unperturbed!

exactly the same here. We start to have a few days with no dribbles and then this week he’s done it every day again.
it’s just so frustrating. Sorry to hear you’re in the same boat.

@Alphabeaters well part of me is glad to hear that it isn't just us! The HV once advised me that little boys sometimes leak until their muscles get stronger but I'm not sure it can be just that. Also, it's hard enough to get him to wee never mind do kegels!

The irony is that once he's on the toilet it is like prising off glue trying to get him off as he'd just sit there and ponder his life away.

I'd take him to see a doctor to rule out any medical problems before bullying him about it.

Mine was reminded by a TA 3x today and said he didn't need to go and then promptly wet himself requiring a full change of pants and trousers at school. I swing between trying to analyse it and thinking it is control or anxiety or whatever and then getting frustrated and attributing it to him being bloody lazy!

Did you make any progress with this? My little boy has been out of nappies for 13 months and still dribbles every day exactly the same as you've described 🤦‍♀️ doctors are saying there's nothing wrong with him medically !

Sorry @Shan95Arty not really! Our Health Visitor said it is really common in boys that they are just a bit of a leaky tap and my son's teacher seems to think it's very normal too and said that as he ages it'll just get better. Fingers crossed that she's right...

@Gertrudetheadelie thank you for replying, we recently had 5 weeks dry and then the dribbles started again 🙄 knew it was too good to be true! Have never spoken to anyone else whose had this issue, felt like we were the only ones!

@Shan95Arty it's hard when people tell you how their child was dry within 3 days and has been perfect since when you're washing pants AGAIN! Our DS is the same but he's definitely worse when he's tired, ill or engaged in an activity he doesn't want to stop.

Try ERIC