Leaky toddler

[Unsure4589]

Hi everyone. We started potty training our 2-year old in August last year. It’s been up and down obviously but overall she picked it up well. She’s 2 years 7 months now.

However, recently we’ve had a bit of a regression, I think due to her new baby brother who’s just 7 weeks old. She’s had the odd full on accident but the main problem is leaking. It’s like she’s holding her wee and ignoring or even not registering that she has a full bladder and really needs to go. We’ll notice her cues and tell her to use the toilet or potty and she’ll refuse even after she’s leaked. She goes a bit quiet when it happens so she knows it’s not ideal. She’s doing it at nursery now too, whereas at first she was fine there.

The refusal is part of a bigger pattern of saying no a LOT atm, but I’m not sure how to handle it in this context. As they’re not full on accidents and she does know to get to the loo eventually (and I know she’s unsettled because of our newborn), I don’t want to be harsh with her at all but the washing is driving me mad. I’m also slightly worried she’ll give herself a UTI if she’s holding all the time.

Anyone else deal with this? Any tips?

I started to pottytrain my daughter when she turned two, and she was fully potty trained by 2 years 4 months.
Hoewer, her little brother arrived 2 months later, and she started to act out (very similar to your child).

The only thing helped for us to keep telling her how she was a "big girl," and she needs to show her little brother how to be pottytrained.
The other thing was to get her involved in changing her brother - explaining how the nappy works and why the little baby needs it.

I'm sure it's only for attention. Try not to react when it happens - change her, put her on a potty, and say, "Next time, you need to go on the potty when you start to feel you need a wee wee."
Making a big deal out of it is just going to make her continue it for attention.

She was a couple months older, but a star chart really helped ones of mine with a phase like this, a star for staying clean and dry until lunch (or nap) and then another for lunch until bed, so many stars earned a wee treat (most of which were things we'd have done/got anyhow, but she can feel extra proud that she earned the trip to soft play rather than it being a random, just because treat). I just drew a path on a piece of paper with the little treats every so often along the path so she could see how far she'd come and what she could get next - plus it meant I could make the first reward easier to set her up for a quick win.