5-year-old wetting his pants during the day

[NicaG]

Maybe someone can help me. My ds seems to be regressing in his toileting awareness/skills. He generally keeps his pants dry until mid-afternoon, but then it's like he just gets tired of using the toilet and starts peeing in his pants when he needs to go. I was reminding him constantly, and he was adamant that he didn't need to go, wouldn't use the toilet, etc. etc. Then he'd wet himself.

We talked about some solutions to the problem, ds suggested a timer that would remind him, so I set an alarm to go off on my iphone every couple of hours. This works ok, except it's not really practical if we're out of the house, or if he's away on a playdate, or out with his dad (no iphone). And I still have to badger him when the alarm goes off (he insists he doesn't have to go, etc. etc.) But now he's started using the alarm as an excuse ("well, the alarm didn't go off, so it's not my fault I wet my pants"). He also tells me he's having too much fun playing and doesn't want to interrupt the fun to use the toilet.

I don't really know what to do. Do I buy him his own "potty watch" (seems like I saw these online somewhere)? Do I make a star chart to reward dry pants. If so, how often do I give him a star? What is the reward, and how does he earn it? Do I start making him do his own laundry? Do I put him in pullups? I talked to our pedi about this a couple weeks ago at a routine appointment, and she didn't think there was any underlying medical issue preventing him from staying dry.

Any thoughts, btdt would be much appreciated.

[AllyRae]

My DS did this a *lot* as a 5 year old. He was just entering preschool and for the entire school year, he wet his pants multiple times a day. It drove me crazy. He still does it on occassion. He knows he has to pee, but he doesn't want to stop what he's doing.

I don't make a big deal of it...if it's wet, I simply say "go take care of it" (which means take off the wet clothes, put them in the laundry room, wipe yourself with a wet washcloth, and get more clothes). The number of times he's wet himself went down from 3-4 times a day to once every couple weeks because frankly, it takes more time for him to clean up the accident than it did to stop what he was doing. I won't reward or punish him for doing it--he's clearly making the choice to urinate in his pants. I just take away the "benefits" of doing so (meaning he doesn't get to keep playing--he has to stop and take care of it, and then he can start playing again).