Toilet trained, now wetting

[Jinglepot]

A 3yr old boy who was easily toilet trained by 26mths, same as his 6yr old brother, has now in the past 4 mths started wetting himself. Not all the time, but even when asked if he needs to go will say no then wet his pants a few minutes later.Other times, if prompted goes without a question. This has become very frustrating(although I try not to show it). Any suggestions on how to deal with this please.Also, when he does sleep all night, he is always dry.

[lindapinda]

Hi jinglepot,if he is dry when he sleeps through the night,i would think that he is looking for attention for some reason.If he had an uncontrollable bladder problem,he would not be dry all night.Could their be a sibling issue?

[stoo_pid]

Our 3yr old started doing exactly the same thing.  We were told at the time that it was attention seeking & very common (specially among boys).  The only advice we could get was to ignore him & if he wet himself to not make a fuss.  This strategy did work a bit but to be totally honest with you though, I found it very difficult to just let him go around with wet trousers when we were out.  Besides, junior simply upped the ante & started to do more than just wet himself and then he decided he was only going to do it in the car!

We got round it by telling him that he was getting to be a big boy just like his brother but if he couldn't control himself he would have to start wearing nappies like a baby again.  We didn't tell him off or ever get angry with him but were just very matter of fact about it.  We had to resort to putting him in pampers instead of underpants on about three, perhaps four, occasions but he soon stopped after that.

[ceebee007]

Is he perhaps too busy or too engrossed in something else to bother going to the toilet?  I found this was the case with my son - going to the toilet was just too much of an interruption to whatever else he was doing (basically laziness!) and he would wait until the absolute last minute (when he was starting to wet his pants!) before rushing off to the toilet. 

Perhaps you could introduce a star chart system for him with the promise of some reward at the end of the day/week for dry pants/always going before he wets.

[Jinglepot]

Thank you all for your help. Lindapinda, no, the two brothers get on well together, so I don't have a worry that way. Stoo_pid, I think I'll give Ceebee's star chart a go and see what is the result of that. I do think he is 'too busy' at times, but there are times there is no excuse like that. If that fails, I'll bring out the Pampers although I'd be worried in case he took the same route and did more!   I am so pleased to see that I'm not on my own with this( don't you always feel you are?) It is difficult and worrysome, so I hope the chart will be the answer. All suggestions were very welcome. Thank you.

[lindapinda]

jinglepot,i can remember clearly,being 4 maybe 5,and a thumb sucker,and my parents telling me that big girls didn't suck their thumbs,and that i should try not to do it.I was never pressurised,but the "big girl" thing worked.I think stoo-pid could be right.Kids are just so intelligent!