dd4.5 having potty accidents

[MotherGoose]

My dd 4.5 has been using the potty for 1.5 years. She goes for months doing great, and then in the past week she's completely peed in the floor twice (ie not just a little in the panties, but the whole bit) and had bm accidents too, though not the whole thing. Sorry if this is TMI but you are all parents. :) So tonight I sent her directly to bed with no books etc or any of our usual routine, an hour early, and took all the toys out of her room. It seems she gets involved in what she's doing and tries to hold it but can't. What can I do? Others experienced this? Seems like she should be past the constant pestering from me about "Use the potty" especially when she's gone accident-free for so long. It also seems that she at first has just a dribble of pee, and if I don't really come down hard on her for that, it gets worse and worse until I do crack down. Any advice I'd appreciate!

[jenn1129]

I would first have her checked for a UTI. I know its common for trained girls to start having accidents when they have an infection.

 

Jennifer

[MotherGoose]

I thought about that, and she did have a UTI once, but when she did she had to pee frequently and said it hurt. And she's having BM accidents with this too. And she thinks it's funny...

[bettyandbob]

have you ruled out health issues? Caution the rest of my post will sound scary to some people and describes something quite rare.

 

My dd had accidents at 4. Turned out every time she had an accident she had a seizure. She was having absence seizures that at the longest lasted 60-90 seconds. Hundreds a day. Most were shorter. When she seized it was not noticable usually, but her muscles relaxed, hence the potty accidents.

[Starr]

If she's healthy I would be taking her to the bathroom more often and having her wash and change when she has an accident. Of course in reality I would probably loose my cool and see if that worked. She will outgrow this, really.

[SBMama]

I would definitely have her checked by a doctor. My dd is 4, and a couple of months ago she was having accidents here and there. She was also wetting the bed at night, when she had been dry at night for about 6 months. I too thought that she was trying to hold it while she was playing (I still think that is part of it). Then she had a urine accident in her dance class. She was horrified and so embarrassed. She had only been having accidents outside of home prior to this. I took her into the doctor. They checked her for a UTI, but it turned out that she was suffering from constipation. Her intestines were full of stool which put pressure on her bladder and caused her to become urine incontinent. Constipation can also cause stool accidents.

 

We also have found that orange juice and Sprite cause her to have urine accidents, so we do not allow her to drink either.(She is normally not allowed to drink Sprite anyway, but I let her have some as a treat once while we were seeing a movie at the theater.) Our dd also laughed a lot of times when she had an accident, but I think she was trying to cover up her embarrassment.

 

Good luck!

[MotherGoose]

If she's healthy I would be taking her to the bathroom more often and having her wash and change when she has an accident. Of course in reality I would probably loose my cool and see if that worked. She will outgrow this, really.

 

Yes, losing my cool is the plan I am operating on right now...only I have to REALLY lose it for the laughter to stop...and as for the constipation issue, she's the most unconstipated child I have ever heard of :) Thanks all!

[Rosie_0801]

If it's not a UTI, get her checked by a chiropractor. That always fixes up my little muffin who likes to jump off the sofa and land on her bum. :glare: If her lower back is out, and that's causing the problems, there's nothing your kiddo can do about it. It's really not her fault. Unless she's been jumping off the couch and landing on her bum. ;) But we can't expect a kid of that age to understand those sorts of consequences...

 

 

Rosie

[Paige]

I have 3 thoughts-

 

I think with the poop accidents it is very likely she is constipated and she pees because the pressure from the poop means she can't hold it like she thinks she can.

 

Or, I just took my 3yr old to the Dr today because of similar accidents this week minus the poop. She didn't have a UTI but she somehow does have a scratch down there. I checked for redness before I took her to the Dr but I guess I didn't check good enough and missed it. The Dr said it looked like a small skinned knee. :001_huh: But she is having accidents because it hurts to pee over the cut so she doesn't want to go potty

 

Or, my older girls get UTI symptoms with ear infections quite a bit. Who'd have thought? They swear their ears don't hurt but that it hurts to pee and they have to go much more frequently.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I would not punish her for these accidents IMHO. She could be laughing because she is anxious about them or simply because she is 4. I also would check to make certain that she is not constipated. Is anything new going on for her? It is not unusual for potty trained children to have periodic accidents. My ds and myself from what I recall had accidents up to 6ish.

[Sherry in OH]

It is not unusual for 4 or 5 or even 6 year old children to have accidents. They get involved in play or whatever and ignore the sensation until it is too late. My nearly 5 year old occasionally makes it all the way to the bathroom, then is dancing so much that he can't get his pants down. He is responsible for cleaning himself, changing his clothes, and wiping the floor. I only scold if he does not put his wet clothes in the laundry room or neglects to wipe the floor. Accidents happen.