You made it to the top of the mountain 🙌🏻 Potty Trained.

Finally ditched those diapers and survived the toilet training process….or so you think.

Your little one once self-initiating and diaper-less, but all of a sudden starts to have accidents.

More accidents than you would like.

No need to panic. We need to understand that even after successful learning there WILL be accidents.

We still expect accidents.

Accidents can happen for a number of reasons;

Your child is distracted - children, once they are potty trained will hold and hold and hold, because they are busy doing something else until, whoops they could’’t hold anymore. This is actually a good thing, they. are learning how much their bladder can hold and working those muscles. Bladders are all different sizes depending on age.
Your child is constipated. If there is a poop blockage it can cause pressure on the bladder. So if there is no other reason for the accidents (regression, distraction, learning) then I would say connect with your dr. to get an x-ray done.
Learning is not fully connected and you need to go back to the basics for a couple of days. Sometimes if we rush through it, our child will forget the steps but usually, when it’s a learned skill this is less likely to happen. Just to fully GET it, we need to re-visit from step one (this doesn’t mean start all over just a refresher).
“Regressions” - So this is what we are referring to in this article. You’ve eliminated all of the above causes and it seems like a full-blown backslide. Let’s talk more about this.

https://www.lilbabysleep.ca/pottytrainingdownload

What are Regressions?

Regressions are often caused by big life events or development. Is there something happening in your child’s world that’s BIG? New baby, a move, new daycare…try to pinpoint what might be causing this anxiety.

Ask yourself these questions:

Are the accidents happening at a specific place?

*Are they at a specific time?

*Are they combined with a specific emotion? (i.e., when the child is upset?) Next ask for the child’s reaction to the accident?

*Do they appear to care?

*Do they come and tell the parent or act like it didn’t happen?

*Did the child make any attempt to get to the potty?

All of these will help you get to the bottom of what is causing this regression and you can. then work to address the root cause.

3 Steps to Get Through Regressions

Yes, I want to emphasize that I said “GET THROUGH” regressions, as in we don’t want to avoid them or not work through big emotions. Moving through setbacks is a part of life and a great skill to model to our children.

Try to find the root cause and talk about what is causing that anxiety. Ie. New baby - what feelings are coming up for them. “Having a new baby here must be hard for you. Do you have any feelings? or “Mommy and Daddy are having a super hard time right now. I wonder if this makes you feel upset or sad?”. Role-playing or acting out feelings can also really help in these cases. Affirmations about what a big help they are and how much you. appreciate them also helps to ease the transition.
Prompt and remind. Reminding is not done once your child is fully potty training and during big changes, they may need a bit more prompting than usual. So continue to remind and don’t reprimand or make a big deal of accidents but just remind them where they need to go next time.
Go back to the basics and make sure they have connected the feeling of having to go to where they should be going. After a few weeks, the novelty of potty training wears off and if they haven’t really learned, this happens- then this happens, they will lose interest in even trying.

Most of all, know that regressions are temporary. Getting through the storm is temporary and as long as you, the parent stays consistent and stable through it, your child will make it through. If you are getting frustrated, anxious and going back to diapers because it’s too stressful then your child will feel that and follow suit.

Reach out to me for support during these times. It’s important for you as a coach to also have a coach, to get you through the setbacks so that you can get right back to enjoying being diaper-free faster!

Lil Potty Plan includes a plan and the support you need, especially during regressions. Pick it up at any point in your potty training journey. Don’t do this alone xx

Stay dry my friends,

Lily