3 year suddenly peeing in his pants all the time and not telling us he needs to go potty anymore

[FatherTryingToHelp]

We started potty training our (then) two year old around Christmas, he took about three days to get to grips with it, and then after three days of peeing on the floor every time he suddenly got it, was happily telling us he needed to pee in the potty, or even peeing, poo was another matter entirely but that's not the point of this post, so I won't go into that.

In the last couple of weeks he's suddenly taking to just peeing in his underwear, doesn't even bother to say he needs to pee, just keeps going and then gets really upset when we notice and have to change him, screaming, shouting, kicking, crying (etc).

Anyone have any advice? It's driving both my wife and I batty, and we're just about giving up and saying bother it, back to diapers. I can't think of anymore tricks we tried taking him potty every twenty minutes again (much to his major protests) but it just seems to make him pee in his underwear every twenty minutes, nothing has really changed in the house, so it's not a pregnancy or anything else that's causing him to be so upset and refusal to do it, we take away his “privileges” but doesn't seem to phase him, anyone have any advice? If it was once a day accidents it might be okay, but it's all the time now!

[Super~Single~Mama]

A bribe?  Can you give him a peice of his favorite candy every time he goes pee in the potty?  I know thats anti-MDC b/c of the candy and the bribe part of it, but it might work.

(My ds was super into using the potty until he stopped getting "treats" - so guess whats on my shopping list?  M&M's!!!)

[FatherTryingToHelp]

Going to give that a try, we've tried it in the past, but we'll see, I've told him he'll get a Gummy Bear or Smartie every time he tells us he needs to go pee and then goes pee, see if that gets him back into the swing of things. The only problem is his memory is good, and we're going to have a fight when we stop wanting to give him them, but I'll live with that I suppose.

[longbranchedmom]

In my experience, regressions coincided with something new in my son's life.  Is he learning a new skill or is he going through some rough teething, or has he been ill?

Is he bored with the potty?  maybe it's time to upgrade to using the toilet?  O shaped cereal makes a great target!

Fortunately, at some point they all decide that not peeing in their pants is best.  Try not to get too frustrated.  I found that encouragement and positive reinforcement work better than punishment.  We had a sticker chart that my son got to stick a cool dino sticker on if he stayed dry, he got a huge sticker on the poo free days.  We talked about it every night as part of our bed time routine.  We had a lot of support at day care too, the kids would cheer each other on when it was toilet time.

Good luck!

[Turquesa]

What about stress and emotional triggers?  (Similar to what the PP said).  Have there been any major transitions in his life?  Sometimes that can really set things back. 

I do back what Super Single Mama says.  We did 5 M&Ms for pee and a DVD movie for poo.  Verrrrrrrrrrrrrry un-MDC, but I have no apologies.  I was desperate!