Reply from Tom, Child's Age N/A - 3/25/03 - IP#: 159.39.16.14Cindy, At Morgan's age, she should be able to go 3-4 hours between trips to the bathroom. If she needs to go every 90 minutes she might have a small bladder, and if that is the case she will also have less time between the full bladder signal and losing control. If she has no problems at other times (school, shopping trips, etc.) then she is probably just too engrossed in play to recognize the signal in time. Being outdoors and maybe in a neighbor's yard, she doesn't realize how long it takes to get home and to the toilet. Punishment for toilet accidents rarely works and probably should not be used; but consequences that are directly related to the inappropriate behavior might provide motivation for her to try harder. You might have better results with this approach - Give her only one pair of pants per day. If she wets that one her day is over, she has to put her pajamas on and remain indoors the rest of the day. Make sure she understands that this is a consequence of wetting her pants (she has to stay indoors because she has no more clean pants for that day), and not punishment for wetting. After one or two incidents, she should get the idea and try harder to get home in time. |