4 year old starting to wet his pants again?


My 4 year old was potty trained at 2 1/2 all day except at naptime and bedtime. By 3 he had naptime down. At 3 1/2 he was pretty good at bedtime too. We had an occasional accident day or night, but not many. Now he is back to wetting his bed nightly. Yesterday he wet during naptime. And this morning he wet his pants while he was brushing his teeth. Why has he reverted back to his old behavior and what can I do to help him?

Nothing major has changed except we are now expecting our 2nd child (12 weeks pregnant), but my son didn't start wetting until about 2 weeks ago.

Answers:
My sisters son did the same thing when she found out she was pregnant with her second child. She took him to the doctor and found nothing wrong and the doctor told her that this is so common in children when they hear of mom expecting another baby. They think they will be replaced or no one will pay attention to them. He is crying out for attention.

Her doctor gave her suggestions to deal with his actions and one of them was to put him back in diapers and play the phsycology game. This was not the favorite suggestion of the doctor but it has worked in the past. When he was in diapers, he couldnt go fishing or do any other "big kid stuff" until he could stay dry. He said NOT to tell him that im putting you back in diapers cause your acting like a baby or babies wear diapers and your wetting the bed like a baby. You do not associate diapers with babies. This only confuses their emotions. Since they are crying out for attention, putting him back in diapers was a way to ensure the bonding between mom and him was still there.

He was only back in diapers for about 2 weeks during the day time. Then one day he decided to be a big boy again and didnt want them during the day. You could tell he still wanted that security feeling so he was in diapers at nite for about 3 months and was dry after that.

Some people are totally against putting a child back in diapers because they think it gives the "wrong impression to be lazy" but it worked for my nephew. He was crying out for attention and by his mom and dad giving him the attention and security that she and he will always be there for him worked. They still make special time for him to reinforce the security he was crying out for.
Maybe he has an infection of some sort. Sometimes kids will revert back when a new sibling comes along. This will be more apparent when the baby actually arrives.

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