More potty fun

The girls have been using the potty since just before their 3rd birthday (about 10 months now) but recently, they've started having accidents (which I partially chalk up to Emmett's arrival). I've now noticed that they take little to no initiative to go to the bathroom on their own anymore. They'll just hold it. And hold it. And hold it. Until it's a complete emergency. Then it's a panicked race to the bathroom usually resulting in pee all over the bathroom floor (that's one good thing at least ). The last couple of days, I've been having them sit on the potty "just to see" if they have to go (despite VERY loud protests that they don't NEED to use the POTTY!!!!!) & usually it sounds like someone is using a pressure washer to spray into the toilet. ardon: I let them know that when they're feeling that same feeling, that's their body's way of telling them they need to use the potty but I don't think the issue is that they don't know. I don't usually make a big deal out of the accidents (although, I confess, my tolerance usually depends on how much sleep I've had the night before) & just have them help me clean up & re-dress themselves (if needed). Anyway, has anyone else been through this? Any thoughts on what might be going on?

 

I swear that my kids must have the bladder the size of a watermelon some days! They will go for HOURS, when I've peed 3 times already!! And then, like you say ,all of a sudden it's an emergency and an accident happens.

Even Kaelyn, at age 5, will wait and hold it for so long, and then she has to go right.this.second!!!

What I'm doing with my twins, is every time we transition to something different ( lunch time, movie time, going outside, snack time...etc), I tell them they have to try to go potty first. Of course they protest, and I calmly say "Well that's okay if you don't go, but you do have to at least try." They always always go every time. So far it's working, and it's helping cut down on Liam's daily accidents, which range from once a day to 5-6 times a day, depending on the day

 

Rachel, I do the same thing as Danielle. Some days, my kids are like camels and barely need to go and others they are in the bathroom every hour on the hour. I think some regression on the potty is normal, especially after the arrival of a new sibling.
I think what you are telling your girls is good. The good thing is that they have been going on the potty, so they will get back on track quicker. Good luck!

 

you just described my kids perfectly. I've handled it differently with both kids, but nothing has helped change the behavior really. My son is just stubborn. He was easy to potty train, pretty much knew from the beginning when he had to go and never had accidents. Even at night. I was pretty confident in him that he's not going to have an accident. Even if he holds it forever, he'll get to the potty when he needs to. But it got to the point where he'd dance around holding himself all the time. And when I'd ask him if he had to go potty he'd say NO! But I knew he did. I was worried he was hurting himself by doing this so long and so often. If I tried to get him to go anyway, just to see, it would start a huge battle. I'd try rewards, silly things to take the edge off - if you try to go potty and nothing comes out you can come back and tickle mommy! - but he would just dig his heels in and refuse. So we got to the point where we started warning him if he had an accident (same as you described, right in front of the potty because he couldn't get his pants down and on the potty fast enough, he'd get a time out. Sometimes we got to the point if that happened too many times, we'd tell him when we see him dancing around if he doesn't listen when we tell him to go potty he'll get a time out. But nothing has really helped change his behavior. And it got tiring following through and being on him every day about it. He still does it, and I'm at the point where I just ignore it. It doesn't happen too often with him where he has an accident, but I know he's always holding it.

My daugher has been horrible to train and still wakes up wet 90% of the time. When she has these accidents I make her go change and try not to make a big deal about it. With her, it's less of a power struggle and refusing to listen to us when she has to go, sometimes I think she doesn't know. And it's less obvious to us when she has to go - she doesn't blatantly hold herself and dance around like my son. But I know she holds it too long, especially when she's in the middle of something big. I can't always tell if she just waits til the last minute, or if she really didn't know she had to go until it was too late. So I'm not as hard on her. But they're 4 and it's getting old!

 

I agree with Danielle and Nancy - transitions are our automatic triggers for a bathroom trip for everyone. It has cut down the number of accidents to one or two per week.