My four year old has regressed in potty training (again), how can I get him back on track.?

Question

Recently, my four year old has began to regress in his potty training. He has been wetting himself throughout the day. He has been trained for quite a while, and has regressed before, but it did not take much to get him back on track. This time, he keeps wetting himself throughout the day. (He does not p**p on himself at all, he makes sure to go to the bathroom for that.) Anyway, I have tried pinpointing why this is happening and the only thing I can think of is that I have started potty training our younger boy, who is 2. I give the younger boy stickers when he goes. But, even after the younger one has not gotten any stickers for two days, the older one still wets himself.

My husband does not think I should just give my older son stickers, because he is a big boy and big boys go to the potty. I have tried explaining that to my son, but it goes nowhere fast. I have tried going back to what feels like constantly reminding him to go to the bathroom. -Please read additional details-

Answer 1

My answer is not going to be easy to handle but very possible.  When I was young (same age) my mom had the same problem with me when I would go to my dads I wouldn't go to the bathroom and started wetting myself at home too.  To my mothers biggest and unimaginable fears my father was sexually molesting me in the bathroom from time to time and therefore I was afraid to go to the washroom.  That is one serious, unfortunate and possible situation.

The other reason could be because he sees that your youngest is getting rewards and he isn't.  I agree with your husband that you shouldn't give him rewards for going to the bathroom since he is older, however you might want to find some sort of task that he is learning, such as tying laces, or learning his alphabet or putting toys away and reward him accordingly for it.  That way he will forget all about the silly sticker your younger son is getting for potty training and focus on the reward he receives for doing "big boy" tasks.

Good Luck.

Answer 2

Give him some thing better but don't tell the younger one.