Twin 6 Yr. Olds & Nighttime Pull-ups

Do you have a washer and dryer at home? Then they don't need to wear night time pull-ups. Potty training was a process and so is this. You hinder not help with the night time pull-ups. My now 2yo goes to bed in panties. I have to be mindful of what time I give her dinner and her last drink because bedtime is at 7:30. Her and her sister both ask for chocolate milk for bed but I've had to cut it out. Although my 3 year old hasn't wet the bed due to milk at bedtime, my 2 year old is still learning. So yes, I've gotten up to wash sheets. But she's wet herself enough that now she'll wake up and come get me out of my bed to go potty. At 6 years old, they can take their own sheets off the bed and put them in the washing machine, get a clorox wipe and wipe the bed down and spray with lysol (my routine) and then put new sheets on (this is all considering they are still in toddler beds).

Bottom line, you need to just put them in underwear and suffer through the training. It'll be over before you know it. :)

I hate to tell you this but my son who is 11 just finally is constantly dry. He is a VERY solid sleeper. Ir didn't matter that his 3 year old sister was dry; it is just how his body was made. It is also very normal. I know of 3 other families that had the same issue. All are finally dry.

Do it, take them away and see what happens. Laying in pee isn't fun and they will learn to get up. Also, they are old enough to help change the sheets. I took the nighttime pull-ups away from my daughter at the same time as daytime training just before she turned 3. Saved me the later hassles of dependency but you can't undo what is done. She has never (knock on wood) peed the bed at night!

Good luck!

Well, you're going to have to change sheets for a little while until it stops or they'll be peeing their beds when they're 10! There's no reason for them not to be wearing only underwear at night. You may be surprised that after a few nights of wetting the bed, they stop doing it. My oldest is 4 and has gone through phases of bed wetting since he completely potty trained over a year ago. It usually happens two or three nights in a row and then he doesn't do it for months -it's just part of it. No, I don't like being awoken in the middle of the night to change clothes and sheets, but it's just part of it. I would get rid of ALL pull ups immediately and institute an ONLY underwear policy!

Start giving them plenty to drink at dinner and limit ALL drinks except for a sip (and I mean sip) of water before bed. Tell them this is the new rule ahead of time so they know to drink some water a good hour before bedtime. Make them go immediately before climbing into bed -even if they say they don't have to -they have to "try" -which will almost always produce a little bit. Keep this up, and you'll probably be breezing through nights with no accidents faster than you think!

My oldest son has had bedwetting issues. We used nighttime pullups until age 7, when he expressed a desire to stay dry at night. Even though I never said or did anything to make him feel bad about it, he seemed kinda sad and confused about why his younger sister could stay dry he he couldn't. So we got an enuresis alarm. It clips to his underwear and alarms at the very first drop of moisture. For the first 3-4 nights there was a smaller and smaller amount of urine on the sheets by the time I got there to help him. After that it continued to go off nightly for about 2 weeks with essentially no wetness on the bed/underwear, so I knew his brain was learning to recognize what was happening and stop it. After about another week it was only alarming 1/wk. Per the instructions we started using it every other night for 2 weeks with no alarming at night, then we were done with it. He also was not getting up to go in the night, just training his brain to hold it I guess. He is now 8 1/2, and has been having a bit of a relapse, it seemed to coincide with the start of school. So we are back on the alarm, and it is only going off 1-2/wk. Hopefully we will be over this again soon.
I really don't think his bedwetting was at all related to his fluid intake, laziness, or emotional stress. I believe his body simply wasn't ready, and bedwetting runs in my family too. I would recommend an alarm, we got ours off ebay for about $80 (malem brand). It seemed expensive at first but was well worth it in the end. It worked quickly and he was very happy about being dry at night. Good luck.

daughter was 4 1/2 and I was tired of buying the pull-ups. I just had to bite the bullet. I do limit her liquid intake 2 hrs before bedtime, but a lot of time we don't eat dinner till 7. I do the best I can. I just bought those sheet savers. put one underneath the sheet and one on top. They really do work. They aren't very expensive. I have also used them on thier pillows when they are sick and might throw-up. Then only use a small blanket, so much easier to clean then a comfortor. I just said that was it and she only had a couple of accidents that week. I totally believe it was more of a psycological thing. If you have a net to fall on then u probably will fall. After one week, she was fine. I think we have only had two accidents since that week in 6 mo and I believe it was because she didn't go to the bathroom before bed. A very important thing. She always tries before bed and if she doesn't go then she usually gets out of bed to go within an hour. I think it is her exhuse to get out of bed. Hope that helps. Good luck.

I think this is simply a biological thing and eventually they will grow out of it. My five and half year old is dry 9 out of 10 nights now. But we still wear overnight pants because that tenth night I want to sleep ;) If they don't like the pull-ups (my son is complaining that they are itchy) try another type like under jams. When he did not want to wear overnight huggies anymore we went to the store to find "big boy overnight pants". I told them we need them just in case we don't wake up when we have to go potty and he was fine with that. The underjams are suppose to look more like underwear. We also have a routine that after PJ's, snack and story time we go potty and then put our "overnight pants" on. That has really helped. After a few weeks of the new routine is when the 9 out of 10 nights dry started.

I have 3 children. One was dry at night before she was dry during the day, and completely trained herself. The other 2 potty trained very easily at age 2.5, but have never been dry at night, and one is older than your children. We have talked to the pediatrician numerous times about it. We have tried to limit fluids, wake in the middle of the night, go without pullups so they feel wet and wake up, did the Malem bedwetting alarm for months, etc. Unfortunately nothing has made a difference. I think it has to do with two things. One is how deep of a sleeper your child is. Mine slept through the blaring noise of the bedwetting alarm. I slept with her for months and woke her up every time the alarm went off. She never woke up herself. Another issue is the urine concentration hormone that another poster mentioned. I don't know the name of it, but our pediatirican said that there is a pill that can tell the body to concentrate the urine, and thus hold it until morning. However, it doesn't resolve the underlying issue. Once you stop taking the pill, you are right back to where you were. Some people use it only for sleepovers, etc.

In our many attempts, we did use some pads for the bed, so if they wet, you just pull off the pad, and don't have to completely awake everyone to change the bedding, or wash all the bedding daily. http://www.bedwettingstore.com/Bedding/category_WaterProo...
We layered a couple pads. When the first one was wet, pulled it off. Next one ready to go. (We did find that my daughter wet 3-4 times a night some nights.)

If your children are ready, give it a try without pullups for a couple weeks. For some kids, that's all they need. For 10-15% of kids, they may be chronic bedwetters for several more years. Be supportive and understanding, but also give them the responsibility for their bedding, etc. as much as possible.

You may also want to check out www.tryfordry.com

I agree with other post unless they are dry constantly then they should do what you ask. You can make a deal with them when they are dry for seven nights in a row then they can go one night without the pullups/bedtime undergarments. If they have an accident they can help peel the top layer off the bed in the am before school. and take it to the laundry room give them some of the clean up responsibility. They will feel like they have some control over the situation.

Lots of kids just can't physically "hold it" all night. They used to have (might still) things called UnderJams that look more like underwear. If they refuse, layer a sheet/a waterproof pad/a sheet/a waterproof pad etc. on their beds for easier sheet changes. Good luck!

My daughter just turned 8 and FINALLY a month prior to her bday stopped wetting the bed.

Since my daughter was feeling so upset over it (not me, HER) we had started various things to try to solve it back in January. Normally they say that it's normal till 8 and not to bother doing anything until then. Nighttime dryness is caused by a chemical being produced by the brain that tells the brain to hold the pee while asleep. So, unless they are bothered by it, let them and you get a good night sleep and keep on with the pull ups.

BUT if your children are like mine and literally crying about it, then here is what we tried
1st - went to the doc to make sure it wasn't a uti, wasn't, so doc put her on a prescription to duplicate that hormone I was talking about. It didn't work.

2nd - bought a bed wetting alarm. this helped some, she was waking up when she was just starting to go and starting to finish in the potty. (I still have it and am willing to sell it to the highest bidder, lol). She became more aware of it, and would sometimes wake up having to go, so it did have some improvement.

3rd - took her to a chiropractor. I had heard this worked for lots of kids, but the chiro said if it didn't work in 6 adjustments it wasn't going to work. Did nothing.

4th - this is what worked finally! We went to Whole Foods and bought some homeopathic bed wetting medicine. She took 5 little pills three times a day and it worked! After the 4th day of taking the pills she didn't wet her bed anymore. Two weeks after being dry consistently I took her off the pills and she started peeing again. So, we kept her on them for another month and then tried again taking her off and she was dry. Of course she was almost at that 8 yr old benchmark, so was it the pills or the age? Who knows.

I think to save your own sanity, you'll need to keep them in pullups until they stop going at night. My son just stopped at age six, so I let him skip the pullups now. He still has an accident now and then, but it's rare. Just tell your twins you know they don't want to wear the pullups, but they need to keep wearing them until their bodies learn how to hold the pee.

My friend refuses to put her son in a pullup and then stresses out and gets angry every time she changes the sheets. (Which is weekly) Now her son hides the sheets and other things, it's been really sad to watch. :( I definitely don't recommend going that route.

I had that with my son. He was potty trained so early (by age 2) but wore pull ups I think until he was 7. He was just an incredibly sound sleeper. I think the worst thing to do is to wake them up to go because then they will never learn to recognize their body telling them they have to get up to go to the bathroom. Tell them they can stop wearing pull ups when they wake up with them dry for a few days. Tell them it's no big deal that they're wearing them - some kids just sleep so soundly that they really can't wake up when their body gives them that signal. It will happen though and will probably happen sooner if everybody chills out about it. But please, don't wake them in the middle of the night. I think that's counter-productive. Good luck!

It can be physiological. Apparently there is a hormone that's produced at night which tells the kidneys to store fluid for a long stretch of time and not release it to the bladder until the morning. Some kids don't have enough of this hormone. For some kids the problem gets better around 1st, 2nd grade - but for some kids it can last until puberty when all the hormones kick in to high gear.

My daughter was wearing nighttime pull-ups through all of 1st grade - apparently about 5%-10% of kids have this issue until this age from things I've read. I told my daughter that there's probably at least one other kid in her class who needs nighttime pullups. She really wanted to be dry at night so we tried a number of times to not use pullups but more than half of the time she'd wake up wet in the middle of the night. She'd be more upset than me. I'd always have a change of PJ's an sheets ready - I got pretty good at it in the dark. My nephew was still having this issue in 3rd grade and the pediatrician prescribed medication that nudged the pituitary to relase the needed hormone. This was about 17 years ago - and the drug was very costly at that time - between $500 - $1000 monthly a that time and luckily their health plan covered it. Not sure if it's still used and what the cost is - but I don't think the pediatrician would consider it for another year or two.

BTW - we also tried restricting water in the eveings, pushing water in the early part of the day, etc. Nothing worked until her little body was ready - and after about 2 weeks of dry pullups in the A.M. we were finally good to go.

Good luck - I hope this helps!

We are having the same issue. My almost 7 year old is still in goodnights (pull ups weren't absorbant enough!). He also doesn't want to wear them anymore.

Here are some tips we are currently trying:
Allow liquids as much as he wants during the day and at dinner is the last time he gets to drink something. He knows that it is to help him (but he still asks for more a lot of the time, but its getting better).

When he has to go to the bathroom, ask him to hold it for another 5 minutes (this is teaching those muscles to hold it longer).

Someone told me about a nerve that gets compressed when kids are laying down and a couple of visits to a chiropractor could fix the compression (we are looking into finding a chiropractor who has experience with this).

Its a long process, I know. Sometimes their muscles just aren't ready.

Do they ever have a dry night? Since we started this new routine, we get about one dry night a week. So, *something* is happeneing. He is also getting up on his own sometimes now too (he was a very deep sleeper, as you described, as well, when we tried to get him up at night).

Best of luck!

This is to all parents who have a child who wets the bed past a certain age. I remember telling our peds that our son was still wetting the bed at 9 yearsold He told us that there are many children who still wet the bed, because he sees them. It is possible that a child will begin to stay dry when they hit puberty. This past summer we did a sleep study, because of his sever sleep problems and found out that he has sleep apnea. He will quite breathing on average of 9 times an hour. For a child it should be none. One of the signs of sleep apnea is bedwetting.

My daughter is about to turn 5 yrs. old in a couple of weeks and we are having the exact same problem. Trust me I know what you are going through! My husbands family says it runs in their family so I am looking for answers as well. They just keep telling me to do the same things you have tried. Not really working for us either. What makes matters worse is she is as tall and strong as a 6 yr. old. I have heard of some devices that wake them up in the night but still need to research more before trying one. I too would appreciate any advice.
*** in response to later comments***
My daughter was potty trained in one week at the age of 2 1/2 with NO PULL-UPS. We only began using pull-ups when after 1 year she was still wetting the bed in the middle of the night, sometimes twice, and it was clear that there was something else going on. (I think after one year it was clear that unless I wanted to continue another 365+ of washing sheets every night I needed the pull-ups.) Does anyone have any other advice even if unconventional? (ie. has anyone used the "wake you in the middle of the night sensors?")

My six year old still wears pull ups at night. The PED isn't concerned and said to let him outgrow the bed wetting. We tried no pull ups for a week when he was 5 1/2 because he didn't want to wear them anymore. We made him sleep on top of a quilted pad we purchased on Amazon. It soaks up the liquid and keeps the bed dry. We bought two and have also used them for the little ones to sleep on when they have a stomach virus too. He himself became tired of waking up with wet pajamas so eventually he decided to go back to pull ups.
My friend says she wet the bed until she was 12. Her parents were young (had her at seventeen) and made fun of her and she will never forget that. She is now 35 and perfectly fine as far as bladder issues.
I'm definitely not going to make it a big issue with my son and certainly wouldn't make him change the sheets. He isn't wetting on purpose. If he could control the wetting at night I know he would! He is such a good boy.