Help with Potty Training at Night!

I have a son,who is now grown,that had the same problem. the doctor told me that he was sleeping in such a deep sleep that he didn't realize he had to go potty. my son continued to wet the bed for quite awhile but then one day it just stopped. have patience with you little one and one day she too will stop.

my son wet every night until he was over 5 years old. He only stopped because i used an alarm at night to wake him when he began to pee. some kids, and my son was one of them, sleep so deep that all the muscles relax, including the one keeping the peepee in. The alarm trained his brain to not go as deep into sleep and it worked FAST. A couple of weeks and he was done. There was a relapse and we used it again and it worked even faster. He's now 8 and dry for over 3 years. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I can't think right now what the alarm was called, I ordered it on the internet. It's from an austrailian doctor who studies bed wetting and his website is FULL of great information. If you're interested I'll find out what it was called.
hope this helps

My son will be 6 in April and he still wets almost every night. You just have to let the child grow out of it. It's fairly common. My son wants to wear underwear to bed...even though his "good nite" is wet every morning. I tell him
if he can wake up dry 7 days in a row, he can start
wearing undies to bed. We have never done it 7 days in a row. One or two maybe, but if you wake up wet you have to start all over again to reach 7 days dry.
We do try to limit drinking after 7pm or so, but it just doesn't seem like it makes a difference.

My middle daughter was the same way.She was and still is a very heavy sleeper. What I started doing was making her go potty right before she got into bed.I would also wake her up and take her to the bathroom before I went to bed. She went to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and I would wake her between 9:30 and 10:00. I found that if I waited any longer than 2 hours she would have already wet the bed. It took a while for it to become a habit and for her to wake up on her own to go. I hope this helps.

If she still has trouble staying dry when you are ready to try something new, I recommend finding a sensor. It will wake her up when she starts to pee and once her body is trained to wake up everytime she starts to pee she won't sleep through it anymore. a friend of mine got it and her daughter was 'trained' in less then a week. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-bedwetting-alarm.htm

Hi Kimberly,

I am night training my boys too. I wake them up every so often and take them to the potty. They go to bed at 8:00 so I started waking them up at 10 and then after a while I started waiting to see how long they could go without wetting the bed. My four year old now wakes up to go by himself, but my three year old still need to be awakened. We still have accidents, but not as often and they truly feel like big boys and are proud of themselves. Of course the down side is less sleep, but if the kids pick up the habit of waking up to potty I think it is worth it.

I was 18 years old before I could actually make it through the night without wetting it...problem being I was such a sound sleeper. I didn't even wake up half the time after I had wet the bed.

Luckily for me, both of my children potty trained themselves fully before the age of 2.

But I was prepared to deal with anything that came my was as I knew how desperately I wanted to have a dry bed.

Now that you know all of that - summary is, just could be how soundly your child is sleeping. The good news there is that most children grow out of that before the age of 18.

My son was the same way at age 5.I took him to the doctor and he gave me a nose spray to give him before he went to bed and it worked.But i cant remember what it was called.My son is now 26.Well i hope this helps you out.

I am married with a daughter 22 and a son 26 and four wonderful grandkids.

Kimberly, I have a 5 year old son that went through the exact same thing. We first, stop putting him on pull-ups at night because that was seemingly further delaying him to get up. That caused me to in turn, have to wash bedding every day and that wasn't fun. We now make sure he goes to the potty right before bed and nothing to dring after 7:00pm. This has really worked and there has been even an occasional getting up in the middle of the night to potty. He still has accidents from time to time but it's usually when he has had drinks after 7:00pm. We did find out from our pediatrician that sometimes children sleep really hard and this will cause them to not be aware of the wetting. Overall, don't worry too much, she will grow out of it and in the meantime, watch the liquids after 7:00pm and inforce the potty before bedtime. I hope this helps:)

I would listen to your doctor. I went through this with my now almost 6 year old boy (who finally sleeps in underwear overnight). All kids are different when it comes to sleeping in underwear at night, their bladders function differently and/or they are heavy sleepers and even wetting the bed in the night won't wake them. One night last summer, my son said, "I think I want to wear underwear to bed tomorrow night." We did and it's been great ever since. Also, we had recently stayed at a friend's house where all the kids were in underwear at night, not sure if that was a motivator or not, I was just happy he made the decision and stuck with it.
Also, I have a friend who's daughter is almost 7 and she is still in pull ups at night. Just bide your time til she's ready.

Absolutely put panties on her - after a few accidents she will learn to get up. I have 4yr old who's been totally potty trained for a year. This worked on him. But to avoid a huge mess due to the accidents, I would advise to put some type of plastic liner between the mattress and sheets so the mattress isn't soiled. I actually kept a plastic cover on his twin bed for a while until I knew he was 100% trained. Also - we never give him anything to drink before bed. He can have a 'sip' of something, but after 7pm, no drinks. This helps tremendously.

Good luck!

Don't worry about it. The doctor is right. There is a chemical that the body produces that tells it to make less urine when you are sleeping. This chemical develops at different ages in different people. My son is 5 1/2 and still wears a pull up at night. He is such a hard sleeper that you cannot wake him to take him to the bathroom. We are just waiting until his body makes the magic chemical! Also, it can be hereditary. I was a bedwetter for a long time so I'm sure he got it from me.

My daughter is 4 years and still in pull-ups at night. I know many children who still wear pull-ups at night. She may have what is called stress incontinent. That is when their bladder is so full that when they get up they cannot hold it in. My daughter has been potty trained for a while, too. What we do is that when it is time for her to get up. We go to her room and make sure she gets up slowly. Then we go to the bathroom immediately and she makes it toilet most of the time. We use the pull-ups as a precaution. She is slowly getting better. Now we have dry pull-ups more often. The best thing is to make sure that she does not drink too much liquids about 2 hours before bedtime. Make her potty before bedtime. That has helped us. Some kids take longer to "train" themselves to hold when bladder is full. I think it is normal. Remember you are not alone in this.

Hi! set the alarm clock for 1am and get her up to pee. Make it very brief, with minimal talking, and she should go right back to sleep and stay dry til morning, too.

Hi Kimberly,
I saw your request for help w/your daughter's potty training. As a child care provider w/many years of helping parents in this area. I have a couple suggestions that have helped other parents and I hope they may help you. I believe the most helpful in your situation may be to elevate the lower legs (Phone books or bricks work well) of your daughter's bed. This will cause her bladder to feel full a little while before it is becomes too late. This will give her a little extra time to become awake enough to get to the potty before it becomes too late. Another idea would be to set an alarm for the middle of the night for a regular potty time until she develops a "feel" for bladder fullness. Of course you must be careful w/this as if she is not good at falling back asleep it could backfire.
I hope these ideas were of help. Good Luck!

I have 2 daughters who wet the bed til they were about 6. Their brother, who's 9, still does so several times a week. Their dad says he was a bedwetter til he was 17, so I figure this has a genetic component. Get waterproof mattress covers, cut off liquids a couple of hours before bedtime, and have her empty her bladder before she goes to bed. If you want to/are able to, you may want to wake her up once during the night to go to the bathroom. She probably sleeps so deeply that she doesn't realize she's wetting herself.

Hi Kimberly

My oldest son was never dry at night as long as he was wearing a diaper- the diaper was wet every morning. We decided not to put him in a diaper at night, and very quickly he was dry through the night! It was as if he associated the diaper/pullup with not having to worry about wetting.
We did the same with our other two children. They both wet the bed occasionally, but grew out of it.

B.

i went through the same thing. after two pediatricians told me the same thing i stopped worrying about it. there is a hormone that is released between age 3 and 6. until that hormone is released the child is not in control of being able to hold their bladder 8 to 12 hours. you can let them wet the bed and get some dry nights but you WILL continue to get accidents until the biological things happen.

I am going through the same problem with my 5 year old son. He has been potty trained since before he was 4. He just can't stay dry through the night, however he refuses to wear a pull up. I have tried everything, the pedi says not to worry until he turns 6 that his body just isn't ready. I did buy mattress covers from Leaps and Bounds, They cover the section of the bed he sleeps on and tuck in on each side. They are very absorbent and save me a lot of time from changing sheets. Since my son doesn't wear pull ups, he wakes when he wets. He gets out of bed and changes himself and goes back to sleep. At least this way he is aware of it and he is trying. One thing that really helps is right before my husband and I go to bed we pick up our son and carry him to the bathroom. He goes potty and falls right back to sleep. We never have an accident on the nights we do this. You just need to make a mental note to actual do it before you go to bed. Most importantly do not make a big deal about it and don't get mad. Everyone tells me it comes with time! Hope some of this helps.

i had the same prob with my 5 year old boy i stoped giving him anyting to drink about 2 to 3 hours before bed and he stoped i dont know if that would work or any thing but thats what i got

Something that worked for us was to, obviously, limit fluid intake after a certain point in the evening. The second thing that we did was to make her go potty before she went to bed and then a few hours later, when my husband and I went to bed, we got her up again to go. She almost always went again.

Our daughter is almost 7 and STILL has this issue if we are not careful. We kept her in Pull-Ups at night until she could no longer fit into the largest size. We then went to "Goodnites". I think we should have gotten her out of those quicker, really. The only thing that has worked for our daughter is to limit amount of drinks before bedtime and get her up at regular intervals to potty. We allow no more drinks after supper time (around 6:30 or 7:00) and then she goes potty at 8:30 when she goes to bed. Then before my husband and I go to bed at usually around 11:00 we take her to the restroom. When we started this process, we set our alarm and got her up at 11:00 and 3:00, and that seemed to be the best interval for her. We tried lots of different times and this seemed to work the best, so you may have to play with it. We took turns getting up with her so we would have uninterrupted sleep at least every other night. We still have slip-ups, but we just keep a plastic sheet on her bed and wash the sheets, no questions asked. I think if you get upset about it, it does not help them. They just feel sad.... They cannot help it. Our daughter seemed to kind of fall into a routine and became rather predictable on her patterns. Hope this helps. I would not allow Pull-Ups or Goodnites anymore unless they are sleeping over at someone else's house- family or friend. Just in case....

I recently went through this as well with my 4 year old little girl. Before I go to bed(at around 10:30 or 11) I wake her up and place her on the potty. We haven't had an accident since the new year. I also monitor what she drinks at dinner time - like a half glass of water or milk.
Good luck!

The ability to stay dry at night is very different from the ability to use the potty during the day. She just may sleep too deeply to get up and use the bathroom. I would and have just put the child in pull-ups until their body matures to where it is able to stay dry. I wouldn't make a big deal over it or try to force her into sleeping without the pull-up unless you really enjoy laundry! Good luck.

Kimberly,
Hi! We had the same issue. That is exactly what we tried. We just took the pull ups away. He was to the point of when he needed to go he would go find a pull up and use it. He had accidents for several nights but, not many. We talked about big brother and what he wears to bed etc. I also made sure he was not drinking alot before bed. Best of luck!
A.

My son is 6. We get him up everynight around 11 or 12 to have him go empty his bladder. We believe that over time this will "train his brain" to do this on his own. Other than this, I think your doctor is right. I will be glad when I am done with diapers (my 2 1/2 yr old) and the nightly potty breaks...won't that be nice?...

Kimberly,

Pull ups are like crutches, my child wouldnt use the potty either at night when he was 2 because during the day we used the underwear and at night we used the pull up so I ditched the pull up, stopped giving liquids about 2 hours before bed, just a little sip of water if a must, and we soiled the sheets maybe 4 times but once he realized the crutch wasnt there he walked on his own 2 feet and he was 2 so he'll get it just ditch the pull-ups

You might have already tried this, but cutting out liquids from late afternoon until bedtime might help. Good luck.

Listen to your doctor....don't humiliate your daughter by making her sleep in wet sheets. It will also exasperte you coz you will have to change clothes, sheets, blankets, etc. She will eventually stay dry. My older son had accidents at night til he was 8 or 9. Not every night, but he did have accidents. He grew out of it....

Try putting your child to sleep bare bottomed. No pullup or panties. It worked for me and several of my friends. Read on to see how and why...

There is a wonderful best selling book by 2 PH.D's called "Potty Training in a Day," by Azrin & Foxx. This book has been in print for decades. They did research on teaching adult mentally retarded people how to be potty trained, and their research techniques also work on toddlers and small children too. That book is a lifesaver.

In their book they use a technique where the child goes pantless for the day, and learns to use the bathroom. Buy the book if you want to learn how to potty train a kid during the day. But the book didn't have a good techique for getting them out of that night pullup. Pullups get very expensive as kids get bigger... So I adapted their day theory and it worked at night.

Talk to your child and tell them they will not have a pull up or panties, instruct them on how to walk to the potty at night and use it, have a light, limit fluids before bed--- but my kids always wanted that drink of water by their bed, so I let them keep it---, and lastly have the child pee-pee just before bed. Do this technique on a weekend when you have time in the mornings to change sheets if they have an accident. But the first time I did it worked. Sheets were dry in the morning. Also, be diligent in the morning to make them go potty first thing upon waking. The routine will form.

I found that having anything on my child, she felt like it was a device to be used to pee in. Once she realized she was bare-bottomed at night, she started walking to the bathroom at night. I think having something around her waist like panties or a pullup was like having a port-a-potty around her waist. Why get up and walk to the bathroom, when you can stay in your nice cozy bed and the pull-up or panties will catch the pee-pee. It has worked for me and many of my friends in the same predicament. But I found using panties at night, the child thinks it will catch the pee-pee. Try bare-bottomed first.

Once my daughter got used to going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and after a good time period we re-introduced panties at night. We did this technique at 4 and it worked. She is 5 now, and no accidents. Bare-bottomed at night really works.

And that book is really helpful for all things related to this topic.

What I did with my two boys (both at 4 years old at the time) was limit fluid intake after a certain time (a couple of hours before bedtime) and having them at least try to go potty before bedtime. This really helped. I also did not put them in pull ups only underwear like you mentioned. I just put a waterproof cover over their mattresses to prevent stains. They didn't have many accidents before they were trained. Good luck.

I know it is frustrating but i wouldnt worry to much about it. I have a 7 and 5 year old and they are both still in pull ups. My niece was in them until she was 9 or 10. Their little bladders develope diffrently. I thought about what you said putting them in underwear at night but then i thought i dont want to be changing sheets at 2 in the morning. give it time. My 5 year old has gotten up the past 4 mornings dry so we will see.

The doctor is right. I have been just as frustrated. But so you know, I have an 8 year old who still does not wake up to go to the bathroom at night. We have put him on medicines for it and that hasn't worked either. Sometimes it can be due to family history like it is in our case. But I take him to the bathroom before I go to bed every night hoping he will be dry in the AM and sometimes he is and sometimes not. But my 5 yr old does stay dry and she did it on her own after awhile. All kids are different and develop at different times. I don't know if that helps you. Good luck ( I understand) :)

I see you got lots of responses.

I was just going to add that I woke mine up from 2 1/2 - 3 yr every single night. They eventually starting waking on their own and going to the bathroom by themselves. ;-)

Hi, I would do the same thing as you would, but some people would completely disagree with me. Sometimes kiddos have to learn that way. When our daughter was 3, she was potty trained, wore regular panties and had a few accidents here and there. It actually taught her to be more aware of the urge to urinate, and to get up and go. We didn't plan it that way. We never thought to use pull ups. She went straight from diaper to panties.

I hope this helps. :)

I don't know if this will work, but try not letting her have anything to drink at least 1 1/2 hours before she goes to bed.Then try taking her to the bathroom right before she goes to bed.

Hope it works...

I'm not so sure that my response will help, but I have been in the same position. My son who is now 10 years old had issues wetting the bed for what seemed like an eternity. The doctor's said it was a combination of his bladder being very small (he is a petit child) and his sleeping very deeply. We tried everything - we even stopped his liquid intake early in the evening - nothing worked. He eventually grew out of it.
There is an alarm for children who have these issues. You place a monitor on their underwear or a pad underneath their sheet and when the monitor senses wetness it sounds an alarm which in turn wakes the child up. It might not "solve" the problem, but will get her into the habit of associating the full bladder sensation with getting up and going to the bathroom. Even in regular underwear my son would sleep right through till the morning and then realize he was wet. We had lots of tears and embarrassment. Personally, I don't think it is worth putting a child through that when wetting the bed is out of their control.

How does your child sleep? I have 3 children, oldest 7 and youngest 3. 3 year old stays dry at night, oldest does not. One thing I have noticed is the difference in their sleep patterns. My oldest is a really heavy sleeper, I mean getting him up to take him to the bathroom does not wake this child up. I think because he is such a sound sleeper, that he does not recognize the signals that he needs to get up to go to the bathroom. Often he does not even wake up if the bed is wet. My youngest is a much lighter sleeper and so he recognizes the signals. I would not recommend putting her in panties at night until she is waking up dry most of the time. If her body is not ready all that is going to do is give you lots of laundry. You might try waking her up a couple of hours after she goes to sleep and taking her to the bathroom, I have friends who were successful with this with their children, did not work for mine.

Hi Kimberly,
I am a 30 year old single mother. My son is 5 years old and he has the same problem. So this is what I have been doing. I don't give him anything to drink an hour before he goes to bed and also tell him to try and go to the bathroom. Sometimes he tells me that he doesn't have to potty but, I tell him to try anyways.

I just had this discussion with my pediatrician this morning! My son will be 6 this month. He's been potty trained since 27 months and was night dry for 4 months before he started wetting the bed. Since then he's wet the bed 1-3 times a night almost every night.

Bottom line from my pedi - don't make a big deal over it. She said if kids are heavy sleepers (mine is) it's even harder to break the cycle and you really have to wait till they're ready. There is a medication you can give kids, but in her experience it works less than 10% of the time and even less than that with heavy sleepers. She said when my son is ready to get a bedwetting alarm. He has to be motivated to stop, it needs to be his idea, then the alarm will help him to wake up and start to recognize the 'urge' means wake up!

Don't push her, if she really can't control it you'll just make her feel bad. Talk to her calmly about it, ask her opinion, maybe try a reward chart if she shows progress, but if she doesn't or can't just put it aside and try again when she's older.

Every kids' different, but nothing worked with my twin boys (one with autism) until we stopped using the Pull-ups at night. It was miraculous! A few of times after I switched, my husband or mother put the Pull-ups on, and every time they wet themselves again!

i'm in the same boat! my 4 yr old boy is dry during the day mostly but will poop at night like clock work. the doc isn't worried, says he's fine and healthy. i'm just tired of changing a stinky butt every morning! ick!

Sometimes kids get cold during the night and wet. But do not punish. Some kids bladders just are not big enough. Use diapers at night so if they do wet they will not be all over wet. I had a child that wet until she was 8 it ran in our family, had an other that never wet at nigh, even as infant. Who knows. Good luck

Some kiddos take longer in the night department and it hasn't any thing to do with "training". It's a developmental milestone -- like walking or anything else -- that is dependent on her physical development. Some kiddos hit it later than others as your ped states. Other than making sure she goes before bed time and doesn't have any additional liquids and no caffeine, there isn't much you can do yet. You can't "train" somebody who is asleep so it's not like daytime. Usually, it's not considered an issue until after the child is 6 or so from what I understand.

I'm in the same boat as you with my almost 5-year old son. It drives me a little bit crazy that I still have to buy nighttime pull-ups, but that's just how it goes sometimes. He really wants to stay dry at night, but he just can't. I've tried waking him a couple of times in the night, but he still wets the bed and doesn't even know it until he wakes up in the morning. Doctor says the same thing others docs have said----all kids develop differently and nighttime bladder control is basically the last thing that develops in many children. What I'm doing is staying patient, not making a big deal of it, and showering his bottom half every morning so he doesn't smell like pee all day long. When he asks when he can stop taking morning showers and only bathe at night, I tell him, "when you stay dry at night. You'll do that when your body is ready for you to do it." I play it off as no big deal since he really wants to stay dry but can't. We don't need it to turn into a self-esteem issue! Good luck! As you can see, many of us are in the same boat!!

How much does she have to drink before bedtime? That could be what is making her have accidents at night. Try to take her to the potty right before bed. Hope this helps!

Sister, I hear your pain! My daughter, who will be 4 in April, was potty trained last summer...so we are working on a year and 1/2 with her. NO dry nights! She will wake up about 3-4 times a week and come to wake us to go, and then she does, but 90% of the time, her pull up is wet from her going earlier. Here is my theory...my daughter has NO accidents while she is awake. In fact, if she gets close to an accident, she cries and really shows us that she DOES NOT want to pee in her pants. So, my thought is that the urge is just not waking her up. What can I do about that, but wait it out? So, now my 2 1/2 year old is potty trained...she trained almost all on her own at 22 months. SAME thing...wet like CRAZY in the morning, no daytime accidents. My ped. said the same thing...just wait it out. So...sorry I don't have the answer, I wish I did! But, for now, we are waiting it out with both of them! We go through 4 pull ups a day (2 for night, 2 for nap) and they are not cheap! Hang in there, there are others out there who feel your pain! Good luck! jen

I did that with my daughter she will be 3 in March, when she would have a pull up at night sometines she would be dry and sometimes she would be wet so when we used the last pack of pull ups we had we stopped using them and just let her sleep in panties, everynight before we put her to bed we reminded her that she had panties on and she could not wet the bed and if she had to go pee to yell for me and I would come and take her to the toilet, she did good and only had three accidents after that she never wet the bed again and wakes up dry every morning, she has even gotten up on her own now at 5 am to go to the toilet.

What time do you stop her liquid intake? Don't allow her to drink anything after a certain time, especially before bed or cut her liquid intake in half at a certain time at night.

You received a ton of advice! I haven't read any of it yet, so no idea if this will go with what anyone has said. I just wanted to share what we did with our daughter. First, we potty-trained her during the day. Once she had that down completely, we went on to potty-training at night. She was probably about four years old at this time (she day potty-trained at 3.5 years...a little late, but we didn't care!). Anyway, so she was a newly four year old when we started potty training at night.

We put her in underwear, no pull ups. We bought some bed covers. I'm not sure if links work on this, but this is what we bought:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_ba/104-###-###-####-###...

We bought two of them so that if she had an accident, we could rotate out to a new one while cleaning the soiled one and that way it made cleaning up a wet bed really really really easy.

We explained to her in a very excited type of way that she is going to get to be potty trained at night now. We explained that when she needs to go potty, she needs to get up and go potty in her potty chair. We brought her potty chair in and sat it next to her bed so that it would be easy for her to get up and go.

We would have her go potty before going to bed. Then about 2-3 hours afterwards, we would go in and wake her up and sit her on the potty (whether she was fully awake or not) and she would go and we'd lay her back down. Some of the time I don't think she even fully woke up! But this got her into the habit of waking up to go potty.

I think it was probably two weeks of doing this before she started waking up on her own to go potty. If she peed in the bed, we never scolded her. The only thing we did was say, "Oh, that's yucky, isn't it? You got all wet. Let's change your clothes and clean your bed and next time if you have to go potty, you can sit on your potty chair so you don't get wet." If she got up to go potty, she got SUPER praised for it. I think we did a sticker chart or something like that because she really liked it.

It worked for us to do it this way. For a while i wondered if it was going to work, but we stayed very consistent and kept waking her up and having her go potty. We don't do pull ups - didn't for daytime potty training either. We feel like it works better not to (though not saying people are wrong for choosing otherwise).

Anyway, hope that helps some and good luck with whatever you decide to do:-) Each child is different.

Hi,
I am a stay at home mom of 3 kids and we had a similar problem with our oldest son. If your daughter is dry during the day and only wetting at night it is probably because she is a deep sleeper and her body doesn't wake her up. My son had this problem until he was 7 and we purchased an alarm online that attached to his underwear. It sensed wetness immediately and would sound an alarm and vibrate to wake him up. After wearing it for 1 month he was completely trained and hasn't had 1 accident since then. The older he got the more I started to worry and that's when a lot of other moms began telling me that their children were also bedwetters at night...some almost 15 years old!!
Since our younger children were not wetting the bed, my son was really upset about it. It was a lot of work for 1 month to help him wake up in the night (sometimes the alarm wouldn't even wake him up), but it payed off and now he can go to sleepovers and not worry!
We googled bed-wetting devises and then bought it...it was about $70 but well worth every penny!
B.

I had the same problem. I decided to set my alarm every night at the same time each night (around 11:30). I did it for 2 weeks. He started waking me up to go. And now he goes by his self (in my bathroom). Also, so days he has been out drinking a lot of fluids. I wake him up an hour into his sleep just for preventative measures.
I hope this helps.

I would limit her drinks after 6:00pm

My 8 year girl old still has a wet pull up at least 5 nights/week. The doctor tells me the same thing! My 4 year old boy has been sleeping w/o a pull up for months now. The only thing different that my Dr. suggested was to get her up around 10:00 or 11:00pm (right before we go to sleep)and take her to the bathroom. She usually doesn't even remember getting up and is thrilled about being dry in the morning! My Mom said she wet the bed until 3rd grade, so maybe it's a little hereditary.

I did try letting her wear panties at night, but that just caused less sleep for all of us when she did wet the bed - not to mention more laundry for me!:o)

Good luck, be patient.

My daughter, whom is 8 now, had the same problem. Potty-trained at 2 but wore pull-ups at night until she was about 6 and 1/2 maybe 7. I tried to do the panties at night and just see if the wetting would bother her - it didn't! I tried this for a week because several friends said she's a girl and she will not want to be wet. Well, that didn't happen and after 7-8 days i was tired of changing wet sheets sometimes 2-3 times a night. I put her back in pull-ups and and started the road of night-time potty-training. It took almost 2 years. I would tell her if she went 7 days without wetting in her pull-up then we would try panties. She would get to the 6th or 7th day and have an accident and then we would have to start over. The doctor was never concerned and so I stopped being concerned. My son is going through the same issue(he is now 5). He seems to be progressing better than his sister. It has been frustrating but in the end it works out.....when my daughter started having sleep overs, she became more motivated to help herself believe she could go all night. Having said that, I also quit giving her anything but sips of water after 630p and would make her go the bathroom a couple of times before bed. I still do this and she does absolutely fine now.

Good Luck!

hi kimberly,

my daughter had a few accidents and i let her wear panties to learn how it feels and two, i stopped her from having liquids after a certain time at night. about 2 hours before bedtime is good. the only thing is make sure to make the bed twice so that when she wakes up, it is not a total disaster. put one set of sheets, with plastic cover, over another set of sheets with plastic cover. it only took a few times and juli stopped. also, kimberly, i noticed that you are a family attorney and i need help with a step parent adoption. if you can help me out that would be great! my e-mail is ____@____.com.

We just went through this with our 4 year old. She has been potty trained since she was 27 months, but not at night. About a month ago (right after her 4th bday) we started getting her up at around 11pm to go potty. She does wake up a little but goes right back to sleep. Once she started waking up dry consistently we took away the diapers, which was pretty much right away. We still take her potty around 11pm but she's been dry for weeks. She'll learn eventually to wake herself up, but in the meantime we'll take her potty. And she's sooo happy to be out of diapers for good! Hope you find something that works!

I am right there with you. My 4 year old daughter is still not trained at night. We have tried her wearing panties at night for several weeks in a row. We would limit liquid intake in the evenings and make her go potty right before she goes to bed. We went through many wet sheets and clothes until I could take no more. She was dry about 2-3 nights out of 4 weeks, so I decided to stop and try again later when she is a little older, maybe 5...we'll see? I think she just doesn't wake up until she is already wet. I have heard about an alarm that wakes them up when the bed gets wet, but we haven't tried that. I think she wakes up when the bed is wet anyway. Good luck!!! I hope you have better success than I have.

The Dr. is right don't worry about it. Her bladder is still small and can't hold the urine all night. I don't think letting her wet the bed is going to make her wake up and realize she needs to go in the potty at night. You could try waking her before you go to bed, just enough for her to sit on the potty and go. That may still not be enough, but if you wake up to go in the middle of the night you could try waking her again. Some children just don't grow out of it until much older ages (even 10-11) so I definately don't think you should worry yet.

S.
Mother of 3 (14, 9 and 4)

We use to wake my daughter up at midnight and walk her to the bathroom to go. Then she was dry in the morning. It seemed like the midnight thing lasted awhile, but it probably did not. Then after awhile she would get up on her own. Hope this helps.

My kids have all been the same way. Our pediatrician reassured us that it is very normal, and most kids will grow out of it. I love reading the info on goodnights.com. You might want to check it out.

Hi Kimberly,

I just wrote another mommy about this last night but her daughter was only 15 months. Your daughter is definately old enough to understand the fun of going to a birthday party. With that in mind, tell her when she can go without diapers & having accidents you will host a Potty Party for her. She can send invitations to some friends. It needs to be like a birthday party, where you go someplace like chuck e cheese, play games, have pizza & cake. I have three girls and this was wildly successful for all three. A girl who came to my oldest daughter's Potty Party brought a pack of cute girl underwear as a gift. So my other girls got lots of underwear as gifts at their parties. it took all the heartache out of potty training and became a fun-memorable rite of passage both for them and me.

Worth a try. let me know how it goes, it took my kids 2 weeks once they were motivated by the party.

When my Daughter was potty training I put on Pretty little frily panties at night and told her if she wet in them we would have to go back to diapers. She wet in then maybe twice an we went back to diapers then she wanted to try it again we did and never had another problem.
Good Luck

I agree with your MD. Not many of us know healthy adults that don't make it through the night. ;-) You want to continue to be gentle and loving. Make sure that what you do use on her at night makes her feel wet when she has an accident. Monitor her fluids after dinner. You may want to try panties but don't let her feel defeated if you decide to resort back to a pull-up. Plan an incentive for a dry night. Find something special, like a toy or a doll, that she gets when she wakes up dry. Make sure that it is something that you have in your possession that she can see. It will make more of an impact that she can see it but it is just out of reach. If you try the panties, plan on making it an effort on her part. I would put a plastic pad under the sheet and make sure I had clean linens near by. If she soils the bed make sure she takes some of the responsiblility by helping with changing the sheets, washing and folding them the next day (with appropriate help and guidance). A four year-old is right on the edge of learning to stay dry through the night and old enough to assume age appropriate accountability for her actions. Just remember not to compare her to others. You may still be waiting on the maturation of her nervous system. She may also still be developing and is not quite producing enough of the hormones that concentrate the urine overnight. Remind yourself that she will learn it and keep your spirits up so she will strive to make the effort to take that last step.

D. M

I am in the same boat. We started this about a month ago and we go a couple of nights dry and then wet. I found some of those old musilin sheets and I layer the bed. I but a trash bag and a towel and then layer it maybe two or three times. The other thing was that I did not let her drink after a certain time. That helped a lot. Hope it helps

My sister gave me the best advice on this and it works. I take my daughter to the bathroom one more time before I go to bed, which is around 10pm, and she doesn't have any accidents the rest of the night....

That is exactly what we did. We started letting her leave her panties on at night and pretty soon (a week?) she started tinkling only a little in bed and that would wake her up and she could finish in the potty. The tiring part was changing the sheets every day and cleaning her up in the night. We tried not to make a big deal about it - didn't want to stress her - so we just pulled the "ultimate crib sheets" out of the nursery and put them under her sheets. It kept it off the mattress and I didn't want to buy a ton of mattress covers.

I do have to say it was a long week but then it was over. And now we get to start again with bambina #2. wahoo! :)

My daughter was almost 5 before she was night trained. The problem for my daughter was she was such a deep sleeper that she didn't wake up when she had to go to the bathroom at night. The best advice I got was from my mother in law, who advised waking my daughter up right before we went to bed (usually around 10) to put her on the potty. We did that for about a month, and even though she was usually still half asleep on the potty, she did go to the bathroom and went back to bed with no accidents. In time she matured to where she would wake up when she needed to go, but she did need our help getting on a good schedule.

It maybe frustrating, but at 4 she may still have an underdeveloped bladder and probably sleeps very soundly at night. If she continues after age 6 or 7, then you might need to have her evaluated by a urologist.

Congratulations on your family blessings!
PLEASE don't worry about about your daughter!
My eldest daughter (now 22!) wore a cotton diaper with plastic pants at night until she was older. She wasn't wet every night, but her bladder control wasn't fully developed/controlled during the night-hours until about the age of eight. The brain does what it does when it does it-we decided not to mess with Mother Nature (no meds)
we didn't make a big deal about it: this sometimes happens, no worries,it seems genetics may play a part in the time frame as my husband had this when he was younger, too. We clued in family and close friends so they wouldn't make a big issue about it either.
Just when SHE wondered when she would always be dry at night-SHE WAS!

Do a search on google for potty alarm. My oldest had this problem and this worked miracles!! You can even get one on ebay.

I have a 2 year old boy fixing to turn 3. We kept putting a pullup on him and he would just fill it up, with no sign of bladder control at night. So, we decided to take a chance and just put on undies. First night totally wet. Second night, just a little. Third night he started waking up dry. He just felt too safe in a pullup. Make sure you stop all fluid about 2 hours before bed at first, and potty just before bed. Then, when she starts waking up dry, keep away from liquids about 1 hour before bed and potty before laying down for the night. I just know this worked for our little one. Good Luck.

It may help to stop giving her liquids a couple of hours before she goes to bed. Then always make sure she goes to sleep with an empty bladder (some kids say they don't have to go, but still make her go even if it's a few drops). First thing in the morning, have her wake up and immediately go to the bathroom. She will begin to associate getting up and physically going to the bathroom instead of going in her pullup. I saw with my kids that the urine was warm when they got out of bed, which makes me think they had just gone when they got up... good luck.

Hi. I'm a mother of twins, and had the same problem at night. I finally was getting them up every hour to potty, hoping this would help train them. I was so exhausted after a few nights of this, that one of the pediatricians who came into the newborn nursery where I worked, asked what was wrong. When I told her, she asked if it was working, when I told her no, she said to get a bed-wetting alarm. I stopped by her office and got the brochere for it, was skeptical, but ordered two ( slight discount for twins ). My daughter was trained in two weeks, and my son in three weeks. They were rewarded when they achieved their goal by picking out new p.j.s. That's what they wanted. I have to admit that I was a little worried that the Pavlovian theory might apply, and that they would end up on the toilet if the smoke alarm went off! Good luck!

hey..dont rush it...almost every child can hold it through out the day way before they can at night/when napping...i would not push that because it will just create anxiety in both of you..just know you will be using a pull up for a while yet at night..tell your child that;s normal so he doesn't feel wierd about it..my oldest used a pull up at night until she was in Kinder...my other ones never needed it ...

G. (mom of 4 girls )

My five year old was in panties during the day since 2-1/2 to 3 with few or no accidents. However, at night she wet until right around her 5th birthday. We tried putting her in panties at night but it didn't help. She would wet the bed in the middle of the night and sleep through it. I got tired of washing the bedding every morning! Finally she just stopped on her own. When she had a about a week of dry nights we went back to panties from pull-ups and never went back. We did ask our doctor - she said sometimes it is physical or hormonal... not to worry yet. Make sure you limit liquids before bed, potty right before bed and continue to as the doc at her check-ups if it worries you.

This was very different from our son who stopped wetting at night on his own around 3-1/2. He had a dry diaper for about two weeks (which surprised us) so we just stopped putting them on.

Have you tried limiting her intake of liquids at night. My niece had this problem, and limiting her drinks after dinner help until she got a little older realized during the night that she had to use the restroom.

My son is 7 and a hard sleeper. We remind him to go to the bathroom right before he goes to bed, even if he just went 10 minutes before. If not, we have a 50/50 chance of an accident.

They make Goodnights in 'fun' underwear styles. We don't go that route but it's an idea.

I would stop giving her anything to drink at least 1 1/2 hours before bed time and put her in big girl panties. It will only take a few accidents for her to start getting up to go potty.

We had a similar experience. I did put my son in underwear at night, but he was not allowed to have anything to drink after 7pm. His bedtime was 8pm. He used the restroom right before bedtime. He did have a few accidents, but eventually he made it throught the night. Good Luck!

I have 2 boys, 8 and 6. 1st child potty trained at night at age 3 and still drank water all through night. 2nd child potty trained in daytime but has random nigh time accidents (still) - he does wear underwear.

I suggest these things:

1) Do not worry about it. 4 is still young - lots of kids do not get the night part till much older

2) Take her to the bathroom at least once during the night. This will help to teach her to get up and go bathroom in night. (we did this)

3) Make sure she has very little liquids between dinner and bedtime (we did this)

4) if in a year or 2 still issue - there is a medication you can use. There is a chemical thing going on that affects a child's ability for night time bladder control.

Good Luck!

Some kids are not able to stay dry at night until the age of 7. It is not a behavior problem....they just simply can't hold it all night or recognize urge while they sleep. This is very normal. I have one friend who uses pull-up for her 4 year old and another that takes her son to the potty a few times at throughout the night. I think her son goes to bed at 8 and when she goes to bed at 11 she puts him on the potty. I think her dh puts him on hte potty when he gets up for work. She says she doesn't wake up at all and she remembers her parents doing the same thing. Well actually she remembers at age 5 waking up while sitting on the potty and asking her mom where she was. Her mom said "I have putting you on the potty every night for 2 1/2 years now you don't remember?" Nope she stayed asleep. Once in a while my 3 1/2 year old will wake up sreaming and and I know she has to pee but can'e wake up enough to figure out why she is uncomfortable. Usually I get her to the potty in time but she is not awake enough to walk to the bathroom herself. I have to remember to put her on the potty after she brushes her teeth and keep my bedroom door open so I can hear her.

We had the same problem with our 4 year old. We would bribe him. Like...go 5 days without having an accident and you get to pick dessert on Friday or new baseball gloves or whatever motivates him. Those worked for awhile, but, and I hate to say this, but one week there were accidents, the next there wasn't and hasn't been for a long time. I think they just get used to it or grow out of it.....?? But we definitely took him out of pullups right away. It seemed like it was just a crutch. They're old enough to know that it's really a diaper and can just be thrown away in the morning, no big deal. It should be a bigger deal.

hi, i`m a mother of three and my middle child who is going to be 8yrs. old in march and i still have the same promblem. he`s been potty train since he was three and he still wears pull ups at night cause he has the same promblem. doctors have told me the same thing they have told you and i tried underwear for a year hoping he would learn but it didn`t work so if you get any good advice please let me know. i even tried waking him up everytime i would wake up in the middle of the night that didn`t work either. one i took him pee five time and he went every time. i took him to the doctor they said he was fine.

I am a mother of three teenagers so I have been there done that. There are a few things you can try. One is to eliminate liquids within three hours of bedtime. Make sure they make one last stop to potty before bedtime. Put a plastic mattress protector on her bed and then put her in cloth panties. It will be a hassle for a while, but as long as she feels dry in pull-ups at night she is not going to develop a subconcious connection between feeling the need to go potty and being wet. It takes a little time but it eventually works. Although it is true that children develop at different ages, listen to your insticts. If after a while these changes don't help you might want to check with a development pediatrician.

Kimberly,

Are you allowing her to drink close to her bedtime, or does she take a cup to bed with her? If so, you might want to say no to drinks past 7pm and not cup at bed time. Have her go to the rest room 1 hr before bed, again 30 min before bed, and then again right at bed time. That might help her completely empty her bladder. Good Luck C.

A little about me: I home school my 3 kids and I am the director of the MDO program at my church.