Potty training regression

Conner has been doing GREAT with potty training. He was dry in Pull Ups for a few days & so we went to undies last Friday. He had one accident that day, but then was GREAT! I was sooo proud of him!

Fast forward to yesterday & today....full of accidents. I can't tell you how many undies we've went through. He's only soaked through to his pants 3 times, but LOTS more undies than that. This last accident I just lost it. He peed all over the floor & himself. I don't know what to do. He KNOWS how to do it & I KNOW he knows. Do I discipline him? He's pantsless now & I told him he had to stay that way, even though he's told me he's cold. I'm running out of undies (I have a load of wash going).

Aiden continues to be accident free. He's so good. Conner HAD been...what happened?

I know he's been drinking more, so I'm assuming that has something to do with it. But it doesn't always correlate to when he's drank a lot. He's been staying dry during naps, too, so it's all odd.

Please tell me how to handle all the accidents. If we were just starting out & he was learning, it'd be different. Now that I KNOW he can stay dry, it's more frustrating.

HELP!!!

 

I am dealing with this right now with my older son. What I have found works best is to not give much attention to the accidents. Although it sucks that they continue to pee themselves over and over and the laundry drives me nuts I feel that my son does better when he gets attention only when he goes on the potty. It is hard to do but eventually they will get tired of being wet. Best of luck

 

I would just keep encouraging him to use the potty every 30-60 minutes and set a timer to help him remember. At that age, they don't always understand they need to stop the fun and go use the bathroom, so they need to be reminded to go. It was a long time before I could rely on them to use it independently without being told to go. From personal experience, punishment doesn't work. I've definately gotten upset about it before and that hasn't helped it either (actually, it made it worse). Like the pp, giving lots of postive response to when he does go on the potty will be much more rewarding whether it's a high five, verbal praise or a sticker/m&m/etc. Consistency will be key and it may be a longer process than just a few days. Some kids do train that quick, but I know mine didn't. My DS actually took about 4 months longer than his sister to fully "get it". I give your guys kudos for starting potty training so early. That's awesome! They will get it even if it makes us want to pull our hair out in the process.

 

I don't think you should discipline, he is still potty training even though he has been doing really well. I think if you discipline him he might regress even more. I think you just keep encouraging him and maybe have him help you clean up the mess. Give it some time, it's probably just a phase. My Sarah did really well for months, and then just started peeing everywhere for some unknown reason. It was very frustrating, but I just tried to remind her that she needed to try to make it to the potty. I agree with Melissa, go back to taking him to the potty at certain intervals until he can get through this rough patch.

 

Has the routine changed somehow? Have you stopped reminding him or stopped giving prizes for going?

I know it took a good month - probably more - before I started letting the girls tell me when they needed to go, rather than me telling them.

 

It's a phase.....either keep going or stop for a few months - they are young yet!!!!!

 

I think you've got two options. You could either go back to diapers for a month or so, or push forward and ignore the accidents. He's not doing it to be "bad", it sounds like he's right on the edge of readiness. There's physical readiness and then there's psychological readiness. My Piper sounds like your Conner. She was physically ready but not 100% there for everything else. Somethink clicked for her a few days after I was ready to throw in the towel (thank you Becca34 for telling me to stick it out!) and now she's fully potty trained with no issues, no fighting underwear, no accidents, etc.

If you do decide to move forward, I'd say have him help you clean up the accident, but don't act like he's done anything wrong.