A Step Backwards

The past few weeks, my boy has been going through it:

• a week long stomach virus
• a cold
• a bad cough that had us bringing out Mr Neb at 3 am.

He’s better, but now we have a new problem: potty training regression.

I guess it started when Pookah had the stomach virus about 3 weeks ago.  He had diarrhea and couldn’t always make it to the bathroom. It would happen at school and at night.

Poor little guy.

But the sickness passed. And wetting the bed in the middle of the night came to stay.

The first night, I thought it was a fluke. I mean, he’s only been potty trained since about September. And he was still wearing pullups to bed until about a month ago. We ran out of pullups and he just started wearing no underwear to bed. No fuss. He did fine.  But now….

This is frustrating on my part to say the least, but the really sad part is that poor Pookah is ashamed.  He had a recent accident at school where he had a bowel movement that the teacher didn’t discover until she went to help him with his coat. When I asked him why he didn’t go to the bathroom, or at least tell his teacher that he didn’t make it, he just hung his head and said.

“didn’t want poor ms W to have to clean me up.”

Sigh.

Later on, he told me ” Schoolmate B called me a baby. He said only babies go on themselves.”

I spent the rest of my day reassuring him that he was a big boy and that even big boys have accidents from time to time.

And you KNOW I went up to his school the next day and had a chit chat with his teacher.  She had heard the offender and punished him appropriately. And that’s when she let me know that she thought he was having a regression since he had been sick.

And it does get worse when he is sick, I’ve noticed.  For instance, I got up 4 times the other night:

• Twice for asthma related breathing issues and
• Twice for accidents in the bed.

I don’t know how to help my boy.

He always cries or is just really sad when he calls in the middle of the night to tell us that he has wet himself.  He always need assurance that he is still a big boy.

I don’t know how to fix this.

My first inclination is to put him back in pull ups at night. Just until it’s not a big deal anymore. Just so we can all take a break from worrying about it.  We seem to be doing ok during the day. i just remind him a little more often than I used to and he makes it. And we make it through naptime just fine( most of the time). I have always limited the amount he drinks before bed, so I don’t think that is the problem.

But if I put him back in pullups, doesn’t that send the message that yes, you are a baby and you need these?

For now, I’ve just invested in three extra sets of sheets. Just in case.

But other than that, I’m stumped.

Potty training veterans, I need your help!

Any suggestions?