My son will be 4 this sunday, and we started potty training him at age 2.5 when we felt he was ready, never used any training underwear we went to underwear felt that it would only confuse him if we would use pull ups. Fine, everything went great, he had no wet pants at night, went potty really well, with hardly any accident.

Then all the sudden, he went from great to, peeing his pants, like he was playing and he wouldn't get up to go potty, he still doesn't wet the bed at night much at all, but during the day, its crazy, we go through god knows how many underwears that had been peed in.

We tried charts, sticker charts, god knows what else, he just gets too busy playing, and pees his pants, and when we remind him to go potty, he'll tell us that he doesn't have to go when indeed he does, he is doing the potty dance, and I can't force him to go potty.

Anyone have any ideas what to do?
I don't want to punish him for not going potty, because that would only rebel him against going potty.

I am at my wits end with this.

To me that is like telling a child it's time for bed and they say "but I'm not tired". If it was me I would take the toy away or whatever he is playing with and tell him he can have it back after he "tries" to go potty. I think once you get him in the bathroom he will go and at least you can avoid all the wet underwear and extra laundry.

I agree. Ds is almost 5 and we still have to constantly remind him. It's very wearing but I've learned to either laugh or I'd cry! So I'd rather laugh. But I do pull my hair out sometimes. And as frustrating as it seems, let it be a comfort to you that you are *not* alone, I am at your side even though miles away, silently suffering! Oh well, misery loves company!! Lol!

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Whenever this happened with my son, I would say, "It looks like you do have to go - I see the toxins building." We'd taught him about bacteria and how kidney failure works when we'd lost a cat before from it. We'd actually made a joke that he was turning yellow. Then it graduated to - just try - it's always a rule to try before we leave the house or go to bed. Now he'll say no, he doesn't and I say, "It looks like you do - check your body." 95% of the time he does.

my dd always says she doesn't have to go. I tell her to try anyway the peepee is telling me it needs to come out. sounds dumb but it works. If she resists that then I tell her to go to the bathroom and after she does we will "_____" fill in the blank with whatever. Play playdoh is one of her favs, she wants to play playdoh all day long. So after she goes I'll get something like that out for her. She's like me though she doesn't pee often. Now my son has to pee every hour so we just go sit down constantly, but he isn't at the age where he fights that yet. He is easy to get on the potty

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My 4 yr. old had been fully trained over a year and began having up to 4 accidents a day.
Turns uot, after an ultrasound and xrays, she has a lot of constipation which showed up on the xray in her colon.

We were given some medicine to add to her juice or water to help relieve it. When the doctor asked if she was constipated, I couldn't honestly answer, she is very self sufficient in the bathroom. It has gotten a little better since we began the medicine.

I still have to remind her to go, about every 2 hours I send her.

Howdy! I am new to the forum and I got excited when I found that there was a preschoolers section. LOL Then I got a chuckle when I noticed the top 2 posts were about potty training, only because I'm in the potty training trenches myself! I guess that's one of the main issues during the toddler/preschool time. Anyways....

My kids started potty training pretty late, my daughter at 3.5 and my son at 4.5. My daughter caught on REALLY quickly and she was fully trained in about two weeks. Now she only wears a diaper at night. My SON however...he is almost 5 and doesn't have much interest in using the toilet. He was all excited at first to piddle in there because I bought those Piddlers toilet targets. He was doing great for a few weeks, using the toilet consistently to piddle, but he REFUSED to poop. It's been months now and he has pooped maybe twice in the toilet, but not on his own, only if we catch him in time and run him to the toilet. Otherwise, he just does it in his underwear.

The past week or so he has also started piddling in his pullup again. He uses the toilet sometimes and goes in the pullup sometimes. It's SOOOO frustrating! I know how you feel! He gets busy playing too and also just seems to not care so he just does it in the pullup. I had to stop putting underwear on him because he would poop in it every day sometimes twice a day and I was having to throw them out, it was almost impossible to wash out.

Ok, well sorry to go on and on, I just wanted to let you know you're not alone and some of us actually have even older kids who are still having issues. Every child is different and my son was late talking also, so I think I just have to be patient with him. Hang in there. Sometimes they just surprise us and things change for the better overnight

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