4 Year Old Bed-wetting

I know this my wear you out too; but what my husband did was get up in the middle of the night and he woke my son up and took him to the bathroom. After a while at he gets older he will grow out of it.

Hope this helps,

P..

i am not sure if i am the right person to give advice about this. my daughter is 4 1/2 and she still wears a pull up at night. i tell her if she can wake up dry 2 days in a row then she doesnt have to wear them anymore. i try not be pressured by everyone else. i know she wont be wearing pullups when she goes to college so i choose not to make this issue a battle. i have heard that it takes longer for boys. my nephew was in a pull up til he was 8. my husband said he was a bed wetter too. i do know that as they get older it gets more embarrassing for them, and my daughter tends to take the lead off of other kids, so i am sure when she has her next sleep over and see's that other girls her age dont wear them then she wont want to either. i think you are taking the right steps to minimize his nightly accidents, however physically maybe his bladder cant hold it, or maybe he sleeps so soundly that he doesnt realize he has to go.
my daughter and i talk about it alot, and as much as i try to encourage her to not have to wear them anymore, i dont want her to feel bad about herself and then make it more of an issue. i have noticed that some ppl have some serious expectations and feelings on this matter and so i say: do what you think is best for you and your boy and the rest will come.

I also have a four year old who does the same thing. I was told by a family freind who is a doctor that it nothing to worry about when the child is below 5. Generally, boys' bladder develope slower than girls and it the reason most boys wet the bed and until they are 5 we don't need to worry. I stopped my 4 year old son from wearing pull-ups at night thinking waking him up will solve my problem. When he goes to bed at 9pm, by midnight when I go to wake him to use the bath room, his bed is already wet.
I got him back to start wearing his pull-ups hoping by 5 everything will be ok.

Hi Barbara,
I'm sure you've gotten all kinds of responses to this question so I'll just add my two cents in. Put him back in his pull ups at night. Whats it gonna hurt by doing so? Then the next time you have a doctors appointment talk with his ped. about it and see if there might be some medical reason for it. When I was growing up my oldest sister wet the bed at night until she was close to 18yrs old.(not something she would appreciate me telling anyone mind you) They finally gave her some medication that stopped the bedwetting with in a couple months and the problem has never returned. You might also try waking him up before you yourself go to bed and have him go to the bathroom. It might get him through the night, leave a night light on in his bedroom and one in the bathroom, it might be that he's waking up in the middle of the night to a dark room and is afraid to go into the bathroom with it dark, or leave him a small flashlight on the bedstand for him to use if he wakes up and needs to go, making sure that he understands that it is only to be used for bathroom use and not for playing with and that it is ok for him to get up in the middle of the night if mommy and daddy are in bed sleeping to go potty. I hope things work out for you and that he gets better control of is bladder. He's still young yet so I'm sure it bothers him just as much as it bothers you that he is wetting the bed.

Hi Barbara ~ my 11 yr. old son is still occasionally wetting the bed. I talked with his ped., told him that he doesn't drink pass a certain time and goes to the bathroom right before he goes to sleep. He said that first the limit of drinks is not going to stop him from wetting the bed, only the amount that he pees. He said that he is sound sleeper (literally a train could go through his room and he wouldn't have a clue) and doesn't realize that he has to go. I was told he would outgrow it. My suggestion is to not berate your child, but have him help clean up and talk to your dr.

I have had this problem with my 5 year old daughter. She has out grown pull ups and now uses Goodnites. I also limit her water intake after 7 pm and alway have her use the bathroom before bed. I used to get upset because I thought that she was afraid of the dark or to lazy to get up at night. I put a night light in her room and in the bathroom. Nothing worked. Than I consulted with our family doctor and also got a second opinion. Many children just have a weak bladder. Both advised that I should continue with the Goodnites and let time take its course. Now my daughter does not wake up every morning feeling sad and ashamed because her bed is wet. Hope this helps.

I'm actually going thru the same thing, but my 4 year old makes it thru most nights. However, he's still wetting the bed about once a week. I have noticed that my son pees the bed more often on the nights when we have our ac on and the house is chilly. If we open the windows and turn off the ac, he doesn't seem to be wetting the bed as much. I know this isn't the perfect answer, but I'm rowing in the boat right next to you. I just wanted to share what I've noticed with my little man. Good luck!!

Smiles,
E. B

Hi Barbara! I see there is at least one response you have not received yet and that would be to take your son to a Chiropractor. I have worked for Chiropractors and I know that sometimes there are problems (such as this) that can be corrected through Chiropractic care. You may not be thrilled with this response however I, personally, have seen it to be effective.
And of course, it doesn't hurt to get more information on it first. I have a brochure on my computer I can send to you if you'd like. I would just need your email address. Also, you can call any Chiropractor and I'm sure they would also be glad to explain to you what could "possibly" be going on with your son and how Chiropractic can help.
As I said, it can't hurt to get the information first - what the heck, it's free to ask for information!!! Let me know if you're interested in the brochure and best of luck to you.
~B.

My son is almost 14 and still wets the bed. He has to wear 'Good Nights' when he sleeps at friends' houses. You may want to wake your son up a few times a night to go to the bathroom. Sometimes this helps and sometimes it doesn't. It worked for my son for almost a year and then it seemed to stop. My pediatrician told me I need to have tests done for him on his bladder and also have his sleep patterns studied so they can figure out how to fix the problem permanently. Just remember it isn't his fault and he may just grow out of it in a few years. Keep the pull ups on him for now. Talk to the pediatrician and see what he/she says. I know it's frustrating to wash sheets, because I have washed sheets every day for almost 9 years. His 'Good Nights' are not absorbent enough now, cuz he's older and heavier, so he leaks. We are getting my son's bladder tested along with his sleeping patterns. I hope this helps a little.

Hello,
I went thru this with both boys, neither of whom were potty trained until they were 4. My second son, however, kept wetting the bed at night. We finally talked to our Dr and she told us to find a company that helps to train them. With my son, it was because he was such a deep sleeper, he would not notice that he had wet the bed. I ended up getting a wettness monitor and within 6 months he had it controlled, he was 8 then. Good luck, and try the chiropractor too.

I have heard the boys are harder then girls when it come to potty training but what I did with my daugther was buy the thick underpants along with the plastic underpants to put over them and when she wet herself it did not affect the sheets but she also woke and was not only wet but also cold and did not like that feeling about a week of that and no more bed wetting..hope this helps...Good Luck

Hi Barbara
One of the suggestions is before you go to bed at night take him to the bathroom, and if you happen to wake up in the middle of the night take him then also.

I have had experience with bedwetting with 2 of my children. One was my oldest he actually wet the bed till he was 12, (he is currently 22) the way I dealt with it was I didn't berate him, didn't make him feel bad; I asked the Dr. about it and he said some kids just sleep so heavily that they don't pick up on the signal their brain is sending them to get up and go to the bathroom. So with him I just taught him how to get up, clean himself up and take his sheet off his bed, the other thing was I would use two sheets, one on his bed and and another on top of the plastic bag I put so I wouldn't have to change the sheets all the time. Also put some plastic under his sheet so the mattress doesn't get messed up. Currently my 8 year old wets the bed I basically do the same with him as I did with the oldest one. OH and most definately put him back in the pull-ups at night. I had my 8 year old in the "Goodnights", but the waist band irritaed his skin.

I hope these ideas help. Good Luck.

Have you tried waking him up a few hours after he has gone to sleep to use the bathroom and go right back to bed. Some kids bladders are just not ready at that age to hold it all night long.
K.

Hi Barbara,
I can tell you what I did, wetting the bed runs in my family... on my mothers' side and it came down to myself and a couple of my siblings... each with different times they matured out of it... yelling does not work. (the little girl I used to babysit for her mom yelled at her and belittled her and it made me sick...) Here is what I did with my own kids; my older two came before Pull Ups so I put an old shower curtain on thier mattress to save it and just kept up with laundry... (in my family it runs to like 12 or 14 depending on if its a boy or girl)... so when my third son was potty training is when they came out with the pull ups.. I was SSSSSSSSooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy. I used them with him unitl he was ready to tell me he didn't want them that he was able to control it (he came to me at 2 and said, "mommy, I want to wear underwear like a big boy... diapers are for babies like Josh." (Josh was his 6 month old baby bro... so I knew that he knew his mind...

you can also take him to the dr they have machines to 'train' them; you can get him up a couple times in the middle of the night like if you get up to go take him along; they also have pills...

good luck,
S.

Hi Barbara-
Before I give you advice on what to do, I need to ask a few questions.
Is it hard for your child to wake up? When you try to wake him in the middle of the night, does he fully awake?
Does he remember in the morning that you woke him and that he wet the bed?
I have a few suggestions based on how you answer.
H. A.