# 3 Year old peeing on the floor instead of the potty all of a sudden



## Tonia80 (Jun 10, 2006)

I need soem suggestions on how to handle this. My son has been fully potty trained for a long time now but suddenly in teh last two weeks he has taken to pulling down his pants and peeing right on teh floor in whatever room he is in. He even did it over at a friends house yesterday! It is very embarassing to me as he does it in front of people. The only thing I can think of is he is trying to get attention as DH recently left us. (about 2 months ago) But I am home with him and his brothers 24 hours a day and he gets loads of attention. I sleep with him at night, do lots of activities with him and his brothers and make sure to give him alone time with me daily.
How should I handle this? I don't want to yell at him. Should I make him help me clean the carpet when he does it? Any ideas to help this STOP???? I thought mayeb pull out his brothers potty seat amd keep that in teh room where he is as a just in case? But do you think he will use this as a crutch and what if we are somewhere else and the potty seat is not with us? Help!


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## DandK (Apr 11, 2005)

It is possible that he's doing this because of his father leaving. Even when you give them lots of attention they still realize that he's not around and they can act out in wierd ways. Are they seeing their father? Maybe spending a little more time with their father might help. Kids don't realize what is really going on they just realize that daddy isn't home like he should be.

My ds went through a peeing on everything phase. What worked for me was making him clean the mess up all by himself.

Good luck and I hope it gets better soon.


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## TripMom (Aug 26, 2005)

PT regression is normal - but usually shortly after PT, not delayed? Sounds like DS is regressing because his dad left - which would also be normal for a 3 yo to act out such an emotional loss - even if he does have a mom who is doing a great job with it.

I think all regressions should be treated the same - do NOT MAKE A BIG DEAL OUT OF IT. Begin PTing DS like it is PT Day #1. Have him walk around in pull ups or underwear or whatever. Take him to the bathroom frequently. Have a big celebration everytime he goes in the potty - give rewards if you did that. Just re-do whatever you did on the first few days you tried to PT him. Make it all very very postive -- and give him no negative attention for the PT transgressions - just ignore and clean them up.

Best of luck!


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## 4evermom (Feb 3, 2005)

My ds did that for about 6 weeks at age 3.5 for no good reason (no stress, no new baby, etc). I tried to not make a big deal, but enlisted his aid in cleaning up. A year later, he went through another, much briefer, phase of the same thing. I think early potty training is about holding it. Then, they go through a phase when they realize they can go whenever they want, even if they just went 5 minutes ago. Pretty neat!


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## ~member~ (May 23, 2002)

My dc did the same around that age. I never made them clean it up. I just told them matter of factly that it was unsanitary and could getthe rest of us sick and that we need to urinate/defecate in the toilet as that is where it belongs.
For my kids, it was just part of trying something different. I would never use shame or punishment, as it is a natural, healthy bodily function.
I just use the part about how we need to keep each other safe and healthy and that is why we need to use the toilet and not just 'go' where we please.


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## Kundalini-Mama (Jul 15, 2002)

Happened to us too during that age, but we also had a new baby in the mix. My older DS had been using the potty independently at 18m of age, so I was totally surprised by this. He also took to pooping on the floor as well.....ahhhh the fun days









I did enlist his help in cleaning up the pee, but I saved the poops for me (think 3 yr old stopped eating to get all the newborn baby nana poops). I did explain how unsanitary it was and all that other stuff. It passed.

And sorry for all the recent upset in your house


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## 4evermom (Feb 3, 2005)

Fortunately, urine IS sanitary. It doesn't have bacteria in it except in the rare case of the child having an infection at the time. It just smells bad.


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