Inapropriate urniation

[lisa]

We have a son that just turned 6 years old!  He is urinating on things in his room!  I am pretty sure this has happened 4 times...twice I discovered it, once on his floor and clothes and the second time was all over his bed.  He admits to doing this and that it is not an "accident".
Help!  I have no idea how to deal with this, or if it is even "normal"...I have never read anything on this subject.

[Eve Brown]

My daughter has done these things also  She was 7 at the time and with her younger cousin. She has urinated on toys at my mothers home when we moved there during my divorce .  Just last week she was up in her closet and she urinated there , this time she was also with the same cousin.
I confronted her, she stated that she had no idea why she had done this. I kept asking her more questions until I finally got an answer. She said that she was feeling bad because her cousin which is two yrs younger was making her feel bad about herself.  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Lisa,

There are two likely possibilities, and it will soon be evident which is the more likely.

One possibility is that the behavior is pretty benign and more of a casual event, in which case setting a firm limit and rewarding your son for appropriate toilet behavior should solve the problem.

The other possibility is that your son is displaying some anger via this behavior. If this is the case, setting the limit and managing the behavior itself is important, but probably won't be sufficient. If he's displaying anger, it's equally important to determine the origin of the anger and to do something about it.

[Kyle's Mom]

It must be a boy thing, because my son did this for a few months too when he was almost 5.  He did it in the living room, in the hall, and outside ( #1 and #2!).  In his case it was not wanting to take the time to stop what he was doing and go to the bathroom.  Playing is more fun!!  After I calmly told him repeatedly that big boys go to the bathroom, Mommy and Daddy go to the bathroom, that is what the room is for, etc., he stopped.  Use bribery if you have to.  Tell him if the uses the bathroom like he should he can have ice cream, etc. (whatever works).  Use a sticker chart After a week or so he will use the bathroom on his own.  And praise like the dickens when he does go to the bathroom.  Yelling, lecturing, and punishing did not work for us - it only made it worse.