3 1/2 Year Old Boy Consistently Wetting at Night. Help!

I hate to say it, but it is completely normal for nighttime potty training to not happen until age 6 or 7. It's simply not within their control. It's not a matter of "training" him. His body needs to be physiologically ready.

Just have him wear a pullup and don't worry about it. When he consistently wakes up dry, you'll know he's ready to sleep in underwear. There's really nothing you can do. You just have to wait.

Some children are able to stay dry @ night younger than others, but it really is just one of those things that happens when they are ready. It is not at all unusual for a 3.5 yo to still need ____@____.com'll know he is ready for underwear @ night when he starts consistently having dry pull-ups in the morning. Don't sweat it, he's just not ready, and that's perfectly ok @ his age. Nothing you can do will make it happen any sooner, unfortunately.
Best wishes :)

Depends on the kiddo. My 4.5 year old doesn't stay dry. I need to work on the cutting down on liquids, but I've also read that boys especially can take a while, even up to 6 years old before they are physiologically ready.

Many children can not sleep dry until they are much older. There is nothing you can do to make him sleep dry until his body is ready to. Don't deny him liquids, that does not help. Giving him a prize will not help. He is not in control of his body while sleeping.

My daughter was completely trained during the day at 26 months. No accidents. She wet the bed less and less frequently until she was eight years old. That is not unusual. Some children take until age 11 or 12 before they are consistently dry.

Just keep using the pullups/diapers until he wakes up dry consistently.

I think he's too young to be able to stay dry all night. My DD is almost 4 and I'm pleasantly surprised she has been staying dry the past few months. It's nothing they have control over at this age. Now if he is waking up knowing he needs to pee & then purposely going in his pull up, that's a different story. I wouldn't expect too much right now. Setting up a reward system for something he has no control over seems pointless. Just wait it out :)

it depends on the kid. We cut our dd off of liquids after 6 and it took until she was a little older than 4 before she was dry all night. Considering that I was a bedwetter off and on until I was a teenager, I figured that was pretty good.

My 4 1/2 year old son is exactly the same way. He's been dry during the day since he was 2 1/2, but almost never at night. I cut off his liquids after dinner, usually around 6:30pm. He does get a small sip of water when he brushes his teeth at night. I've talked to two pediatricians about it and they said that it isn't considered a medical problem until they are six. So, for now, we invest in the night time pull-ups and wait.

Daytime, and Night-time pottying, are 2 entirely different things.

Per night time, it has to do with BIOLOGICAL maturity of the organs/nerve connections/brain/bladder.
Nigh-Time dryness, is NOT something that is attained, until even 7 years old... and is NORMAL and per Pediatricians.

Sleep deprivation, because a child is woken up during the night to potty, is worse, than wetting a bed.
Because, at this stage of bladder/body development, a night time diaper, is still used and needed.
AND get a waterproof bed pad to put under him, so that clean up is lots easier.

My son is 5. He is still wet at night. Normal. He wears night time diapers.
My daughter was 5 and still in night time diapers too.
UNTIL she was even 7 years old, she STILL had night time accidents.
Normal.
PER our Pediatrician as well.
AND per ALL of my daughter's Teachers, from Preschool to Kindergarten to 1st Grade.... pee accidents, whether day or night... is normal and happens at these ages. And night time diapers.

My kids, NEVER EVER EVER, got "confused" about wearing a diaper at night, and only at night. They understood. Because I explained to them... that their body is not ready yet, to be dry. Thus a diaper is needed. Until their body, grows up.

Night Time Dryness... is completely DIFFERENT and on a different timeline... than day time pottying.
It is NOT, the same.

Night time dryness... is all about PHYSIOLOGICAL maturity and development of the organs.

Your son is SO young.

Waking a child at night just to pee and/or limiting their liquid intake at night, is only artificially, making them pee or not.
It is not, their body development to do so. It is not natural.

Um he is 3 1/2 many children are not physically capable to stay dry all night put a diaper on him he will stay dry when he can stay dry.

Sure he stands a chance but it will happen on his schedule, not yours. If you do the rewards, like I did (for a while) he could end up getting sad when he doesn't wake up dry and it may make him feel bad. That's not fun. That is what ended up happening to us. Thing is, we were rewarding him for waking up dry (and basically punishing him when he didn't succeed) for something he had no control over! He was sleeping!

We had limited the drinks. We tried waking him up at night. That was hard on everybody! We had him pee just before bed. If he was awake, the reward system made sense. But my son ended up getting sad, and feeling like he never would be toilet trained at night.

We told our son - the late bladder bloomer - that when he was ready, it would happen--no matter what, it would happen!

And it finally did! FINALLY! :-) But it happened on his schedule...

I hate to break it to you but my one son took until he was 11. And that was with the "pressure" of his little sister age 3 staying dry thru the night. He just was(and is) a VERY sound sleeper. We tried everything except the alarm system since we did not want it waking up his brother in the middle of the night. The alarm did work for his cousin who finally stayed dry at age 9.

I have 4 kids and I have so been there. 3 of my kids were able to stay dry within a few months to a year of staying dry during the day. The other one - well it has been 4 years now and most every night is wet. We have tried prizes - which was a disappoint for her because no matter how determined she was to get it- she just couldn't. Restricting liquids did no good and only made us feel like we were denying her and she felt slighted since the other kids could have drinks. And trying to wake her made us all grumpy. She would get so mad about being woken sometimes she would refuse to pee - but would wet the bed shortly thereafter.

Perfectly normal. Give him a break -- he's 3 1/2. His body is not ready to be dry at night. There is a hormone that naturally kicks in at different ages that reduces the amount of liquid we produce at night. Until that happens (for some kids it's at 6 or 7 or even older) there is nothing they can do to control it.

And that should be absolutely fine. Please don't wake him up. and please don't make him feel bad about this. Not allowing him a sip of water is just excessive. Just plan on buying nightime pullups, and his body will tell you when it's ready.

My 5.5 year old still isn't dry at night. Some kids grow into it sooner than others. I knew one child who it took until about 11 or 12 and her parents tried everything--it just took that long to outgrow it.

I think it is terribly unfair to refuse to give kids a drink of water. I get so thirsty at night, and drink several sips before bed and during the night. He will be able to stay dry at night when his body is ready to. My son is 4.5 and is just now achieving night time dryness. We have been giving him a Dum-Dum lollipop after breakfast if he stays dry all night. So far it's about 70% of the time.

I'd lay off offering him a "prize" if he can stay dry all night...don't you think he would have done it already if he could? That could actually be putting unneeded pressure on him.

Limit his fluids to before 6:30, then he can have a sip or two at bedtime. If you wake him up to go potty YOU will be the one trained, so while it might ensure a dry pull-up (and maybe not) if you want HIM to be the one going on his own I wouldn't bother.

The potential problems can be anatomical (a small bladder capacity), or hormonal (lack of a hormone which reduces urine production). Age will more than likely correct the problem, don't worry, 3.5 is young to be night-trained. Continue to praise him for his daytime success, have him go potty right before bed, limit the fluids, and the situation should work out on it's own in time.

Don't push him too hard. My son was a little past 4 before he could sleep all night dry, even though he was daytime potty trained at 2 1/2. Even then, he needed a pull up at naptime until almost 3....he slept hard. Which is not a bad thing. But he just needed to develop his muscle control and that's just life. I wouldn't give him a whole glass of water at a certain time, but definately let him go to bed with a little sip----how miserable to go to bed feeling thirsty (I hate that, I would assume children would too). We told Joe that we had to "practice" so that he could get a big boy bunk bed. What also started working well for us was having him go to the bathroom right before bed, but then 2-3 hours later when I went to bed, I'd pick him up and put him on the floor and walk him to the bathroom for a middle of the night bathroom trip. I don't know if it'd work for everyone, but it did work for us. He never really had any memory of it at all. But I did have to escort him and guide him to the toilet because otherwise he might try to pee in the trash can or laundry hamper (ha). Now at 4 1/2 he usually sleeps through the night, all night long, and wakes up with no issues but sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night on his own, actually hits the toilet not the laundry hamper, and then goes back to his own room without any help or problems. I agree with keeping him in pull ups until he's succeeding at night a couple weeks in a row. Oh---and I got him that big boy bunk bed on his 3rd week of night time success (but it does have a protective pad just in case).

omg poor kid ! STOP FORCING THIS!! Nighttime dryness is NOT a learned thing, it is a hormone that the child develops that controls them not having to pee while sleeping. This hormone does not develop in some children till they are EIGHT YEARS OLD!! And that is perfectly ok, healthy and NORMAL! Just give up on it, he will do it when his BODY is ready. You would never force a 2 month old to sit up or a 10 mos old to walk - what you are doing is basically the same thing - forcing a child to do something their body is not ready to do yet.

I know many kids who take a while to nighttime potty train. So with my kids I never went into it with the mindset of potty training. I was simply tired of buying pull ups - and both of my kids considered pull ups "permission" to pee, they often wet them before they were even asleep, just because they could. So we stopped buying nighttime diapers and double sheeted the bed and changed when there was an accident. It was never a big deal. Never something we punished or bribed for (we did praise, but it was a simple, "Hey you stayed dry, good for you."). Both of my kids are like their father, they crave water in the evening. I have never limited their water at night. And I did try waking my son when he was little...that was a HUGE disaster. It turned into a screaming and crying mess. I think I lucked out, it didn't take my kids terribly long to "potty train" at night , maybe a month or so. I think it has much more to do physiology than "readiness". No need to stress M., give it some more time.

My 3.5 year old daughter potty trained at 2 and still wets at night. Some nights she even leaks threw her overnight diaper. I don't worry about it yet! If she is still wetting at 5 I will probably start trying to figure out a solution.

Pull ups!
Give the little guy a break, he will get there.

Our joke about any milestone is "well when they go off to college this won't be an issue."
It's my way of putting this small thing in perspective & not freaking out about it & the timeline "it should happen in".

I know it's frustrating. But it depends on his ability to physically stay dry all night. Do not refuse liquids. This has nothing to do with it. It's physical development.
If you get up to use the bathroom, get him up and take him to the bathroom too. This will put him in the mindset of getting up out of bed to use the bathroom even if he can't physically hold it all night.
Talk to his pediatrician too. If this is something you feel you need to conquer now, you can ask about moisture alarms - which buzz or make a noise when moisture is sensed, and hopefully waking the child enough for them to go to the bathroom.

I used to work in this arena so I have some knowledge of this. Most doctors won't (and shouldn't) worry about nighttime wetting until kids are at least 5 or 6 years old. It is not at all uncommon for three, four, even five year olds to still wet the bed at night. Our bodies make a hormone that condenses our urine at night (that's why your urine is a darker shade of yellow in the morning). Babies and young children don't make enough of this hormone to keep them dry all night - their urine doesn't condense, and thus it must go out, so they wet at night. As kids get older their body begins producing more of the hormone and they start staying dryer at night. It isn't anything your child can control one way or the other. A lot of parents think that the problem is that their child isn't waking up to pee at night. But kids who don't wet the bed do NOT wake up to pee during the night - instead, their urine condenses and they're able to hold it until the morning. So withholding liquids and waking to pee at night isn't really a realistic solution and will just make your child thirsty and overtired. When your child is older - five or six - if he is still wetting the bed, then you might try limiting liquids or cutting dairy out of his diet with your doctor's guidance. But that's a long way off. In the meantime, just keep using pull-ups and don't let your little guy feel at all bad about this. It's completely normal. Good luck!

You cannot "potty train" away nighttime wetness.
Don't deny him liquids--that's just mean.
Night dryness often comes WELL after day training.
It will happen exactly when his bladder is mature enough and not before.
He can wear a pull up at night. Lots of kids do.
Some kids are not night-dry until their bodies are 4-5-6 or even 7.
This is not a matter of "training" -- it's physiological!

My son was day trained at 3 1/2 but he was 7 before he could stay dry through the night.
Some of his friends were 10 before they stopped wetting the bed.
My son was such a sound sleeper he slept right though the need to pee.
I just kept him in pull ups at night till he woke up dry 2 weeks in a row.
I didn't want to deal with washing the bedding every day.

He will continue to urinate all during the night no matter what you do. Put some pull ups on him and everyone get some sleep. It is much easier to wipe him off or rinse him off in the shower in the morning instead of having sheets, mattress pads, blankets, PJ's, pillows, etc...to wash and spend your day doing that every day until he is possibly 10-12 years old and still wetting. Some kids do it even until they are teenagers.

It is a biological issue not a mental/physical choice. There is nothing that can be done because the bladder just keeps producing urine all the hours of the day and does not stop during the night. The chemical that tells it to stop is not there yet.

If he is thirsty give him a drink, it won't matter one way or the other.