u/sparkledoom

I’m in a power struggle with my toddler who will not pee for hours and hours, but also isn’t having accidents. Is this an issue?

When I prompt, she says she doesn’t have to and wiggles away and cries if I try to put her on potty. I literally can’t “make” her, she’ll bend her body and not sit. I am not overprompting. But, for example, she hasn’t peed yet this morning so I have been asking her. She had a dry diaper overnight and had been awake for about 2 hours so we’re going on like 14hours? Yesterday, she didn’t pee between probably 2-3pm until just before bed at 8pm. She will agree before we go out and before bed, but no other time. When she’s initiated in the past few days, it’s been for a poo (and has also peed), but hasn’t pee-initiated.

I’m peeing like 2-3 times in these windows where she isn’t at all. She’s drinking plenty of water. It can’t be good for her? But she also hasn’t wet herself, maybe I just need to trust her more, maybe she’s just a camel?

We’re on our first week of potty training, it’s been going remarkably well! Very few accidents. Our toddler’s been generally excited to be learning something new. But she is sick today with a runny nose and fever and now completely refusing to sit on the potty.

She’s actually in a pull up right now because we went out earlier today before realizing she was ill. We’ve been using pull ups for outings and successfully keeping them dry and then being diaperless at home. She did a pee while we were out, but she will not sit on the potty at home. She also vehemently does not want me to take off her pull up. She actually does seem to still be dry as far as I can tell (maybe 3 hrs since last pee, so that’s weird actually).

Long story short: I feel guilty pushing her to sit on potty or take off the pull up when she’s not feeling well. Am I going to ruin all our progress if I allow her to be in a diaper today/until she feels better/until she’s back to being enthusiastic about potty training? I don’t want to push too hard and turn this into a negative experience when it’s been positive so far. I also don’t want her to regress. I also am sympathetic that she’s really sick today (poor baby!) and maybe it’s just too much for her to think about this too, it’s still so new.