3 1/2 Year Old Is Potty Trained, Dry at Night, but Is Now Wetting During the Day

This is so normal – the thrill is gone, and pottying is just another obligation.

With my grandson, we bridged this transitional stage by turning pottying into a game, or going and sitting near him and reading favorite books. To lure him to the potty, whenever I noticed he was doing the potty dance, I'd go into the bathroom and begin to noisily wrestle all those dinosaurs out so he could find room to sit on the toilet. Especially the baby dinos, which were always covering the seat. Grandboy could not resist that game.

A little creative drama can help the child maintain her sense of play and humor, and this helps with all sorts of mundane activities and chores. My grandson is 5, and has long since gotten past his resistance to taking time out of his play. But that did last a few months. Remember that these are still very young children, and they need plenty of positive appreciation for their accomplishments. Trouble starts when we begin to take them for granted.

Perfectly normal. Going to the potty is a chore, and they have more important work to do.

My daughter potty trained at 21 months --night trained, the whole thing. She turns 3 in two weeks and she still has "little accidents," i.e. while taking off her pants. I wish she didn't, but she gets too busy and doesn't give herself enough time. They think, "I've held it this long, I can hold it a little longer." I'm always amazed by her bladder. I have to go twice before bed and as soon as I get up in the morning. She can go 14 hours without even blinking, after drinking a cup of water right before bed! Yet, she still has accidents.

I'm interesting in your responses too!

I could have written this post! My 3 1/2 y/o daughter is the same way! She did REALLY well the first month, and now month two off & on accidents all day. I'm sorry I can't offer advice, just wanted you to know your not alone! Also, I think what Peg M. said is probably true, the novelty has worn off, so how do we make it exciting for them again? I'm interested in seeing your responses. Good luck & hang in there!

This happens to most kids, I think! My oldest was a miracle child who never really wet her pants, even overnight, from day one of putting on panties. But from experience with my other two, nieces & nephews, children I babysit, etc. I can tell you they just get playing and do not want to stop.

I do two things: 1.) It's up to me to keep an eye on the clock and just make them stop playing and come use the bathroom every 2-3 hours.
2.) They are old enough to understand consequences, so my kids are swatted once on the bare bum if they are more than damp over and over in a day. Some people think this is horrible, but it's how my (quite large) family on both sides handles it, and we've all potty trained 2 year olds and had dry 3 and 4 year olds for the most part.

Proactivity and praise come first, but when they know better and just keep playing while peeing in their pants, that's naughty.

My daughter and son both went through that phase at about 4 years old. it is totally normal. They learn that they don't have to run to the potty when they feel the urge to go because they are now capable of "holding it" and waiting until a more convenient time. With my daughter, nothing seemed to help. She would wait until the last minute and wet herself while trying to pull her pants down. My son though would "leak" a little at a time until he finally decided to go. Most of the time it just soaked his underwear, but ocasionally wet his pants too. With him, I grounded him from all the things he was doing when he wet himself. First it was tv, then Wii, then xbox (that was special time with daddy). So, I told him that tv and video games are obviously too important to him because they make him chose to wet his underwear instead of going potty. I also lumped in computer games and time on my iPhone. I then checked him frequently and praised heavily when he was dry. I told him to go potty often and when he said he didn't need to, I said something to the affect that he wasn't making good potty choices, so he has to try when I say so. When he was dry for one whole day (it took a week), he got to choose one reward to get back. For every day he stayed dry, he got back one reward, but when he wet so much he had to change, he had to go back and start all over again. I also had him start helping me with the laundry since he was "creating so much extra laundry for me". I wanted him to see that it effects others too. It took almost a month, but we are back to normal now.

Your praise & 5 minutes non stop of it woulds probably do the trick. You would be surprised how hard it is to keep praising someone for 5 continuous minutes. Praise her in the morning for staying dry.