Seeking Info on 4 Year Old Suddenly Having Accidents

Hi! I have three children, girl 10, boys 7 & 4. When my 7 yr. old was jsut about 6 he started wetting the bed and had never been a bed wetter. He was also thirsty quite a bit and lost some weight (he wasn't overweight, but we thought he was "thinning out"). Well, he also acted as if he had the flu-tired, lethargic. He did have an appetite, but it wasn't consistent like normal. Well my sitter told me she had watched children from a previous family who had their child tested for Diabetes, Type1. Although the child my sitter knew did not have Diabetes, I was curious. Long story short, my son was diagnosed with Type 1, also known as juvenile diabetes. If you want to google the symptoms, that is how I compared what was happening to him and Diabetes. He had all the symptoms, except for vomiting. I don't want to alarm you, but it's something to consider. My son was thirsty all the time (another symptom) and my husband and I thought that is why he was wetting the bed. Good luck!!! Debbie

She could possibly have a bladder/urinary tract infection. I would call the doctor to be sure!

You might take a urine sample to your pediatrician. My daughter started having accidents and we found it to be a urinary tract infection. Easily cured by an antibiotic. Hope this helps.

My friend Sue went through the same thing with her daughter. They had started potty training and were well on their way when she started having accidents again. Turned out to be a severe uti. My friend Kim's daughter started doing the same thing and they ended up finding out that she was constipated to the point of being impacted and it was putting pressure on her bladder causing her to have accidents. If I were you I would take her to the doctor to rule out any medical problems first. Better safe than sorry.

The symptoms you describe actually do sound like a low level urinary tract infection, especially the small amounts that just make her wet. It's definitely worth a trip to the doctor to just check it out, because if it is, timely treatment is important. If it's not, then you can relax and look at other causes.

A sudden change (a move, new sibling, etc.) can cause a set back. Also awhile back my 3 yr. old daughter started having accidents alot (and lots of drips in the panties). I noticed that her pee had a strong smell to it and wads a big cloudy as well. It turned out that she had a UTI. No more bubble baths.

Hello V.,
My daughter too went through this very same thing...we brought home my son from the hospital and she had alreay been potty trained since 2.5 years old. When he got around 1 year old she started having accidents. Sometimes, it was all day...sometimes just a couple times a week...she would sometimes be a little wet like she tinkled a little before making it to the bathroom...other times she would be soaked. We took her to the doctor to rule out a bladder infection since she had one when she was only 3 months old and was hospitalized because of it.
Everything was fine and the doctor said it happens a-lot...kids will do it for attention. We always give her all the attention we can. We love both of our children. It is much better now. :)
We even did the potty chart thing with rewards etc... and it did nothing for her. I think she did it for the attention. My son is now 17 months and my daughter has gone a couple of months with no big accidents :)
You might want to take her to the doctor to rule out an infection and if everything is normal, just be patient with her.
They also say kids have a hard time holding it in and if they wait till the last minute to go to the bathroom they might have a small accident????
Hang in there!!!!
T.

take her to see a doctor she may have a urinary track infection, hopefully it wont be that but better safe to check it out.

Is she having any other issues? Behaviour, unexplained fears, etc? Sometimes if a child has been hurt by someone, they can regress on potty training, although it usually comes with other symptoms.

If she's not having anything else, I'd look for a physical reason in which case you might check with your doctor.

I went through this with my 5 year old daughter. She was perfectly potty trained from age 2-4. We thought it was school stress at first, but it didn't go away and she didn't seem stressed. So finally we took her to the dr. thinking it was a uti. It wasn't. The dr. had us make sure she was drinking plenty of water and not constipated for about 2 weeks, still didn't help. Then he had us make sure that she was emptying her bladder all the way. Do you know how hard it is to get a 5 year old to do kegel excercises? Now she is on medication for muscle contractions in her bladder. It's the "gotta go, gotta go, gotta go, right now." medicine on tv. What really tipped us off, was that she would suddenly bend over or drop to the floor in a squat before she had an accident. It was from the contractions of her bladder. Now she is doing great. She's almost 8 now and we've been able to reduce the dosage some. I haven't been able to get a straight answer as to whether or not she will ever outgrow this. I hope that whatever your daughter's problem you get it cleared up. It embarrassing to a child to go through this especially when they don't understand why and can't control it, when everyone believes that they should. Please see your doctor and keep going back until you find a solution. It took us lots of tries, but we finally got it right.

It is possible that she may have a urinary tract infection. It is completely curable with antibiotics. I would go ask her doctor about it.

Could be a bladder infection.

I never expirenced this type of thing with my children. My daughter potty trained herself at 15 months. I do have a friend of mine that has a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old. The older child was potty trained by time she was 22 months. She didnt have accidents or anything like that for the longest time. And when the younger one came along and started walking the 5 yr old started having frequent accidents. I asked her one day why she didnt go potty because I had her at my house. She said she wanted to wear a diaper. She was watching cartoons not even 3 yrds from the bathroom. I dont know if that helps you or not. I have had other friends tell me they noticed their children did the same thing.
It could just be a transition thing for your daughter. She is old enough to do things herself and be independent but she wants the security of still needing mom. Does that make sense to you. I cant seem to word it right.
It could also be some mild jealousy showing. Keep an accident journal for about a month logg everything. If you had to spend more time with baby. If she played by herself. Or even if you just got done reading her a story. Log the interaction between you and her. You might see a pattern of when she is having accidents. And if it is an attention getter then it will be obvious. It is just a suggestion for you to try. It might help. Good luck and God Bless you and yours.

it is very natural when you have an older child that has potty trained fine and then you bring another child into the house to see regression. She knows better but she is in a way competing for attention, even though this is in a negative way. You need to understand this is a natural process and eventually it will stop, maybe try to spend more time with her and make her feel more important.

It could be something in her environment that's upsetting to her. But also, if she is drinking more liquids than usual, getting tired easier, it may be diabetes...I would check with the doc to rule it out.

She may just be too busy to stop what she is doing to go potty. My youngest is the same way. He goes good for a while then starts having accidents and it is because he is too busy playing to stop to go potty. Most of the time it is because he is playing the wii. I don't think she needs to go to the doctor, but keep an eye on her and see what she is doing throughout the day. If you know the signs when she needs to go and see what she is doing like maybe playing with toys she just may not want to stop and you'll have to stop her and make sure she goes potty. My son holds himself when he has to go potty and when I see that I make him stop what he is doing and I make him go potty and tell him if he doesn't go he is not going to be allowed to back playing whatever it is he is playing. He drops what he's doing and he goes.
D.

I am 31 and have been married going on 12 yrs. this Nov.. I work part time doing construction work. My husband and I have 3 boys ages 10,7 and 4.

V., Hi. i would definately take your child to the doctor. The same thing happened to my daughter. My mom is a nurse and thought she had a urinary tract infection. The doctor found that she has adhesions in her vagina. It is due to a chemical imbalance and is very common. my youngest daughter has them too. We were given cream to apply and the adhesions went away. When they came back we would use it again. My oldest is 10 now and hasn't had trouble with it for several years. Good luck. J. (mom of 3) FYI My doctor said it can happen to boys too.

Hi V.! I don't blame you for wanting to visit the doctor. It is probably worth your time to ease your mind. I can tell you that my now 6 year old went through a very similar scenario around 4 years old. Luckily she grew out of it. I think I took her to the doctor to make sure all was okay. I have a friend who has two daughters who both had blatter issues and needed surgery. Once they had the surgery they were fine.

Best of luck! M.

okay this is a good one :) i just got this from an old woman with a new orleans type accent and she was SOOOO sweet! she said a teaspoon of honey before bed is what she finally did for her grandson who was spending the night and AAAALLLLL that sheet washing!!!!!!!! we have used it twice and those two nights did not even go to the bathroom before bed! wow:)

teaspoon honey before bed.

Hi V.,

I wouldn't worry about it. It's probably related to her desire for more attention. Is your 1 year old beginning to stand and or getting into alot of things? If he is getting more attention for his sccomplishments she may just be reacting to that. I would try to not make a big deal about it. But I know it can be frustrating to have them go backwards. She will eventually do it on her own again.

V., it could be something incredibly simple. Kids are so complex. However, my friend's daughter just had surgery last week because there was something wrong with her kidneys. She did the same thing your daughter did. She suddenly started having accidents. She used to punish her because she thought she just wasn't trying to make it to the bathroom, but then when it continued for about a year she finally took her to the doctor and there was something wrong. I can't remember exactly what was wrong, but she was out of the hospital the next day and is doing great. I wouldn't put off going to the doctor. At her age it can be incredibly embarassing to have accidents.
Good luck!

I am going through a similar thing with my 5 year old. What I've learned is that children can start having accidents again due to things happening in their environment (we had to say goodbye to our dog after an illness), a growth spurt (she had a big one), a urinary tract infection, or possibly muscle spasms. We though she wasn't trying hard enough and waited a long time before talking with the doctor. Big mistake. Try making sure your daughter is trying every 2-3 hours. If she has an accident after she goes, then she might not emptying the bladder all the way. (My daughter's problem.) We've learned to keep her on the toilet longer, and go back 15 minutes later a couple times a day. We started with the pediatrician and put her on medicine which eliminated the problems immediately. Only that caused severe nausea. So now we are going to a pediatric urologist a Children's.

Good luck. I know it's frustrating!

Hi V.. I think it's very important to make sure that there isn't a medical reason for her accidents in addition to considering other possible reasons. My daughter was almost 3 1/2 when she started having accidents many times a day, every day. We took her to the doctor and she had a raging uti. She didn't have any other symptoms (fever, complaints of hurting when she went to the bathroom, extra moodiness, etc) except for accident frequency. She was given an antibiotic and it resolved the issue for a time. Because it can sometimes be an indicator of an underlying issue (such as my daughter's bladder doesn't empty completely), making sure that there isn't anything medically needing to be taken care of is important.

I have a 4 yr old daughter who still will have an accident once in a blue moon. She may have a few in a row. It doesn't seem like it should be going on however, I have an 18 month old to. I noticed that this accident thing seems to be an attention seeking tactic I think. You may not realize it, but your one year old may just be getting to much attention in your 4 year olds mind. I also notice that any disruptions in routine or sleeping can lead to the accidents as well...Hang in there, I think it may just be a phase.

Hi. I would suggest taking your daughter in to check her urine, but ask them to culture and not just do the dipstick test. Hopefully they'll be able to rule out a urinary tract infection. My daughter who is now 11 was just turning 4 when the same thing happened. After ruling out possible life or emotional changes, tests showed that she had vesicoureteral reflux, where the urine backs up into the kidneys when they pee. She took a nightly antibiotic for 5 years while we waited to see if she outgrew it. While many do outgrow it, my daughter ended up having surgery at Rainbow Babies in Cleveland. Dr. Elder, a pediatric urologist there, chaired the panel that wrote the guidelines on how to handle reflux in kids. Both he and the hospital were amazing.

Good luck!