Why, oh why??

[plain jane]

Does my 4yo constantly wet his pants. :glare:

 

He's been potty trained for a year now. Never any accidents... until the last 2 or 3 months. I thought it was just a phase but now there seems to be no end to it. :glare:

 

He's got a smallish bladder and if he has a big drink, he'll be going to the potty often. This isn't new. What is new is that more often than not he seems to wait until the last second and then "dribbles" in his pants and soaks not only the front of his underwear but the inside of his pants. Not wet enough that it shows through his pants but wet enough that he smells. :ack2:

 

This is driving me absolutely bonkers. He's also the stubborn feisty type so making/urging/bribing him to go potty every 1/2 hour or so doesn't work either. he fights and insists he doesn't have to go and then lo and behold 15 minutes later his underwear is wet. :glare: Not soaked, he's not peeing himself, he simply lets some dribble into his underwear. Or perhaps he's not letting it, but it dribbles into his underwear nonetheless.

 

I'm so sick and tired of washing smelly underwear and pants. He must go through 4-6 pairs each day :001_huh: so I'm doing a load of sanitize laundry every night on top of all the regular laundry. You don't know how many times we're all set to go out and he'll we himself only to find he has no clean/dry underwear and/or pants. This makes me angry, I'll be honest. Nothing like cancelling a playdate or showing up so late because your 4yo and his potty issues.

 

Not to mention that this kid still wets the bed at night and often soaks through pull-ups. :ack2: My 6yo still wets his pull-up every. single. night. Atleast 1-2x per week he soaks through the pull up and I'm washing his sheets as well (thankfully I have a plastic sheet to protect the mattress).

 

I'm sure this makes me a lousy mother but I'm so sick and tired of dealing with little boys and urine.:willy_nilly:

 

Help!

Edited June 15, 2012 by plain jane

[Mandylubug]

my nephew did this exactly. Turned out that even though he was having regular bowel movements, we was still constipated. After an xray confirmed the dx (constipated with enlarged colon) he had to take regular doses of otc miralax for six months.. it cured the issue, and the wetting has stopped.

 

eta: my SIL was a bed wetter until around age 12. Her sons both struggle with it as well. Sorry :(

[cjzimmer1]

My son also had this problem when he was little. He had been circumsized as a baby and it healed "tighter" than it was suppose to. So his opening was very small and thus the urine required more force to completely empty his bladder. as a result he never really emptied his bladder and caused the constant dribbling. Once they enlarged the opening the dribbling stopped.

[Slipper]

You may want to bring that up with your pediatrician just in case there's something else going on.

 

You have my sympathy. My oldest didn't potty train until she was either eight or nine, I've forgotten. I absolutely stalked wal-mart during their mark-down end of season stuff. I would buy multiple pairs of things for the next year to make it easier.

[plain jane]

my nephew did this exactly. Turned out that even though he was having regular bowel movements, we was still constipated. After an xray confirmed the dx (constipated with enlarged colon) he had to take regular doses of otc miralax for six months.. it cured the issue, and the wetting has stopped.

 

eta: my SIL was a bed wetter until around age 12. Her sons both struggle with it as well. Sorry :(

 

Oh. Interesting. I should ask his doctor about going for xrays for him. Thanks. I'll try anything at this point. :tongue_smilie:

[SJ.]

I know exactly what you are going through, right down to the stubbornness. FINALLY, my oldest isn't having any accidents. it was a rough road. Hopefully your road isn't as long as ours was.

SJ

[swellmomma]

dd4 is like this. I think is it 1 part control (as in she wants to be the boss of her body- she will pee herself on purpose when mad and then strip nekkid), 1 part laziness, and 1 part consitpation (though that is due to wanting control as well not medically caused like ds8). So yeah fun times. She is supposed to be going with uncle to disneyland at the end of august and he is worried. I will likely pack pullups for her, but that will be only 2 weeks before her 5th birthday. I used to believe no kid started kindergarten needing diapers, but she is proving me wrong.

[fairfarmhand]

my son did this tons till the weather got warm. Now he runs outside to pee in the grass. I didn't tell him to do it, but it keeps him from wetting himself all of the time, so I don't comment on it at all.

[justLisa]

my son did this tons till the weather got warm. Now he runs outside to pee in the grass. I didn't tell him to do it, but it keeps him from wetting himself all of the time, so I don't comment on it at all.

 

:lol:

[plain jane]

dd4 is like this. I think is it 1 part control (as in she wants to be the boss of her body- she will pee herself on purpose when mad and then strip nekkid), 1 part laziness, and 1 part consitpation (though that is due to wanting control as well not medically caused like ds8). So yeah fun times. She is supposed to be going with uncle to disneyland at the end of august and he is worried. I will likely pack pullups for her, but that will be only 2 weeks before her 5th birthday. I used to believe no kid started kindergarten needing diapers, but she is proving me wrong.

 

I've seen my guy do this when he wants to change his clothes. :cursing::angry::cursing::banghead:

 

Why can't he just change like normal people?? No need to pee to prove that point. :toetap05:

[Ottakee]

Esp. since this is a change in the past 2-3 months, I would first see the doctor. A few possiblities--low grade bladder infection, constipation, etc.

 

Our peds urologist said that the FIRST thing they check (ok, maybe after infection) for kids with bladder issues is constipation. Like others said, even if he is going daily, he might still be plugged up higher up.

[Maus]

Another POV: I took a Human Development course in college, and I remember the professor saying it is very common for children who have been potty trained for a couple of years to suddenly have a relapse. He said it was due to them having more control and thinking they could wait until the last possible minute.

 

My DD7 certainly seemed to prove this. I can't count the number of accidents she had standing right in front of the toilet because she couldn't remove her pants fast enough to sit down. It happened for about six months, and then she did grow out of it.

 

Now, if I can just get the message through to both my olders that toilet paper is NOT optional, and that flushing makes everything much nicer for the next user. (I have a huge sign up on the wall opposite the toilet, but it seems to be such a foreign concept. Sigh!)

[Rockhopper]

Just to be on the safe side, I'd recommend a dr visit, to rule out things like constipation (the most likely physical culprit) and type 1 diabetes (for which you'd likely be seeing other symptoms such as increased thirst, fatigue and weight loss).

[Alyeska]

No judgement from me. I know how frustrating it is. My ds used to do the same exact thing. He did go to the doctor and it was confirmed that there was nothing wrong.

 

I learned that the best way to deal with it is to shrug my shoulders, tell him to change, and put his laundry in the washing machine.

 

At 8 years old, he still wakes up wet every.single.morning. He routinely soaks through Goodnights. No amount of limiting liquids, giving magnesium supplements, waking him in the night repeatedly, having him use an alarm, will make him stop wetting at night.

 

And quite often during the day he will still 'leak' and will have large wet marks on his undies. Finally at about age 7 he stopped having full on accidents during the day. He does the same thing that your ds does...he doesn't realize he even has to go until it is very nearly too late.

 

There is nothing I can do about it. There is nothing you can do about it. And I believe there is nothing the kiddos can do about it. I honestly do understand how frustrating it is! I was so ready to pull my hair out at one point. The only thing to do is wait it out, keep on washing, and go on with life.

[petepie2]

My DS will be 6 yrs old tomorrow, and he still has this problem. It's partly because he doesn't particularly care about it, but mostly it's because he has constipation issues. I recently put him back on miralax and spoke with his doctor today about it.

[mom2samlibby]

My DS will be 6 yrs old tomorrow, and he still has this problem. It's partly because he doesn't particularly care about it, but mostly it's because he has constipation issues. I recently put him back on miralax and spoke with his doctor today about it.

 

Please do some research on miralax and kids. There are some bad side effects.

[Pamela H in Texas]

It also could simply be a long phase :)

 

My son's first grade teacher said it was pretty normal and I figure that she probably knew :)

 

The alternative? My younger son's issue came about because he was just letting loose, peeing on himself whenever, so lost the ability to hold it and keep dry. It took a few weeks for us to remedy this. We simply would ask him at random (short!) intervals if he was wet. In our case, he was likely to lie either way (grrr) so we'd check. And he'd change (and change and change and change and change). He had to do the laundry. Once we were making sure it was being checked regularly enough, he'd try harder. And if I see him dancing, I'll tell him to go potty (if I ask, he'll ALWAYS say no but then go to the bathroom within a minute or so; but I don't want to encourage the lying so I just tell him).

 

I would NOT, no matter what, tell him to potty every 30 minutes. You don't want to train his bladder to not be able to hold it any worse than it is already trained.

 

Also, this isn't about YOU being trained, it is about HIM getting back to being trained. It is *his* responsibility. You can check, but you don't do the work, if that makes sense.

[mom2scouts]

Another POV: I took a Human Development course in college, and I remember the professor saying it is very common for children who have been potty trained for a couple of years to suddenly have a relapse. He said it was due to them having more control and thinking they could wait until the last possible minute.

 

My DD7 certainly seemed to prove this. I can't count the number of accidents she had standing right in front of the toilet because she couldn't remove her pants fast enough to sit down. It happened for about six months, and then she did grow out of it.

 

I think that every one of my children did this at some point. They are too busy playing and think they can wait until the last minute and they're no longer being praised for staying dry. My dd5 also pees herself right in front of the toilet because she can't get undressed fast enough after waiting too long.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I have no ideas about the daytime wetting, you've already gotten some good ideas.

 

For the night leaking, get new diapers! Leaking means they need to go up a size. Goodnights are poorly designed for boys. They're low cut, and boys parts will stand up, then lay down flat pointing up and pee right out the top of the diaper.

 

The best diaper we ever tried was tranquility brand. You can call them and they will counsel you and send some samples.