4 year old strong headed son holds his pee all day

[Tiredmum_]

Hi I’m new here, need advice about my strong headed 4 year old son. I’m trying to potty train him since he was about 2 year old but nothing has worked. He has come to the point that he holds pee all day that now most of the days he wets his pants just twice. But these days he is just doing it once a day sometimes. He doesn’t have any signs of urine infections, drinks well. Its hard to get him sit on the toilet and if sits he just plays or sings there but doesn’t focus what he has to do there. I’ve tried ignoring, not doing any training but he still holds his pee. Now its more becoming a norm for him to hold cuz he plays around fine. But the day he just does once he doesn’t eat much. Please help with any advice and tell me I’m not alone having this issue with my son. No stickers or bribery works with him.

[CheshireMama]

Maybe take a few weeks off trying / asking him, take the pressure off. Then ask if he’s ready to start going a few times a day so that he’s getting himself ready for big school etc? Sometimes having a break and starting again works. Not for wees, but my daughter likes to watch the iPad whilst she poos - always encourages her to try!

[1324]

Și fetița mea la fel refuza sa facă pipi la olița nu am obligat-o am lăsat sa se întâmple totul de la sine și in momentul se fata face singurică la olița sau la baie dar încă nu este pregătită pentru treaba mare eu cred ca copii când se simnt ei pregătiți atunci vor face

[TiredMa]

Hello,My 3.5 year old son sounds EXACTLY the same as your son. So, I don’t have any advice, but I can confirm that you are not alone.

I see your post is from 6 months ago… have you had any progress?

[Tiredmum_ in reply to TiredMa]

Hi thanks for replying. We are out of holding phase as I just stopped to even think about potty train him. So he doesn’t hold any now. In May or June, one day he suddenly started to use potty and used it for three weeks successfully. But then, one day he didn’t manage to make it inside so it was a mess and he just stopped to use the potty or toilet again. Just to mention that we didn’t make a fuss about the mess he created. He just thought to himself I believe. So we are back to zero and in nappies. Sometimes he wants to use it but most of the time he just says no. I think I have taught him enough and he knows everything about it. He will surely leave the nappies when he wants to as I can see that he is slowly coming there.

[TiredMa in reply to Tiredmum_]

Thanks for replying.I think I need to do the same - just not mention it for a while.

I’ve got two older daughters and never had these issues, it’s doing my head in a bit!

But it’s reassuring to know that I’m not the only one with a toilet-avoiding-stubborn-son.

All the best