Potty training backsliding - peeing in underwear (2 Q's)

Beth - posted on 03/04/2009

UPDATE - girls, thank you for all your suggestions. I just wanted to update you... we "soldiered on" through the setback and kept using cloth undies (Gerber cloth training pants) and guess what? As of last Thursday (a week now) a switch turned on in his little head and he has been USING THE POTTY ALL THE TIME!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT (KNOCK ON WOOD!) So, thank you for telling me to keep at it. You were right. : )

Amy - posted on 02/22/2009

im potty training my 2 year old at the moment. she had stayed dry for four days and was even waking up in the morning asking to have her nappy of because she needs a wee but today she wet herself 3 times. she'd come up to me saying she's had an accident cos she was playing! i reminded hers he needs to ask to go to the toilet and after that she never wet herself for the rest of the day. im hoping tomorrow she'l have a dry day again. for about a week of potty trianing her i just left her with no nappy or underwear on when indoors, saves on washing then. once she got the hang of it i put underwear on and have only recently tried her fully clothed. its taken months to get this far with her!

i dont think the use of pull up nappies are that good. not all children understand and will just use them instead of goin to the toilet. my daughter just wee'd straight in them. think its better if they have a few accidents cos realise its not nice being all wet.

Beth - posted on 02/22/2009

Thanks girls. Sounds like this is just one of those challenging speed bumps on the road to being potty-trained. : )

Donna - posted on 02/22/2009

My daughter, who is now 31/2 did the same thing. I just stuck it out and reminded her that she needed to go in the potty and not in her big girl underwear. She came out of it within a week. She also went through, (just recently) of pooping in her underwear. I had to be patient and go back to helping her when she went poopy. That took alot of patient and underwear!!

Jacqueline - posted on 02/22/2009

My Daughter who is 3 was in undies for 2 months and then wanted to go back to pull ups. She still uses the potty but just needed that extra security of the pull ups.  She keeps saying she is a little girl. she wanted me to put diapers on her. I just play her game. But will look forward to the day that i do not have to buy them anymore. Some people I hear they make the child clean there soiled undies but i could not put them through that. They still need that security. I am not going to force them into something they are not ready for. she is my middle child and I just think she just wants more attention. Good Luck

Colleen - posted on 02/22/2009

If you want to stick it out and are getting tired of the mess you could try putting a cloth diaper cover over his big boy undies. That way if he pees its contained.

And just to clarify, I would only switch back to pull ups when my son was going through a stretch of mutiple accidents. I would switch back after the first successful use of the potty. If it was just one accident (especially if it was just a near miss) I kept him in undies.

Judith - posted on 02/22/2009

This is pretty normal, so normal I wouldn't call it backsliding. Are you doing something special today that he doesn't want to stop? Is he feeling ok? Anything happening that is unusual? My little guy woudl get so excited about changes that it just wouldn't register that he needed to go.



I have a daycare and when one of my tots have a bad day, I set the timer on my watch and then insist that everyone's goes. You can do this at home - he potties, you potty, daddy potties.



If you have been in underwear for a while, I wouldn't do the pullups. Just my opinion though, every little one is different.

Colleen - posted on 02/22/2009

I switched back to pull ups whenever my son had accidents. Wearing big boy undies was a reward. But it depends on the child. My friend's son will go potty if he's in undies but use a pull up any time he's given one.

Backsliding is completely normal.