I don't know what to do and I am at a loss. Recently we found that he had peed behind his bunk bed, in his dirty clothes, in the corner, on a bucket of legos. We removed the bunk bed and everything he had peed on, cleaned the carpets. Grounded him from everything. He keeps giving silly excuses from hes afraid of the dark or hes just too lazy to get up and go to the bathroom while watching tv or playing a video game, to he is mad at someone or he watched a scary movie. It changes within 10 minutes of asking him why he did it. It stopped for a week but just found that he was peeing on his sheet on the side of the bed and now he has made a hole in a chair in his room and has peed in this. Im not sure what to do anymore..I don't know why he is doing it. We cannot get a straight answer out of him. Hes the only child in our family his dad isn't in the picture(Which might have something to do with it) HELP!
This is beyond the scope of normal cognitive behavior for a 7 year old. You will need to speak with a pediatric psychologist.
I agree that you will be unlikely to get a straight, reliable answer out of a 7 year old on anything especially something which he knows is "wrong" by the reaction.
There are lots of reasons to keep TV and video games for such a young child in common space - so i'd consider removing TV out of this room and making sure any TV watching (which should be super limited) and video game playing (also super limited) - I think the total amount of those two activities ie screen time should be less than 2 hrs/day - have that all take place in the living room or kitchen or common space, where you are also.
Second, what about getting him a potty for his room and tell him if he has to go on his room , use the potty and every morning he should empty it? It's kind of gross, but not as gross as peeing in the room. We actually did this for a little while with my daughter and it helped transition her.
Lastly, if this is happening at night where he wakes from sleep and is afraid to go by himself, that may be the truth. My daughter is 7 and she will not get up and go herself to the bathroom at night - she will call for me to take her. What I do to prevent this is I pick her up while she's sleeping and take her to pee before I go to bed. SO if she is asleep by 7:45/8pm, I will scoop her up at 11 or 11:30 and bring her in to the bathroom She will do her business and never even wake up. Then she's good til morning.
You may also want to take him to pediatrician and make sure he doesn't have a UTI.
I definitely think punishment is completely counter productive.
Good luck, sound difficult.
This sounds very familiar. I think we all already told you that this is not typical behavior. Please get some help with this. Start with his regular doctor. If this were my kid, I would ask for a referral to a behavioral specialist as well as standard testing to check for possible medical issues.
Call the doc today, okay? This is more than just one isolated incident.
:)
If he were mine, I would take him to a pediatric psychiatrist.
If I were in your position, I might give him a sleeping bag and he can sleep in the bathtub until he learns that pee goes exclusively in the toilet and nowhere else.
If it takes months - so be it.
Even animals don't pee near where they sleep.
I'm not interested in any of his reasons or excuses.
Pee goes in the toilet - period - end of story.
Quit trying to rationalize it - 'Hes the only child in our family his dad isn't in the picture'.
Even orphans know where to pee once they've finished potty training.
If there's no medical/physical reason - have a doctor check him out - then it's psychological and a psychiatrist can work with him till he's house broken.
Additional:
Yeah there have been a lot of trollish repeat questions lately under new user codes.
It's a slightly new take on troll spamming but it's still getting old.
I agree that this is not typical behavior, but if can't help but wonder if your overreaction might have worsened the situation. Rather than grounding him from everything - or even punishing him at all - you probably would have been better off simply telling him that peeing anywhere besides the toilet it unhealthy and unacceptable. We pee in the toilet.
It's really not helpful to drill him on why he did this and obsess about his answers. He's a 7 year old boy. He probably honestly doesn't know why he did it the first time. Could gave been a combination of all the reasons he gave you. He probably was being lazy the first time and just peed somewhere. It's very possible he really didn't think about what he was doing or why. He was just glad to not have to pee. He wasn't thinking about the smell or cleaning it up or how disgusting you might find the situation.
I think you would be wise to stop focusing on the "why." Tell him the only place he is allowed to pee is in the toilet, that to pee anywhere else is unhealthy, will make things smell, is something most people would find disgusting and is simply not something we do.
I would try that first. If he doesn't try, you can talk about consequences, maybe take him to the doctor. But deep keep in mind that young boys will come up with crazy things to do that most of us never think of. Also , they find potty humor and private parts hilarious! It's really not that strange.
Might you be our pee obsessed troll? This question sounds really familiar...
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/17170395023905128449
http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/14569641544672870401
I think you need to take him to counseling. He needs to have natural consequences. Taking things away from him won't teach him that peeing does anything.
If this were me I'd probably go straight to smacking his hiney and making him change the sheets himself.
Normally if a child is peeing on stuff they lost those items. But in this case I'd probably just make him stay in bed pee and all.
Take computer, video game, tv, everything out of his room....... if he's too lazy to get up and go to the bathroom, he sure doesn't need something keeping him in there!
