Night-time Potty Training - Help Please!

Just sounds to me like his body isn't ready, even though his mind is. :(
You can keep trying and supporting him as you do.
When his body is ready, it'll wake him up and tell him to go.

This is not a behavior that can be trained, it is a matter of physiological growth and maturity. When his body is mature enough it will either hold the urine all night or wake him up, but it is not something that can be taught, it just has to happen when his body is ready for it. On average this happens for kids between the ages of 2-6, but for some they are even older, my nephew was 9 and my cousin was 12. It is not their fault and there is really nothing that can be done. There is a medication that can help for some kids, but they don't recommend trying that until usually 6 or 7.

It's a matter of physiology & maturity.
It will come in time.
With my son, I do try to limit heavy liquid intake after a certain time in the
late evening before bed.
I, also, have put down a mattress cover under his fitted sheet for those
mid-sleep accidents.
When he was a toddler , I would layer mattress cover (get the non-noisy
one), fitted sheet, soft towel, fitted sheet so in the middle of the night I
could just rip off a layer, change him & go back to bed.
And continue to have him pee RIGHT BEFORE bed!!!
Give it some more time & be patient. It'll come.

I was about to ask this question myself, though I know the answer. It is a matter of physical development and physiology.... however, my kids are a bit older. My daughter is nearly 8 and my son is 5... and both are such sound sleepers that they have NEVER had a dry night. I know it is heredity. Everyone on my husbands side of the family wet the bed until they were close to 10. We have always just done pullups and had the kids change first thing in the a.m. It was never a major issue until my daughter started doing sleep-overs. The Dr. prescribed a med to be used once in a while, but it has side-effects and does not cure the problem (just stops the kidneys from producing urine for a night). With our oldest, we have also tried the alarms that you wear in your underwear/pull-up that beep when they get wet. The idea is that eventually it has a Pavlovs Dogs effect and the child will learn to wake up when they have the need to pee. We noticed that she was waking around 11:00 and we would help her to the bathroom and she would pee and we would put her back in bed (without putting the alarm back on) and she was still wet again when she woke up. I could see that over time with consistency these would work, but waking up to the alarm several times per night (plus our 3rd child was a baby) was depriving us of sleep... so we stopped. More recently we have started to wake our children before we go to bed, and they do pee, but are still wet when they wake up. I have also introduced some supplements that I researched on-line, but am not getting my hopes up. I may also try acupuncture but just with my oldest because she is starting to be more self conscious. Up until now, it hasn't been an issue. Even her pediatrician said it is not recommended to really try to do anything before the age of 6, because the body just isn't fully developed yet to make that neurological connection while sleeping. I would just reassure him that it happens to a lot of kids and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Hope he grows out of it sooner rather than later!

My son is 5 and we are just starting the night time training. He goes potty right before bed at 7:30 then i walk him to the bathroom and make him go right before i go to bed at 10ish. This worked last night he was completely dry so you may try that extra bathroom trip right before you go to bed.

Only thing you can do until his body is physically mature enough to stay dry at night is to get some "good nights" to save you both from the hassle of all that extra laundry and to save him from the embarrassment of waking up soaking wet.
Just explain to him that it's nothing he is doing wrong. His body and brain needs to grow more and get stronger before he'll be able to stay dry all night.
Withholding liquids past X time, waking to pee in the middle of the night and any of the other "tricks" don't solve the real root of the problem and just leave every one cranky because now you're dealing with tired people that are thirsty.
Both my boys weren't dry at night until they were around 5 years old. My daughter is 4 and not dry at night at all. I remember my brother not being able to stay dry for quit a long time, though I don't remember the exact age anymore.
It will happen. It was very sudden with my 2 boys. I remember keeping them in pullups a good week or 2 extra just to make sure it wasn't a fluke LOL

This is not a training matter. My son finally is dry over night.. it started in July about 1 month to 6 weeks before his 5th birthday.

Not sure if he just progressed into it or .. we started noticing a huge change after starting Acupunture for his ADHD. This is one of the awesome potistive side effects of doing it. :)

I am not sure if the do it specifically for that or not.

Despite what "he" wants to do, and aside from his age.... night time dryness is not potty "training."
Daytime and nighttime dryness, are 2 completely different things and timelines.
Nighttime Dryness... does not even occur until 7 years old, and this is normal and is, physiological and per the brain/bladder/hormones/myelin sheath development. It is NOT, per age of the child or their wanting to, be dry all night.

All you have to do, is EXPLAIN to your child.
My kids, were not dry at night until about 7 years old and they were in nighttime diapers, and had accidents, and I had like 4 waterproof bed pads that I rotated as needed if there was an "accident."
AND, all I did was explain to my kids, that their peeing at night is normal, it is their body not yet "ready" to be all dry ALL night, and that MANY and most kids that age, ARE wet at night and sleep heavily and do not yet, know when to wake up before, they pee.

Then, ALL of my daughter's Teachers, from Preschool and Kindergarten and 1st grade, ALL said unanimously, that kids these ages... often still do wear night diapers and are not dry all night yet and sleep heavily. And it is normal. Except, that mostly all parents, do not want to admit it. But they ask the Teacher about it.
And, kids these ages, even in 1st grade, can have and do have, accidents at school too. And it happens. The Teachers make NO fuss about it, they help the kid change clothes. And at my kids' school, the Health Room even has and stocks, extra clothing/underwear/shorts/t-shirts for the young kids that do have, accidents at school. And they make NO fuss about it.

The thing is: even if a child "wants" to be all big-boy about it and be ALL dry at night without any accidents, despite if they sleep heavily or lightly... it is their body and physiological development, that will determine "when" their body will be dry ALL night.
But, even if they are daytime and nighttime dry... accidents do happen. And it is just childhood.

My daughter when she was about 7 years old, well she had an accident at night. She said she was dreaming she WAS on the toilet peeing. But then realized she was not when the bed felt wet. I had a waterproof bed pad under her anyway. So the bed/sheets do not get soiled. No biggie. She just changed pajamas and went back to bed. And I put another bed pad under her.

My kids had no problem, per nighttime, and needing a nighttime diaper, because, I explained their body, and its development, to them. I simply told them their body, was not ready yet. To keep dry all night. And it has NOTHING to do with their age. It is just their body's development.

And I did not withhold liquids or intake at night. I did not wake them at night just to go pee. I never interfered with it or their sleep. And I never made it a big deal if they had an "accident." Because, their body will on its own, just get synchronized about it all, one day.
Physiologically.
And despite if a child sleeps heavily or lightly.

And pull-ups at night, are useless. Because, it leaks and does not hold much. So, I just used Huggies overnight diapers.

My 4 year old son shares this issue. I've done lots of research on the topic and have come to agree that this is just something that will resolve itself in time as their bodies physically mature. We have had success with decreasing fluid intake as the night goes on and middle of the night bathroom breaks, but I'll be honest- if my son is asking for a drink of water before bed or sleeping very soundly, I'm not going to deny or disturb him. They'll grow out of it before going away to college, then we'll have funny stories to tell their girlfriends. :) Hope this helps (to know that there are others in the same boat!)

If you find a miracle answer, please let me know. My son is nearly 7 and sleeps so soundly he wets himself every night. He obviously wants out of pullups, as do I, but from what I understand, there is nothing you can do until his body is ready. We've tried all the tricks, nothing works. So for now, I just deal with it. Good luck!

He's not physically ready. Nighttime dryness is not an issue of WAKING up when you need to go... its an issue of your body NOT NEEDING TO GO while you sleep.

Waking children to go in the night helps keep the sheets dry, but it doesn't get them closer to actually being "night trained." All it does is disrupt their sleep and develop disrupted sleep patterns that will be a challenge to fix later on (even in adulthood).

Get him night diapers and let him sleep. His body WILL mature and those functions will stop during sleep. Until then, don't let him think his "big boy-ness" is contingent upon something it is IMPOSSIBLE for him to control.

HTH
T.

I agree. If it will help him (and you) feel better about the situation, he can use the nighttime pull-ups. It doesn't make him a baby. I, myself, kinda wished they would've had the pull-ups when *I* was a kid because I "wet my bed" until around 8. I don't like to hear it called "wetting the bed" because it really has nothing to do with a child choosing to pee. I'd rather hear it called "developmentally normal."

My son is almost 7 and still has occasional nights. In fact, there was a night about 6 months ago when I forgot to wash his waterproof mattress pad (from the night before), and I don't have an extra. When I told him, he said, "Mommy, maybe I should wear a pull-up tonight." I just chuckled and said, "Ok, baby." (one of my many terms of endearment for both my kids, neither of whom are "babies" at almost 7 and 4).

Try not to bring too much attention to it, and don't make him feel like it's his fault. Although, to save the water bill, you may want to get some pull-ups :)

This is one of those things that can be accomplished in a number of ways. :) Personally I don't believe in night training. I know plenty of moms who wake their kids to pee in the night and it may work for them but I don't believe in waking a sleeping child.

Both my kids wore pull ups at night after they were day trained. Even though they both sleep with a cup of water by their beds, they were able to stay dry on their own right around 4. When they woke up with a dry pull up for about a week straight I asked if they felt ready to stop wearing them. We never really talked about it except to say that sometimes you have to pee when you are asleep and you don't know it.

My son was the same way. We ended up using a Malem alarm (I think that's what it was called). It was a miracle worker! He was then completely potty-trained within a week of us buying it! What you do is attach a wire (it's been about 6 years since I've used it, so it may be different, or I may not be remembering 100%) to the inside of the underwear, and an "alarm" is attached near their head. When the wire feels the slightest bit of dampness, it sounds the alarm, which in turn wakes up the child. Granted, it scared the bejeezus out of my son, but like I said, we used it less than a week. Well, we used it for 2 weeks, but the last week was a precautionary period. I just explained to my son that it would help him wake up (as he didn't want to wear it the 2nd night) and he wouldn't have to wake up wet. Life saver!!!!!