Preschool

[Dasia75]

My 3 year old son was, for the most part, very potty trained until about a month ago. Recently, he's been having accidents 1-2 times per week. I'm not sure what is causing this regression, but I'm struggling to find the best way to get back on track! Anyone else have a potty trained child who regressed? How did you fix this and get back on track?

[Mary]

I definitely went through this with my son.  He regressed for a few months.  He just started having a lot of accidents, although more out of being defiant and being what he thought was funny.  We had to become better about having him go.  So each night when he came home, first thing he had to do was use the potty.  Same with in the morning, we made it a game to see who could get to the potty first.  We brought the stickers back out and the M & M's too and eventually, after about a month or two he was back on track.  It's frustrating but you'll get to the other side soon!

[swaysmom]

My daughter is 2 1/2 and we actually just went through potty training over the weekend.  She did AMAZINGLY WELL!  But, as I'm so stoked at her progress and the fact that she hasn't had any accidents at daycare so far today, I keep gettng the comments from other moms "don't get too excited, she is going to have days where she has a lot of accidents!".  I also sent out a message last week to all the mom's I know to get potty training tips and pretty much every single one mentioned potty training regression.  I'm trying to prepare myself the best I can for this very situation that you are struggling with.  My daughter LOVES stickers and when needed, this is something I am absolutely going to pull back out.  I also try to remind my daughter a lot. 

My little sister was one of those kids that never wanted to miss anything, so when she would actually stop to use the bathroom, she wouldn't always finish and never wiped so it always seemed like she had accidents even when she wasn't. But looking back now, we are all lucky she even took a moment to go at all.  Maybe your little one is having a similar issue... when is he having the accidents?  Is there a lot going on at the time, or is it a sudden thing for no apparent reason? 

[Dasia75]

In reading about your experiences, I'm wondering if it might be a combo of a few factors causing this regression. I have an infant as well who, as you might expect, requires a lot of attention. My son does often seem to have accidents when I'm in the middle of doing something with the baby. I'm not sure if it's an act of defiance - he genuinely seems upset when this happens - but might be somewhat a way to get attention. On the other hand, perhaps there is a lot going on in our house that is distracting him and not allowing him to notice the normal signs of having to use the bathroom? I agree that we need to make this a focus and go through some of the practices we did during the first round of potty training. I guess it's time to pull out the stickers again!

[Caty]

Bright Horizons hosted a parent webinar on potty training not too long ago. The recording is located here, if you'd like to watch. There might be some useful tips to help you!

[swaysmom]

Where can that video be found?

[Caty]

Here is the full URL to the recording: http://www.brighthorizons.com/growing/parent-webinar/potty-training/