Three Year Old potty learned starting to pee intentionally in his pants

[violetflapjack]

So DS learned to use the potty just before he was turned two.  There was really minimal effort on me or DH's behalf, he mostly did it on his own.  So there wasn't a lot of pressure from us and definately no shaming when he had accidents or anything.

(Details of potty learning: Starting around the time he was 8 or 9 months whenever I was holding him and I had to go pee, I would take him into the bathroom with me and set him on his potty while I used mine.  Then over the summer time when he was spending a lot of time running around naked in the hot weather he would either go outside to pee or pee/poo in his potty when me or DH were in the bathroom.  So it was a really no pressure kind of thing that he just picked up.  When it got cold or when we were out and he was wearing clothes we would just take him to the bathroom and give him lots of chances to pee, so we also had minimal accidents.  When he did have an accident, he would be the one more upset about it than DH or I.)

Well a couple of days ago he started peeing in his pants in various places in the house.  I have a couple of theories: one being that over the summer, he was doing a lot of peeing outside and now that it has finally gotten cold out, he doesn't want to go outside.  The bathroom in our house is in the back of the house while we spend most of the time in the living room and kitchen at the front of the house, so he doesn't seem to want to go there either.  I brought a potty out into the front of the house so that he doesn't have to go so far to pee, but he just peed in his pants again.  The other theory that I have is that there is something emotional going on.  I've heard a lot that these kind of things are emotionally related, but that's mostly been about bed wetting at night.  He's had a lot of big changes in his life this year, we moved out of the house he was born in in June and his little brother was just born in October, but honestly it seems like he's adjusted to those things already.  This peeing in his pants thing totally feels like it came out of the blue!

Has anyone else had a similar experience?  Any ideas? Advice?  Do I just wait it out?  What worked for you?

thanks folks...

[milk monster]

Emotional issues are possible--you'd be in the best position to judge that-- ut could it be that either (1) he doesn't want to take his pants off bc it's cold, or (2) he's having so much fun doing what he's doing that he doesn't want to interrupt it? If (2), could putting potties all over the house help, so that he doesn't have to go to the other room to pee? We have followed a similar potty learning trajectory to you guys (part-time EC since 3 months). He's 20 months old now, and I'd say half of accidents result from factor (2). The rest generally involve mommy or daddy forgetting to offer the potty often enough.

[violetflapjack]

yeah, good point.  i think that more reminders will help.  DH and I were talking more about this yesterday evening and we actually think he might be wanting to be more like his little brother...today has been better.  i'll see how things continue to go... thanks for your thoughts