My son turned 4 in March. He was fully daytime potty trained when he was 2 1/2 years old, but still wears a pull-up at night. Almost every night he pees in the pull up and sometimes even pees through it, wetting the bed. I mentioned this to my doctor at his 4 year check-up. I mentioned that he does receive some water (small amt) before bed. She had recently read that drinking water before bed didn't affect the potty training. Anyway, I'm just looking for some suggestions on how to help train him at night. He was such an easy daytime potty trainer, but this seems to be going on for a long time. Thanks!
Thank you for all of your input. My 4 year old is my oldest, so this is my first time going through this and wasn't sure what to expect. My friends that have kids around this age don't seem to have issues so I wasn't sure how "normal" this was. And I guess I had just thought that since he was so easy to potty train during the day that it would be the same for night. I've always said I think maybe my son holds all of his pee for the nighttime bc he doesn't seem to go pee too often during the day:) Thanks and will just continue to wait until he is ready!
Some kids just take a lot longer to train at night -- my nephew still wore pull ups until he was almost 9. Just try not to make a big deal about it to him, so he doesn't get embarrassed. I'd try another brand of pullups if he's going through. You can also put the rubber pants on over them, or put an absorbent pad down under him.
Sorry I don't have any pointers. Good luck!
Please do a search on his topic; it is asked pretty frequently and there have bern lots of great responses. The short answer is that there is nothing you can do. When is body is ready he will start waking up dry. Until then, just support him and nake sure he knows he's not doing anything wrong.
For what it's worth, my twins day trained at 27 months. One girl started waking dry at 36 months and has not had an accident since. She does not get up to pee in the middle of the night. My other girl has never woken up dry and wears a pull up every night, that she soaks. They just turned five.
My DD is the same way. She was potty trained at 2 years old and just turned 4. We take her pee in her sleep just before we go to sleep around 10 or 11. She never wets the bed if we do that. Last night, we didn't take her and we didn't have an accident. We also got her adjusted by our chiropractor, which seems to help, but not as apparent as with our son, which was instant and NO accidents.
Our 6 year old son had the same issue. When his L2 was misaligned, he'd wet the bed, so we'd take him in to get adjusted by our chiropractor. Immediately after an adjustment, he'd go months without an accident and then pee 3 nights in a row, so we'd get him adjusted again and wah-lah! he was fine again for months. The night time wetting stopped just before he turned 5 years old.
Here's some research:
http://icpa4kids.org/Chiropractic-Research/Bed-Wetting/
This is something you can not train for.
His body has to mature to where it slows down urine production at night, his bladder capacity is increased and he wakes when his brain gets a signal when he needs to pee.
This does not happen for many children till they are 7 years old and a few can not manage it till they are 11 or 12 years old.
So many mothers put their kids through misery waking them up to pee, restricting fluids, shaming kids for wetting the bed or wearing pull ups and none of it helps their bodies mature any faster than they already are.
He's got a lot of growing to do yet and this is just one of those stages that he will grow out of when he's ready, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.
You can take him to the potty before you go to bed. This way he won't get used to peeing in bed.
My daughter wet the bed, less and less frequently, until she was 8. There is nothing you can do to night train a child. Your doctor is right that restricting liquids makes no difference. Most doctors do not consider this an issue until a child is much older than 4. Prepare for this by trying different nighttime diapers and get a water-proof mattress cover. When his body is ready, he will sleep dry. I know it seems like a long time, but my daughter is 10 now and I've pretty much forgotten about the extra laundry and such. They do grow out of this eventually.
There is NO SUCH THING as night time potty training. That is like saying you can regulate your blood pressure at any time while you are sound asleep.
If you use the search option on the top of this page you will find that this topic is asked about on nearly every page of mamapedia questions. There will be a multitude of answers all saying the same thing.
The brain regulates the production of urine.
Kids aren't supposed to wake up to go potty during the night. They are supposed to be like grownups and their brain is supposed to stop urine production when a person falls asleep. It is totally a brain issue. Not a choice, not a manageable thing a person can do at all.
One day the brain will kick in on this developmental stage and they will start staying dry. They will not get there any sooner no matter what you do.
If he is wetting out of his pull up then try a better pull up. We used the night time Huggies with Buzz Lightyear and Woody on them and they worked very well. We are not using Goodnites due to sizing but they are not near as good.
With my daughter I put huge depend pads inside her pull ups. It was years ago though. They are better now.
A full bladder is more likely to wake someone up. Drinking less fluids is more likely to make them dehydrated and more inclined to UTI's. It also makes them more irritable because it's just uncomfortable being thirsty.
I think if you want to regulate their drinking then let them have tons of water before dinner then just 8oz. or so between dinner and bedtime. But I really think it does not matter as far as the peeing goes. It just makes less for the pull up to hold....
Wetting the bed has absolutely nothing to do with potty training. Some kids sleep very deep. Some continue to produce daytime amounts of urine at night. Some have immature bladders. None are wetting the bed on purpose or have any control over the bedwetting. At 4 he is still very young and bedwetting at that age is extremely common. It's actually common to age 12 (per my son's urologist). My son wet the bed till age 9. He could sleep through a forest fire. We tried a chiro (it can work, but wasn't my son's problem), limiting drinks, etc etc. He wasn't dry till HE was ready. We used an alarm, but it was a BIG committment and would not have worked if DS wasn't ready. Relax, don't pressure him, and buy some goodnights.
My son is going to be 5 in august and just in the past couple weeks he has finally started to stay dry some nights. I dont worry about it because it is night time and he will out grow it eventually. He is just a hard sleeper and does not wake up to go. Its all good and your son will get there in time.
It doesn't have anything to do with potty training and everything to do with the size of his bladder and the depth of his sleep.
Keep him in pull ups until he catches up and don't sweat it. If you have been to your pediatrician and she doesn't think there is a medical problem, it's just a matter of growth and time.
My friend had a daughter who woke up soaked through and found that the Huggies Goodnights were best for preventing leaks.
My daughter will be 6 in Nov and just now she is able to hold her water til morning AS F LAST WEEK!!! We would reduce liquids 3 hours before bedtime and only give her a sip of water if she asked before bedtime. But her body would produce water 2x night even if she went potty 2x before going to bed. We know this because we would wake her at 2am and again around 5am and she'd pee both times. We thought waking her up and taking her potty when one of us went it would help. Didn't happen!
Now she wakes up dry. Had a few accidents so we are not comfy switching her from pull ups to underwear at night. Give it more time. I thought age 4 it would be better too as it was for my oldest daughter. Totally understand your concern but this is something you can't really force. The reply from "B" below is the type of replies I got when I asked this question over a year ago. Many of the moms here replied the same and proved to be more accurate than my child's pediatrician.
Don't frustrate yourself. Your child does not have a "problem".
Seriously could have written this myself! Our problem now is that he likes the Pull Ups because of the characters but the nightime don't go past 4T. So now we use the daytime Pull Ups and those new disposable mats under his sheet. We have a waterproof mattress pad but it is such a pain to wash all the time...the sheet I don't care as much. We have been told the same...not to worry it will come with time but I am right there with the frustration. My son plays hard and sleeps hard so I am sure that may be a factor as well. Good luck!
