4 1/2 Year Old Still Soaking Pull-ups at Night

I found with my son to not make a big deal about it. Limit drinks at night and make him go to the potty right before bed. After getting a routine of that, cut out the pull-ups. Yes, he will have accidents for a while but I think many kids feel the pull-ups are like diapers and their body thinks they are supposed to go in them and won't think about going to the potty. My son now stays dry everynight.

My youngest brother did this for years. My mother walked him to the bathroom or carried him, had him pee and carried/walked him back to bed.
Try limited fluids after 5, have him go right at bedtime, put a liner in the diaper.
Good luck.

You may want to try to cut back on his drinking after supper and try getting him up through the night to go potty. I had to get my son up a couple of times every night until his baldder grew. Hope it helps.

Our God son is 6 year old, has been day potty trained since 19 months old(thank you daycare!!!:))Has NEVER had an accidents during the day, but still wets the bed during the night.At his house he does not get anything to drink 2 hours before bed , goes to the bathroom before bed and his mom gets him up at night, he still wets the bed(not every day, but almost) He is a very heavy sleeper. At our house i just give him a goodnights and do not make a big deal.Our God daughter did the same thing and finally her bladder matured enough and she is fine now. When my sister in law was a baby she took her diaper off and 16 months and said "no more diapers"(yes she was talking in sectences too) Never had an accident during the day or night....never . So the way I look at it, all kids are different. You can try suggestions that other mommies gave and maybe he at least would sleep longer. 6:15 is way too early:)

I would wait on taking away the pull-ups. My son is also the same age with the same problem and I bought a bed wetting alarm kit ready to help him wake up to go -- I read the manual which you can buy for about $15-- 7 Steps to Night time Dryness (The Bedwetting Store website). The book said that children are not fully developed for night time dryness until age 6 and that limiting fluids before bedtime (not allow excessive amounts is recommended) will not allow your child to learn to awaken with a full bladder. Also getting them up in the middle of the night does the same thing and they recommended not doing that either. They said to use pull-ups or Goodnights until the child is at least 6 years old.

My son is a heavy sleeper and will be turning 5 in a few months. He actually has had 2 nights where he got up on his own and used the potty at night and had one dry pull up and one slightly wet one. I made a HUGE deal out of this in the morning-- gave him a tatoo and stickers (so have them on hand). I am just patiently waiting for his body to mature and if by next summer he is not showing any signs of readiness-- I will reorder the bed wetting alarm and try that.

I highly recommend the book-- it really helped me understand a lot about bed wetting and night time dryness. Good luck!

Mel

I will tell you this will be hard to do. My daughter just turned 6 and we had a huge issue with this. Finally we bit the bullet and just said no more pull ups. Your son may be a very heavy sleeper and may not grow out of this for awhile. Make sure you stop the drinking about 2 hours before he goes to bed. Try doing no pull ups and put him in underware. I had to change sheets for awhile and then started getting mad when I realized that she was not going at night just in the morning because she did not want to get up. I then got a pad at a drug store that is cloth on one side and waterproof on the other. If she goes on that she knows to pull it off and lay on the sheet. I have a protective sheet thing under her regular sheet also. If she goes on the sheet then there is a towel in her room that she can lay on top of that until morining. I think they have to start feeling the wet sensation to wake them up. Granted there are times I go in the morning and she is wet and has never even woken up but we deal with it on a daily basis. We probably have about 2 to 3 accidents a week still but it is getting better. PS she has to go potty before bedtime also. I hope that helps.

Cut off the liquids a few hours before he goes to sleep and that way he doesnt have much in his bladder. If this doesnt work you might get an alarm clock and show him how to work it. set it each nite and explain to him when it goes off to get up and potty. Either that or get him up once more before you guys go to bed. If neither of those work maybe ask his doctor. I know some boys have trouble holding their bladder through the nite and they can prescribe something to help.

I know you had alot of a respnse to your question but let me tell you my experience and maybe it will help. My oldest child wet at night until age 7, the Drs in England say not to worry about it until age 7 and then we were referred to an Enueresis Clinic specifically or children. After being assessed by the Nurse Practitioner there and keeping a record of fluid intake IN and OUT it became clear that my little girl just wasn't getting enough fluid in the day and as a consequence her bladder had never been stretched and become able to keep more urine in, so she wet at night.( I think your son should be going more than just twice a day if he is drinking enough., I agree with some of the others who say get him checked with your Paediatrician first. ) We had to document drinks even at school, and advised to limit fruit juice, especially before bedtime as they can irritate the bladder. Star charts and a reward system helped for her and also she was old enough to understand that it was HER issue and she must help solve it too, maybe your little one is too young for that approach ? Also I was advised to not rely on Pullups etc, we used to have a bed liner , toilet right before bed and if she wet at night she was to help change the bed once was cleaned and had fresh undies on- I know some may think this was harsh but it worked for her within 4-6 months. I hope some of this helps, I know I have gone on a little. Good Luck !!

try getting him an alarm...it will sound off if it detects any wetness and he can get up and go pee before he completely soaks everything...i think they have them at babies r us.

I have a 4 1/2 Year old and every once in a while he will wet himself at night. Try to not give him any thang to drink about 2 or 3 hours before bed. that may help and have him try to go before bed.

I try to stop drinks a set time every night it is hard but it just mite help.
At least yours will wear pull ups my thanks they are like diapers and will not wear them.

Good luck i hope i have helped some.

L., I definitely agree with cutting the drinks off at night and if you or your husband happen to get up in the middle of the night to go potty, take him with you!!! If he has begun to make a habit out of soaking his pj's, let him know that it's okay to go potty but at night time he is to potty in the bathroom like he does during the day. Also, how far away is the bathroom? Is there a night light?? We adults may lie awake in bed and need to use the restroom but we know we can hold it. Children may be awakened by the sensation to pee but the boggie monsters and the dark may deter them getting up to relieve themselves. Consider the night light, have a talk with him, cut the drinks off and GOOD LUCK!!!!!

L.
I have 2 boys. My eldest son was very hard to night time train. we started with waking him before we went to bed (11pm) and then sometimes again at 2am. This helped for a while. We later had to invest in the bed wetter - which is a device they wear in their pants and when a drip of liquid touched it, an alarm sounded, waking them and us up. Good luck!
D.

I have the same problem with my 4 year old daughter. I have tried everything. I have even woke her up at night to go to the bathroom but it is just so pitaful I stopped doing that. First of all stop using the goodnights and try the regular huggies pull ups. They work really well for us. I do not like those good nights. I am sure people are going to say give him less to drink and all of that stuff but I know by now you have already tried that since he is 4 1/2. It didn't work for me.

He should be using the bathroom more during the day. Sounds like he may be holding it for a long period of time. Try getting him to get on the toilet every couple hours and cut off liquids a couple hours before bed time. My daughter had to wear pull ups until she was 6. She was such a deep sleeper that she just would not wake up. Doctors wanted to put her on medication for it but I refused. I just had to be patient and let it work itself out. Hope this helps

Hi, you should try not giving him drinks after say 4:30-5:00 at night, he sounds like he is drinking too much at night! Good luck

First of all, I would recommend that you not give him anything to drink for an hour before he goes to bed. My son doesn't always want to "go", but I take him into the bathroom anyway after we have taken off his clothes, and are getting ready to put on his p.j.'s. I will turn on the water faucet in the sink, and tell him "now turn on your water", and he will go. I tell him he needs to empty his bladder so that he won't wet his bed in the middle of the night. I have also heard of the Cheerio game which didn't seem too exciting to my son, but may work for yours. You drop a couple of Cheerios in the toilet, and he is supposed to try to "hit" them when he urinates. My son really potty trained himself because he couldn't stand wet clothes against his skin. It started while we were at the beach. He couldn't stand to have that wet bathing suit against him, and would strip on the beach or by the pool. This is how he trained himself! If your son doesn't like the feel of wet clothes, then here's a suggestion that another friend of mine used. She bought those big, thick, black garbage bags and slipped the mattress in it, that way if her child did wet the bed at night, she didn't have sheets and a mattress cover to change and wash. She just pulled off the garbage bag and tossed it. Start doing this, and if he gets his clothes wet, it may be enough to teach him to use the bathroom before he goes to bed.

We put our 3 1/2 year old son on the potty before we put him in the bathtub at night. If he does not go to sleep right away (i.e. reads too many books before bedtime) then we put him back on the potty before we put him in bed. We do not limit his fluid intake. It is summer and children dehydrate faster than adults. Our son has mornings that he wakes up wet and mornings that he wakes up dry. My older son wore a Good Night to bed for a long time. He slept hard and didn't wake up when he needed to go to the bathroom. Relax. Before you know it he will start waking up dry every morning.

Our DS will be 5 in August. He still wets the goodnights at night. I asked the pediatrician about it and he said not to worry. His 8-year-old son just got out of the night-time wetting stage.

My daughter will be 3&1/2 next month. We had kind of the same situation with her during the night. There are a few things that we have done that may help your son. First, cut off all liquids and foods after diner. Second, make sure he goes to bathroom right before he gets in the bed. The last thing may be the most important. Do not buy any more pull ups. Put him to bed in "big boy" underwear. It will be very helpful to you if you purchase a water proof mattress sheet. She has been bone dry in the mornings 9 out of 10 times for about a month! Good luck.

The potty alarm!!!!

Within about 5 weeks my daughter was virtually accident free. Well worth the $100 and a life saver on furntiure and laundry expenses!

if it where me i would cut off fluids a couple hours before bed now i dont mean he cant have a drink of something just not a whole cup and i think he should be useing the bathroom more then 2 times a day my son is almost 3 and i know he pees atleast 6 times a day and we are still working with the whold potty training but that is about how many times he pees in the potty make him sit on the potty for about 15 mins before bed time i know that poor baby has to need to pee more the 2 times

ThePottyTrainer.com
this would really be helpful

Have you tried cutting off all liquids an hour or so before bedtime? It worked for me.

Honey I am going through the same thing, but I give him milk before bed, sometimes he will not go and mostly every morning its full to the point he leaks on the bed. we have had a hard time on the pooping in the potty, we are doing alot better. I am a nurse for a pediatrician and we tell people to make him try and go more during the day, 2 times is not enough and if he is holding it, it can cause him to have a bladder infection, I would say he needs to go at least 5 times a day, if you are home with him, start to take him about every 2 hours and make him try, also make him go before bedtime and if he doesn' drink before bed, he should be fine. some kids just don't wake up to pee, good luck. J.

Buying pull-ups (or good nites) is a lot better than washing sheets every day. My stepdaughter wet the bed until she was 7 yr. old b/c she was a heavy sleeper, then my own son wet the bed at night until he was almost 7. We tried every thing, but he was just a heavy sleeper (as his daddy was when he was little). So please don't stress about it.......it won't last forever... he will grow out of it and remember every child is different. When it came to potty training child #2, I gritted my teeth and prepared for years of pull-ups at bedtime and he hasn't wet the bed at night once. oh, and get the best absorbant ones you can get, maybe that will get him to sleep longer. Huggies pull-ups aren't designed to hold much......so opt for the good nites instead.

I really am not trying to scare you here... but..

My sister and I were both potty trained at 2 yrs old, I am now 36 and my sister is 33. We both wet the bed until we were 12 years old. My parents and pediatrician did everything they could to get us to stop to no avail.. no water/drinks after 6pm, our dad worked shift work, so were always awakened to go the the bathroom when he came home from work.. We were even put on some type of medication (of course that was many years ago), but once we hit the age of 12, we just stopped. It was pretty horrible for us since we couldn't stay at friends houses or have friends over because we would basically pee anywhere we lay.. they didn't have pull ups back then..

I guess what I am trying to say that there really isn't an explanation for why children do this, and I know this from experience.. some Dr's think that it is hereditary, and our father actually wet the bed until he was 12 as well. Luckily none of my children have been bed wetters.

I do agree with some type of reward system but I do not agree with humiliation associated with bed wetting.. Not that you do that. But rest assured, eventually it will stop. Just keep using the pull ups and make sure you protect the mattress and wash the bedclothes if they get soaked.. I know it's a pain, we had to wash our own bedclothes when we peed..lol.

Best of luck to you...

My son just turned 5 this month and I say thank God for goodnights. He has been potty trained for a long time, but night time is total wet. He goes to the bathroom during the day every couple of hours and always has. He drinks a ton of liquids now (when he was little he couldn't have any liquids by mouth) and now wants a lot. (I can't blame him). I used to put two diapers on him and his bed would still be wet in the morning so I'm thrilled 1 goodnite holds it. My doctor said not to worry about it so I don't. I don't make a big deal about it so he doesn't feel bad about it. Pull Ups have never worked for us of a night and we also didn't like the Goodnights that were more of a boxer type. Good luck.

My oldest daughter was almost five before she stayed dry. My second daughter will be five in September and she stays soaked every night(btw - she potty-trained herself at barely 2!). One thing about us, though, is that it runs in the family! I was 7 and still wetting the bed. I know my little brother was at least 9, if not older! I have cousins who had the same problem. We all had late bladder muscular development that kept us from developing that ability to stay dry. At some point it just clicked for all of us, so I wouldn't stress too much. Try the advice, but don't feel too worried about it!

not to sound mean but if he is only going two time's a day that just don't sound right, you need to make sure he goes before he get's in to bed,and if he is drinking a lot of water before then cut back on the drink's,have you had him checked with your doctor to make sure that ervery thing is o.k do you put him in big boy under pant's because pull-ups are to much like diaper's,maybe so try the under pant's good luck.

L. --- I am more concerned that he only goes 2 times during the day than the fact that he is soaked at night....His little bladder needs emptying more than that I would think. So i am with those that suggest more potty trips in the day FOR SURE. The other tips are from my experience with a little one (and BIG ONE that had trouble as child) and stopping bed wetting. OUr three year old had trouble waking up to go potty, BUT REFUSED TO WEAR PULL UPS at night. So we used training pants at night and called them NIGHT NIGHT panties. (They were really only a little more absorbent than regular panties). We had waterprrof mattress cover (that Baby didn't know about). Basically until she could show that she would get up to potty, we cut off drinks after supper...then we potty RIGHT before bed, EVEN if she pottied right before bath!!!! She would get just a couple of swallows of juice/milk as she laid down. ... After a few months of NO WETNESS & getting up on her own to potty. WE have re entered juice at night, but not much, & then if she wakes in the night and potties, she can have a little more...SHE GETS UP EVERY NIGHT, just about to potty and STILL has to go 1st thing in the morning...BUT NO MORE BED WETTING!!!

Dear L.,

If he is only going to the bathroom twice during the day, I would try to have him drink more water during the daytime hours, and limit ANY fluid intake for at least 2 hours before bedtime. This will help to "retrain" his bladder to empty during waking hours. Also, have you tried to get him up during the night to use the bathroom?? He should be urinating at least four or five times a day if he is drinking enough water, other than that, if after you try changing his habits and the night wetting continues, consider speaking to his pediatrician.
When one of my grandsons had this problem, my daughter tried the above, and within a couple weeks he was soaking less at night and making regular trips to the potty during the day. She made sure that most of his fluids were given during the day, nothing except maybe a couple ounces of water after 6 p.m. (actual cutoff time can be a little flexible depending on bedtime schedule.)
Lots of love, have patience, and also be sure to give tons of praise on him when he stops wetting at night.

Dee

Hi L.,
My son wet the bed till he was 7. The doctor told us there is actually a hormone in your body that helps us produce less at night and untill that kicks in there is really nothing you can do. No drink before bed. Don'y make a big deal about it. Get a water proof pad to put under him. Makes less hassle of changing the bed and know he will out grow it. Interesting tid bit for you our son now is entering puberty later than his friends too! Nothing we can do about that either! Other than that he's a great guy!
M.-Mother of 4 Teacher

I think maybe you should takl to your dr. If he only goes 2x a day then there might be a problem. My 4 year old goes atleat every 2-3 hrs. Also, he might be playing really hard and forget to go during the day. Try to remind him every couple of hours to go. Before you put him to bed at night, have him go and before you go to bed at night have him go. Also, I had to limit drinks after 6:00pm to just water and after 7:00 only sips to drinks. Hope this helps

Has your child seen a urologist? There are actual physical conditions that can cause this. There is kidney reflux and there is also a condition where the bladder is growing as quick as your child is. The latter will just take time and maybe years to outgrow. The former,though, will need checked by a urologist to monitor the kidneys. I have experience with both. All four of my children still wet to bed. Two, due to the kidney reflux and two due to slow bladder growth. Don't make your son feel bad for his problem. No matter the case it is not his fault. It's not like he wakes up in the middle of the night and thinks, "I think I will pee my pants." It's probably just as frustrating to him. Get him checked out. That will show him that you believe it's not his fault.
Also, I have come across some doctors who believe that it shouldn't be a concern until after age 5.

Do not give this child any liquids ( especialy RED colored) after 4 pm. insist on the child urinating immediatly before going to bed. (try running water while the child attempts "going".

Get him to go to the bathroom more frequently. He should go right before bedtime to empty his bladder. During the day, have him go every 2-3 hours. Even if he says he doesn't have to go, tell him to try anyway. Goodluck.

Hey L., when my daughter was being potty trained when she was 3 I was told by the doctor they give them until the age of 6 to stop wetting the bed, if it doesn't stop by then, they would do some tests but luckily she stopped and was fully potty trained by the time she was 3 years and 3 months old. I hope this gives you some releif. I never woke up my daughter during the night to go to the bathroom. You might want to try this if you're not already, reduce his drink intake in the evening like don't give him anything to drink after 7:30 pm and see if that helps. I hope all goes well. Good luck. J. A.

Don't get frustrated with him which will only make things worse. I have 2 boys (17 and 10 now) who both potty trained very early, but had a hard time staying dry at night. We tried getting them up during the night, limiting night time liquids, everything. I even talked with their pediatrician about bladder issues. She said that she would not even test them until they were at least 12-13yrs old and still bedwetting. She said it was normal especially in boys to continue bedwetting longer than girls. She was right. Both of them stopped by the time they were 6-7yrs old. It was very tiring to get up and change the bed during the night and it actually kept them from wanting to spend the night with friends or family, but we didn't stress about it. If they spent the night with someone, they slept in their sleeping bag with a little pad in it and kept some spare PJs nearby. Also, make sure he goes to the bathroom right before bed. Just hang in there and don't make a big deal out of it. He will outgrow it.

My daughter had the same problem and I took her to a urologist. She had a bladder infection, he treated her, and she still wet the bed. Then he tried DDAVP nose spray. You spray the childs nose, once on each side, at bedtime only, and she didn't wet the bed again...unless we forgot to spray. He said that the pituitary gland tells the kidneys not to produce urine during sleep, but in my daughters case, the pituitary hadn't matured as fast as she did and it wasn't sending the signal to stop producing urine. She was on the spray until puberty at age 11 and never wet the bed again.

K. A.

Take the pull ups away. Replace them with underware. Stop all drinks except for water before bed. He may need to be woken up for a while during the night to go urinate!

He will stop this if he keeps wetting hisself in UNDERWARE not pull ups. Hes too old for them and will always rely on them if they are there. Put plastic on his bed under the sheets.

Some children cant help this problem but they eventually grow out of this.

Have you tried cutting off drinks after dinnertime and making sure he goes to the bathroom right before bed? I would hesitate to wake him up, but you might want to wake him up and get him to try the bathroom again around 10:00pm. If my 4 1/2 gets up at all during the night to go the bathroom it's usually between 9 and 10.

I agree that you should do away with the pullups and buy a plastic padded sheet for the bed.

He hasn't gone to the BR since 3 p.m. and you're wondering why he's wet 15 hours later??? Can you hold it that long? He needs to go to the BR immediately before bed. After trying that for a week or so, if he's still soaked the next morning, you might need to mention this to his pediatrician. There is a hormone that is supposed to slow urine production during sleep. He might be lacking that hormone, which is a treatable condition.