First of all let me say this is a serious thread, so please treat it as such.
My step-daughter is a normal healthy 6 year old, but she has been wetting herself during the day nearly everyday for the past 2 years. It all started after an incident of sexual molestation involving another child relative of the family, and started specifically after our daughter was interviewed by a police detective investigating the case. Since then my wife and i have done everything we possibly could to resolve this, from corporal punishment to taking away toys and TV to giving rewards for dry weeks. We've also taken her to the doctor who found nothing physically wrong with her, and we've taken her to a child counselor who simply told us it's something she'd eventually outgrow and that all we needed to do was continually remind her when it's time to go the bathroom. Well my child is already in 1st grade now and still wetting herself nearly everyday. The ONLY thing that seemed to actually work at one point was giving her a cold shower every time we discovered she'd wet herself. That was hard for us to do, but it really did lessen the frequency with which she had accidents. Unfortunately her biological dad's side of the family took issue with this, considering it child abuse, and reported us to CPS. CPS said under the circumstances it wasn't qualified as child abuse, simply an "unusual form of discipline". But we ceased it nonetheless.
When our daughter is asked why she does it she simply says she can't make it to the bathroom in time. But i sense this isn't the real cause at fault and there's something psychological going on with her that makes her rather pee herself than go to the bathroom. I believe it started as a defense mechanism she put up to avoid the issue of having to expose her privates when she went to the bathroom so as to avoid bringing up the thoughts of the molestation, which she somehow associated together. And now it's become just a habit, something she does almost without thinking much about anymore, just a behavior she's conditioned herself to accept.
It's also escalated to her going number 2 in her pants as well, and this occurs sometimes once a week or every other week.
Thoughts, ideas, opinions? I'm curious if anybody else has ever had this problem as a parent or even ever experienced this problem yourself as a child.
My step-daughter is a normal healthy 6 year old, but she has been wetting herself during the day nearly everyday for the past 2 years. It all started after an incident of sexual molestation involving another child relative of the family, and started specifically after our daughter was interviewed by a police detective investigating the case. Since then my wife and i have done everything we possibly could to resolve this, from corporal punishment to taking away toys and TV to giving rewards for dry weeks. We've also taken her to the doctor who found nothing physically wrong with her, and we've taken her to a child counselor who simply told us it's something she'd eventually outgrow and that all we needed to do was continually remind her when it's time to go the bathroom. Well my child is already in 1st grade now and still wetting herself nearly everyday. The ONLY thing that seemed to actually work at one point was giving her a cold shower every time we discovered she'd wet herself. That was hard for us to do, but it really did lessen the frequency with which she had accidents. Unfortunately her biological dad's side of the family took issue with this, considering it child abuse, and reported us to CPS. CPS said under the circumstances it wasn't qualified as child abuse, simply an "unusual form of discipline". But we ceased it nonetheless.
When our daughter is asked why she does it she simply says she can't make it to the bathroom in time. But i sense this isn't the real cause at fault and there's something psychological going on with her that makes her rather pee herself than go to the bathroom. I believe it started as a defense mechanism she put up to avoid the issue of having to expose her privates when she went to the bathroom so as to avoid bringing up the thoughts of the molestation, which she somehow associated together. And now it's become just a habit, something she does almost without thinking much about anymore, just a behavior she's conditioned herself to accept.
It's also escalated to her going number 2 in her pants as well, and this occurs sometimes once a week or every other week.
Thoughts, ideas, opinions? I'm curious if anybody else has ever had this problem as a parent or even ever experienced this problem yourself as a child.