Why does my potty trained child have accidents only at home?
Children can become so mentally exhausted from a full day at school that their brains stop registering bathroom signals until it is too late. Others withhold during the day, leading to sudden, unexplained accidents the minute they return home. This regression can happen even if the child has been fully potty trained for years.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Enforcing a mandatory potty break immediately upon walking in the door.Did this help you?
- 2Not making a big deal out of the accidents to remove the attention reward.Did this help you?
- 3Providing regular reminders to go to the bathroom and treating it like they are learning again.Did this help you?
- 4Getting a doctor's note to mandate bathroom access.Did this help you?
- 5Making the child use the bathroom right before leaving the house.Did this help you?
- 6Sending the child to school with wet wipes, a ziploc bag, and a change of clothes.Did this help you?
- 7Speaking directly to the teacher or escalating the issue to clarify bathroom expectations.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My 4yo pulled the exact same stunt, turns out she was just so mentally done by the time she got home that her brain stopped registering the signals until it was too late.”source ↗
“If my 4yo is in school full time and having no toileting issues at school at all, but the minute he’s home will have accidents at least 2 times EVERYDAY.. what’s going on here?”source ↗
“Been to the GP and they’ve just said it’s normal and he’ll grow out of it. But he’s been potty trained for 2 YEARS. I am at a loss.”source ↗
“Yes I’m quite certain he’s withholding. We get both accidents without rhyme or reason.”source ↗
“Idk why I yell at her, it’s kinda how I grew up so I guess it feels like the natural thing to do for me. I just get frustrated cause I remind her every single day since the accidents started happening that she needs to ask”source ↗
“I was this kid in elementary school. The yelling won't help. You should talk to her teacher privately.”source ↗
“My daughter is 7 and kept having accidents because the teacher wouldn’t let her use the bathroom when she needed to.”source ↗
“Now that she has a note she should be able to go when she needs but she’s afraid to get in trouble for asking since she’s been told no since school started..”source ↗
“I make sure she goes before we leave the house but there’s still a few times when she has little accidents at school here and there & will come home smelling like pee.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 10Why does my puppy pee indoors right when I come home?
- 9Toddler refuses to use the potty and waits for a diaper
- 4Why is my six year old still wetting the bed?