Hi,
Bit of context. My son has just turned 3 and started toilet training around 7 weeks ago. He pretty much cracked it after day 1 and will happily just tell us when he needs to go for a wee or poo and take himself to the toilet. He knows when he needs to go and will put the toilet seat on himself and sit on the toilet, go, get off and wash his hands after. Pretty much no accidents other than the first day so everything going great with toileting.
Around 4 days ago he suddenly started behaving out of character. He would announce he needed a wee then proceed to the toilet then walk back and say actually he's okay. He does this constantly throughout the day and he seems scared of going to the toilet and if I ask him to go to the toilet he starts having a meltdown. He keeps constantly grabbing his crotch and also hitting himself down there like something's bothering him. If I ask him if anything hurts he says no, if I ask him if it hurts when he goes for a wee he says yes, if I ask where it hurts he says 'in my bum'. My immediate thought was it must be a UTI, so took him to the doctor yesterday who tested his wee and said definitely no infection. She thinks it's more likely poo related and that's causing him pain and she said to make sure he poos every day and kids that age struggle to tell the difference between both ends and which bit is actually hurting etc. He never gets constipated and has been going every day so I'm struggling to believe it's anything poo related. He's been reluctant to go to the toilet again today and has just wet himself which is completely out of character for him.
I guess my question is, is this some kind of toilet training regression or do you think there's something else going on? I've heard regressions are common not long after toilet training and also his behaviour has been a bit off since this started, being more grumpy and getting upset at things randomly and having meltdowns which is completely unlike him. He's also started randomly talking about himself in the third person which is a bit random. On the other hand, he keeps holding and hitting his crotch and has mentioned pain so I'm thinking surely there's something going on causing physical discomfort. The doctor said he'll probably be back to normal in a few days and to bring him back in a week or so if he's still doing this. Has anyone experienced anything like this before with their little one and what ended up being the cause?
Thanks for reading this far.