My daughter is 4 1/2 and has been potty-trained for well over a year but has recently started having accidents during the day. Anyone else been through this? She has had accidents for both #1 & #2 (but its minimal and I think the #2 is mostly because she has had an upset tummy so I think those were due to thinking it was only a toot on its way). I don't know why she would regress a year later. Any thoughts?
I try to remind them at that age & even if they say no I will not let them do the next activity until they have sat on the potty to "try".
I know of a few kids that appeared to regress. What the real problem was is the kids didn't want to stop what they were doing to go pee, waited too long and had an accident. It seems to get worse in the spring when they start playing outside.
My favorite spring was when my son thought the dog was onto something and peed on a bush. God what a proud moment that was. :p
My son (6) went threw this. It was just a little wetting but it never stopped so he had to see a specialist. They say he has no control of it and put him on meds
I agree with Jo.. At this age, they are so busy doing their own thing.. they think they can hold it longer than usual.. They just do not want to stop.
You need to remind her when she needs to potty to stop and go. She will not miss anything.. Also holding it too long with mean 2 things..
1. It takes longer to have to change her underpants and get cleaned up than it does to just go.
2. Holding it too long, too many times, can make her body sick, by holding it in so long.. Infections etc..
Right now with the upset tummy, even just passing gas, she probably needs to just go to the potty to be on the safe side, until this passes.. no pun intended..
My son is much younger than your daughter, but has also been potty trained for well over a year. He will go through random periods of having accidents when things are changing developmentally. Growth spurts usually end up in a day with 2-3 accidents when he hasn't had any in months. We try to not create any negativity around the situation, just say ask him to try to remember to go before he has to go really bad. I think when he's growing he has to pee more often and he doesn't want to stop playing that much to go. I don't know if this is your daughter's situation or not because you don't give much context to her reaction to the accidents. Usually our son will tell us as the pee is just starting to come out. He usually has a panicked look like "Oh no, I should have gotten to the bathroom already, but now I can't hold it."
My pediatrician told me when kids grow there whole body grows ie. there bladders grows too. When this happens the bladder can hold more but it can take a little time for the muscles to strengthen enough to hold the increased amount of fluid the way the body did before. Yes they are busy but they are also growing so maybe try and remind her to go after she had something to eat or drink or have been playing for a while. My DD is now turning 6 and it happened to her at about that age as well.
Just about everyone I know went through this with their kids - mostly boys, though. My oldest son did this when he was four, too. It lasted a few months and then he was fine. Weird, and I have no explanation (there were no stressors or anything), but maybe it's just another growth phase or something... Who knows? Anyway, hopefully she'll be over it soon!
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Just about everyone I know went through this with their kids - mostly boys, though. My oldest son did this when he was four, too. It lasted a few months and then he was fine. Weird, and I have no explanation (there were no stressors or anything), but maybe it's just another growth phase or something... Who knows? Anyway, hopefully she'll be over it soon!
Random accidents are normal through 7 years old. If she's having frequent accidents have you considered taking her to the pediatrician and getting a urine culture and having her checked out?
