6 Year old having day time accidents

[Anonymous]

I understand that bed-wetting at this age is common, but I’m a little confused about what’s going on with my 6-year-old.

He rarely has nighttime accidents. The last one was on January 1st, (NYE) which I think was because he went to bed later than usual (around 9 pm) and had some juice around 8 pm for New Year’s. Before that, he only had one accident in December on Christmas Eve for a similar reason. Prior to those, he had been dry at night for a few months.

What concerns me more is that he’s been having about 1–2 daytime accidents during the week. Is this common at his age, especially when nighttime accidents are so rare?

[Anonymous]

Is he busy and waiting too long to stop and use the bathroom? Ask him more often if he needs to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is he busy and waiting too long to stop and use the bathroom? Ask him more often if he needs to go.

Yes, most of the time is when we get back from somewhere, or was playing.

[Anonymous]

Add some reminders..announce when you are going. Keep it on his mind.

[Anonymous]

Are these accidents at home or in school? If at home, insist that he “try” before you leave the house, after you return, etc. I would also highly praise him when he does recognize when he needs the bathroom.

[Anonymous]

This can be a sign of constipation. How often is he pooping, and what is the poop like?

[Anonymous]

If he has an accident is he upset? Does he immediately want to change his clothes? Does he tell you as soon as it happens?

[Anonymous]

If this is a change, I'd go to the pediatrician and get checked out, because there are medical causes that can happen with the most common one being constipation.

Nighttime accidents have to do with hormones, they are completely unrelated to daytime accidents.

[Anonymous]

My kid was like this at that age sometimes. Not all the time but way more than I would have expected at 6. She would ignore the signal that she needed to use the toilet, and leave it too long, and then have to rush to the bathroom and would have an accident. It mostly happened at home but she had two at school during K and one at a friend's house. Her accidents often happened on the way to the bathroom or in the bathroom, as she'd realize it couldn't wait anymore and would rush to the toilet but not make it there in time.

A lot of the home accidents happened after coming home from school, which was partly happening because she avoided using the toilet at school.

It was very frustrating and we of course consulted the pediatrician and had her checked for encopresis and worked on it all the time. But then... it just stopped. She figured it out. She got over the fear of using the toilet at school, she finally realized the risk of not going when she needed to was not worth it, and she stopped putting it off.

I wish I could say "oh this is what worked" but it was really just everything. We gave her reminders, monitored liquid intake, had her clean up after herself when it happened at home, and praised her when she made a point of using the bathroom before it was urgent.

[Anonymous]

Is it just a small accident or is it a lot of pee? Is this occurring while he is playing or is in the process of trying to go to the bathroom and just not making it in time?

[Anonymous]

Mine went through similar phase, I started having him wear a pull-up when we went out which he wasn’t happy with. Remind him he needs to stop and use the bathroom.