4 1/2 year old having trouble with potty training

[Tony&Sue]

Hello--my son has been potty trained (bowel movement wise) for at least a year and has never had an accident in that regard. On the other hand he is still not staying dry  through the night and is wearing training pants 24-7. I cannot get him to go "P" during the day either. If I ask him and basically tell him to go he will. Other than that he just uses the training pants. My wife and I have attempted to put him in regular underwear and limit him to two pairs a day, we have also forced him to wear wet pants (under the advisement of his peditrician). Nothing seems to work--he has been to a specialist who found nothing wrong medically. His peditrician suggested that we take him to urinate every hour on the hour--but that can be taxing to all concerned. I do not know what to do and do not want to hinder my son. I would like to know if there is anything I should do--or if I should back off and let it work itself out. Thanks for all the help!

P.S.--he does have a younger sister (2) that is still in diapers and I wonder if that is playing a role. I thought I should mention that.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

With many children, a sign of readiness to be toilet trained is their remaining dry through the night. However, there is a small but not insignificant percentage of children (more boys than girls) who are enuretic at night but are perfectly able to be toliet trained during the day. While the advice you received re: scheduling regular bathroom breaks isn't attractive advice, it is prudent. Gradually increase the length of time between visits. If you permit the status quo to continue and encourage the use of training pants, you will only reinforce your son's not achieving this developmental task. His behavior is not likely influenced by his sister's situation, unless he has commented in some manner to that effect.

[JLGatoh]

A related discussion, My 4 1/2 yr old still does stinkies in his pants was started.