HELP! 4.5 yr old having accidents

WhitneyAnne

She has been potty trained for almost 2 years now.  Now for the past, like month, having accidents almost daily.  Not at school, not when we are out (thankfully), only at home.  She doesnt want to leave what she is doing...when we find out she has wet her pants, we even ask her when it happened and she can tell us exactly what she was doing at that time.  I am BEYOND frustrated.  What do I do??  What method has worked for anyone who has had this problem??

Luckystar2

Dd went through some phases like this. I would just keep reminding her that accidents take longer time away from what she is doing. Dd would do it when out though too (particularly playground or play place). Sometimes I'd have to tell her we would have to leave if she had an accident (sometimes we were totally without extra clothes). I also would try to remind her often to stop what she was doing to go.

We had to go back to sticker reward charts several times after she was PTed when she would start having accidents again.

I totally understand the frustration. Dd PTed really early but she had so many set backs. I felt like we would never get to a time where she was finally done. I think we are now at least. I wish she would have just PTed later on rather than deal with frustrating setbacks!

AmandaJLewis

My daughter did the same thing,  PTd just before she turned 2 and then somewhere around 4 she started testing her limits on how long she could wait before going potty which led to a lot of accidents. It was so annoying! But thankfully didn't last too long either.

WhitneyAnne

She was pretty stubborn when it came to PTing so we didnt push it.  As with EVERYthing she does...she does it when she wants to.  So when she was ready, she was super easy to PT.  And now she is 4 1/2...for the last month having accidents at home almost daily.  And 30 min ago...another one.  I remind her constantly and that isn't enough  I have taken away prized toys...but the thing is-she is SO thick skinned (which I guess is a good thing!), but she just doesnt care.  I read parenting sites saying 'oh she will be embarrassed..."  NOPE.  And when we get upset, still doesnt care.  So I read the best way to handle it was by not making a big deal out of it...but how can that work??  She can tell me the exact moment it happened, and it's because she doesnt want to interrupt her play.  I am BEYOND frustrated, but all of the sites say not to be mad at her or yell!  But I have already tried the calm way!  ARGH, totally frustrated

sundaygirl

We went through a similar thing last month or so (same age, 5 this April).  He's always pushed the "how long can I go" but I think the excitement of Christmas and new toys was responsible for this spurt of accidents.  They were mostly at home but one was at daycare.  Anyway, I tried not to make a big deal of it.  Just told him I was disappointed and made him take responsibility for changing himself.   All fun activities ceased until he cleaned himself up.  If it had continued, I may have made him help with the laundering of the dirty clothes.  If there's no medical reason for the accidents, it will pass...in time!

WhitneyAnne

Thank you!  We had a dry day today, woohoo!  I am on her like a hawk, she had a reward waiting for her at the end of the night if she could stay dry all day.  I'll see what happens tomorrow...I have been SO frustrated with this (and with her) and read a bunch of articles about how to handle it and what the reasons could be, so I have totally changed my attitude and trying to be more supportive and encouraging instead of mad.  It isn't easy, but today worked so maybe something is clicking! We did move into a new house in Nov, which one article said could be a trigger for regression.  I don't think she sees the move as a negative...bigger house, just adopted a cat, a playroom, new town but same friends, same school...but maybe she does have more distractions now, and you are right, lots of Christmas toys to occupy her mind!

MrsAmers

Glad you had a good day!

I didn't respond to this because I have no good advice. My 4 1/2 year old has had regular or semi-regular accidents since he PT'ed at 3. They are a lot less frequent than they used to be and he has mostly stopped having them at preschool...but I seriously won't believe he is done until it has been months without one. (I think the longest he's stayed dry is about 3 weeks.)

We just can't find his "currency" to stay dry. Anyway, just wanted to empathize with how annoying it is and I hope the success continues!

amyjoy18

I don't have any specific advice either since, DD hasn't had many accidents and DS has ZERO interest in using the potty.  But I did recently see a Daniel Tiger episode about going potty and going right away so you don't have an accident.  The series is free on Amazon Prime Instant video.  DD found the song catchy --so it might be worth a watch.