3.2 year old wetting herself and finding it funny.

[gingerninja]

My 3.2 year old has been potty trained for 7 months but has all of a sudden started wetting herself. She's wet more times in the last week than in the whole 7 months she's been trained. The problem is she thinks it's funny, she laughs when she tells me she's done it. I've tried the ignore, doesn't work. I've also tried threatening and then following through with changing her into something she doesn't like (she's a dresses girl so have threatened putting dungarees on her) the one time I did this she just took them straight off and I was left almost wrestling her to put them back on. It hasn't worked. I'm just not sure how to handle it. Nothing has changed in her life recently so I'm clueless as to what's causing it.

I'd imagine she enjoys your shocked (and if you're like me, increasing irritated) reaction.

BOTH my dd's went through this (you'd think I'd have learnt first time).

I found it really hard to ignore and keep my cool so in the end I found it easier to say ok, maybe you're not ready for knickers, let's go back to pull ups (which dd was wearing at night anyway). I didn't make a big deal of it, just commented that I was getting worn out with the washing and cleaning up and I wanted more time to play with her. Wasn't phrased as punishment or a negative thing. But I did follow through with it. If she didn't want one on first thing in the morning, that was fine but if she had an accident then they went on.

It stopped being a game pretty quickly and we could go back to normal.

Good luck, and try to stay cool about it. I sometimes used to leave the room "to get clean clothes" and swear upstairs for a few minutes before coming back.

In my (limited) experience as a mother of one, these phases come and go. My DD is now 4.3 and wet herself six times last weekend, completely out of the blue and for no apparent reason whatsoever. (She laughed too, but I think it was more embarrassment than anything else!) This is about the fourth time we have had a "relapse" since she was toilet trained, and it seems to me that it tends to occur just as she makes some sort of developmental jump. (e.g. just after the last wetting episode, I noticed that her language skills had got much better). My key tactic for dealing with these phases is to remain as neutral as possible and to keep gently reminding her what is supposed to happen (e.g. I ask at regular intervals whether she needs to go, etc.). There are times when it does drive me to distraction, but I try not to get annoyed with her as I honestly don't think she does it on purpose. You do have my sympathies though. If nothing else, the extra washing is real chore.

Hi thanks for that. I do think she's fully aware of what she's doing. She's a very bright little girl and I'm sure it's an attention thing. That and the opportunity to change her clothes! I haven't noticed any developmental leaps so can't really attribute it to that.

I do like the idea of putting nappies on her. I think she'll hate it so I'm going to try that. Thanks guys

My 3.9 year old has just started doing the same thing several times a day. If we're out she has no problems going to the toilet all by herself, but if we're at home she demands help and won't even go into the toilet on her own. Then she'll just wee. It's driving me barmy. Poos she always does in the loo! I'm thinking she's like your little girl, gingerninja and just doing it for attention. I've tried telling her it's just bad attention when Mummy's annoyed at having to clean up everything again but she thinks that's funny!

I might try madrush's idea with the pullups (and the swearing upstairs!

It could be worth getting her checked out for a UTI - a friend's DD was wetting herself quite frequently at 5, and while not finding it funny exactly was very blaise about it. Her mum had her checked (my suggestion - thank you MN!) and it turned out she had an infection. So she really couldn't help it, and the attitude was a bit of a brave face she was putting on.

My dd2 is 3 and was fully trained until about two weeks ago! Now she's started weeing wherever she likes. I lost it earlier when she went into the bathroom and weed on the floor. She had plenty of time to get on the loo- she was playing with the taps and chattering instead! The sofa usually has a towel on it from a patch of wee which means the sofa now smells (Febreze only goes so far) and there's a pile of towels in the washing. I normally explain that she is clever enough to use the loo like the rest of the family, but it is water off a ducks back. Hence I did get a bit cross earlier and she cried I might try the pullups but I have a suspicion she will only look on it as a bonus not to bother herself with going to the loo!