Help! Toddler witholding wee even in nappy

[Bamama91]

Hi, hope someone has some ideas...dd is 2yrs8m, showed signs of potty training readiness...started her in pants and she had a couple of wees in potty and couple of accidents. Even though I was really calm about the accidents, she then started holding her wee in, clearly desperate to go and got really clingy and wanting to be held...sat on potty for ages but couldn't let it out even though she really wanted to. Eventually managed to go that evening, but similar the next day...no accidents but holding it in as long as possible and getting really distressed. After a couple of days of this we put her back in nappies but the witholding has carried on even wearing nappies and 3 weeks later she's still holding it in some days...from 5pm til 11am sometimes! It's like she's got a mental block...so upsetting to see bout it. Any suggestions gratefully received!x

Put her in the bath, that will usually make her wee.

Hi @Bamama91 , just found this post as it describes exactly what my toddler is doing at the moment! Did you manage to resolve this and how has your little one got on since? X

Get her to go on the potty and read a book to her. Let her just chill there. Maybe do a wee with her?

Tell her stories about potty training too.

Well we’ve abandoned the potty training for now and are back in nappies as it seemed to be distressing her. She went back to normal weeing in the nappies, but over the last week or so has been going longer and longer between weeing in her nappy. She’s been going 4/5 hours between wees but today she went the entire day, about 10 hours, without weeing. When she did go it was a LOT, so it’s like she’d been holding it in all day but didn’t seem uncomfortable. And just worried that’s not good for her body. She seems to be drinking okay and otherwise fine in herself so not sure what’s going on.

Glad I found this post, my girl has just turned 3 and we started potty training a few weeks ago. (Third attempt) She’s started holding her wee in, she’s going twice a day including overnight, and yesterday hardly drank anything. She just went back to nursery yesterday, and although she likes nursery she’s not very confident, I.e she doesn’t talk unless I’m around, so I knew going to the loo there was going to be a hurdle.
she’s started refusing to try sitting on the potty even when she really wants to go, and then she just has an accident. This doesn’t happen everytime, occasionally she would go on the potty perfectly, but more often it’s an accident.
we decided to put her in a nappy last night, and thinking of forgetting it for a few weeks and trying again. wondering if a more gentle gradual approach would work next time…
she’s always done things when she wants to do them, didn’t walk until 2yrs, hated being pushed to do things.

Hi, thanks for your posts...it's still unresolved unforts! We went fully back to nappies and put the potty away...she's now weeing and pooing normally for the most part, but still has a tendency to hold either/both, and never poos at nursery. She's on movicol now as advice was to ensure no constipation to help wee and poo holding. So at least when she does hold her poo for a day, it's soft and easy to pass. She's just turned 3...not sure how we're going to get her potty trained as the same thing happened both times, and even though she'd be desperate for a wee and sit on the potty trying, it just wouldn't come out...despite trying all the relaxing, blowing, watching stuff etc. She's very reserved and doesn't deal well with any kind of pressure, so reluctant to force it by trying again...hoping at some point she'll just do it herself!

The reason we gave up was because it was escalating so much...she did 1 wee in 36 hours at one point and would just want to be carried around and be so upset and uncomfortable until she eventually couldn't hold it any more and wet herself. So awful!

I think potty training can be a bit upsetting for some children - my DD was late. About 3 and a half. I was getting worried about her being dry for pre-school.
I think once they get their head round it, they're clean/dry quite quickly.
Running water is a good trigger - our breakthrough moment was getting the bath ready, DD had nappy off and was literally desperate to wee and finally conceded to use the potty and was immensely pleased with herself.
Make sure the potty is stable and not too small. We also had things you put over the toilet seat for toddlers to use.
They all get there eventually.

@Bamama91 hello! Just found your post and wondered if this was resolved? I'm having issues with my two year old withilding wee in nappies. We haven't even started potty training.. We thought she had a UTI and she's had a course of antibiotics but the witholding is continuing.