4yr old urinating on carpet and toys

[toolapcchic]

My 4 year old son has been urinating on his toys and carpet off and on for a a couple years. He's a very hyper active boy and spends a lot of the time playing in his room or watching cartoons. We have an 11 month old baby too and I am not too sure if it could be that he is jealous/lazy/wants attention weither it be by doing something bad or good/ or if theres something psycholgicly wrong with him. I know it is not normal. I have pointed out to him the spots in his carpet or toys and he has a guilty look written all over his face. When I ask him "why?" his reason is "but but I had to go pee pee" and we have the talk about not going pee anywhere except for the toilet and he promises that he won't do it again only to break that promise a few days later. Right now I have taken away all of his toys and his tv. He is potty trained but I do know he wets his bed everynight also (its in our genetics, my father used to wet the bed till 12yrs old but i didnt have this problem). The urinating in carpet and toys goes on in the day time. I've put him on time outs and taken away his toys/tv but it only temporarly works. I have asked him if hes been mad and if thats why hes been doing that and he says "no". He doesnt seem like he has any disorder and acts like a typical 4yr old other than his urinating problem. I've asked his doctor if she thinks he has ADHD because he is hyper but she doesnt seem to think so (i thought maybe adhd and the urinating might be linked together but he doesnt have adhd like i thought). I know he constantly is wanting my attention and I give him attention a lot. I wonder if this has started because his dad (we are married and live together) was deployed to Iraq for 15 months and this seemed to start toward the end of his deployment and he was 2 at the time. It's very stressful dealing with this and I am desperate for answers or any ideas on how to help this problem.

[toolapcchic]

Thanks for the input! I am going to retrain him. He only does this at home. Never at school or family or friends houses. It's good to hear I'm not the only parent goig through this.

[benjimom]

This might be regressive or attn seeking behavior. I would just ask him about 1-2 hours do you need to go and just make him go into the bathroom and pull down his pants and attempt to go need to or not.  

[Rucnfun]

my daughter is 4 and she was kinda doing the same thing. she would purposefully go poop in her underwear and then not tell me that she did. you just have to kinda 'retrain' them and take them to the bathroom every couple hours because he could be used to it now its kinda like a habit. so get him back into the mentality of going to the bathroom every so often. and reward ( sticker charts ) are great too, and then when he gets 10 or so a little prize. i wouldnt take his toys away. he's not acting bad behavior necessarily. pretty soon he wont have any toys! i would make him clean the toys that he pees on when he does it, and help clean up and he's not going to like cleaning up so maybe he'll stop.

[toolapcchic]

He's been urinating on his toys on purpose. I have him pee before bedtime too and stop giving him liquids an hr before bedtime. He spends alot of time in his room when I am cleaning house , laudry or cooking. He rarely drinks juice it's mostly milk and water. I don't give him sugary snacks either but I used to. Last night I woke him up at 3am to go potty in the toilet and he did and woke up with clean sheets!! I lethim know how proud I was and rewarded him. I now have a nightly alarm set at 3am to get him up to pee. I'm hoping this will get him on a schedule of waking up on his own when he has the urge to pee at night.

[Athena_M]

I have a 5 year old and have him pee right before bedtime.  I say "Get all the pee out of your body".  I have him go pee in the morning and when he comes home from pre-school.  Otherwise he will pee all over his clothes.  It would be good for you to have him go pee at certain breaks during the day, maybe every 3 or 4 hours.  At this age only 2 hours is the max from the American Pediatriac Association for TV time.  I don't think he understands how taking away toys is related to the accidental peeing on toys.  Does he take off his pants and pee on them?  Or does he just leak all over them?  Him spending a lot of time alone does not sound very healthy for him.  I found my son's hyperactivity was linked to sugars and red dye in foods, we even stopped juice and have noticed a big improvement.  Eating high protein foods calms kids down too.  Good luck.