Bed Wetting - Covington,GA

A.,
I am the mother of two boys, ages 14 and 10, both of my boys had a bed wetting problem. Unfortunately, their father grew up with a bed wetting problem as well. Patience is all I can offer you! (That and good mattress pads!!) There is a medication, I believe a nasal spray, available by prescription that you can get from the pediatrician. Good luck!!!

I would wake her up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, maybe around 2 or 3 am. This will get her in the habit of getting up going to the bathroom. This is better than having to get up in the morning and have to wash sheets and bath her before getting her ready for school.

Hi A., My sister had a bed wetting problem when she was young that was actually medically related. You may want to talk with your pediatrician just to rule out any medical issues.

Good luck with this. I know it is very frustrating - for both of you.

Some kids take a little longer than others. Maybe it would be ok for your little lady to wear night time pull ups for a while. Just work on her confidence during the day. Not every kid has the same time table or muscle control. Remember your little lady didn't read any parenting books that say when she "should" be potty trained. Good luck.

Hi, My son is 3 1/2 and wets at night several times a week. My pediatrician told me that during times of growth the bladder is last to catch up and a child will often has accidents day/night. He only pees at night so he still puts on a diaper(not pull ups). If it's dry we reuse the next evening. I don't think he has any control. We do all the preventitive things that you do so I don't make a big deal of it. Bedwetting can cause a child a lot of stress so the emergency diaper has eleminated that for us. I don't wash sheets every other day, and he doesn't wake up wet, cold and moody. I have two siblings that wet the bed periodically, and they say they had no control. It stopped in grade school.

I was a bedwetter. My parents tried everything, no drinking, waking me up, machines that wake you up, and they had to tape diapers on me...I am 35 so this was a long time ago. At 10 I was put on a medicine:Imprimimine, which helped most of the time. I don't know if they still make it but it was for older children than your daughter. Your pediatrician should have advice. I wet the bed until I was 13 and hit puberty. It is fairly common and hereditary from what I hear. Dont make a big deal of it. For me it was embarrassing and frustrating, making it traumatic to spend the night out.If I knew we were going somewhere or there was a slumber party I would stress for days. Pull ups, matress covers, wee pads, stock up and layer them so you can just peel the top layer off the bed. The pull ups work wonders for my nephew, his dr says he will outgrow it as I did. Good luck. I feel for her! J.

A., try not to get discouraged. Kids have small bladders and they have to mature enough that they can hold it longer at night time. Every child is different and it happens at different ages for everone. If it really bothers her or you, try talking to the pediatrician about it.

You may want to try the Overnights pants that have come out. They are great and they even have them that look like shorts now.

S.-mom of 2 great boys

Hi A.,
I have two girls one is 9 mo.'s and the other is 2 1/2 yrs old and is potty trained during the days. I have not yet made the leap for the night time training. My mother is swearing to me that the best way to approach this is to wake up yourself, go to your child's room,and bring them to the potty a couple times during the night. She says it helps to get them used to having to rise when they're not really wanting to, feeling groggy, but teaches them to be used to gettting up to go potty. She says after no time it will be second nature for the child to have to get up like this. Like I said I haven't yet tried this with my daughter, but I plan to, just because she so strongly believes this is the way to handle it. I'm going to try and work this for a month, and hopefully she will grasp this get out of bed when you're super sleepy to go potty concept! I'll keep at it if I see even a little success.
Best of luck to you with this! Maybe this could help =)

We were having a similair problem. However, I made myself get rid of diapers all together and make it work out for us. I got up every two hours the first couple of nights to check if he was wet. I finally pin pointed when he was wetting the bed. He was wetting the bed between 4 and 6 every morning. When I figured that out I got up at 4 and checked him and just took him to the bathroom. The next morning I got up at 4:30. I now get up every morning at 4:30 take him to the bathroom and put him back to bed. We have been doing this for a while and now he is starting to wake up at 4:30 and we meet in the hall and he goes potty and then puts himself back to bed. I don't have to set an alarm I just wake up and know it is what I have to do. I haven't cut his liquids back. We eat dinner late and I don't feel like cutting his liquids will work anyway.

One thing that saved me on laundry I had a cloth bed pad. My sister worked for a scrub/medical supply store and was able to buy them through work. I started putting it under his sheet and then all I had to wash was the sheet and the bed pad. It was totally worth the $8.00 I spent!

Good Luck

B. M.

Sometimes children just take a little longer than others. She is still so young that I wouldn't worry too much. My daughter was not completely potty trained at night for quite some time. Have you tried using pull-ups to bed? This will help with your frustration and will remind her that she needs to get up to go to the bathroom. They tend to be a bit uncomfortable and bulky which might help in the process of getting her out of bed. Also, try setting an alarm to get her up to go potty in the middle of the night. This might help her with the routine of waking up and getting up to go potty. You might be exhausted for a week, but it worked for us!

Try your best to let her know that sometimes these things take a while and you will work "together" to figure this out. Please don't compare her to your older daughter as this could hurt her in the long run.

Best of luck!

I have five children under age 10. Two of them wet their beds until ages 8 and 9. (One actually still does occasionally). Two of them never wet the bed once they were out of diapers. (One is still in diapers). Bed wetting has to do with the development of neural pathways in the brain. It also has a genetic component. There is nothing you can do to make the brain develop differently. I suggest you do pull ups and try really hard not to make a big deal about it. There is nothing she can do about it, no matter how many times you wake her up in the night. You will only make her feel bad. Be discreet and treat it like a non-issue. This can make or break a child's self esteem. I know, I had bedwetting issues until quite late (and they didn't have pull ups back then).

My daughter who is now 7 wore a pull-up at night until she was 4 1/2. She was such a sound sleeper that she would not wake up not even if she had wet the bed she would sleep right through it. Once she hit 4 I did wake her up during the night to make her go but she often still ended up wetting the bed so I resorted to pull-ups and then once she hit 4 1/2 she started waking up on her own. Some kids have a bed wetting problem often even later than 4 so don't stress yourself out she will start waking up. They just sleep so soundly at night that it's not processing to their brain to wake up and go. Good luck. I have a three year old boy who wants nothing to do with going to the potty so you are way ahead of me.=)

Hi A.!!
I do understand your concern. My brother, when potty trained, wet the bed from that age until he was 13 years old and so did my dad. The point(you may not want to hear)is that she will grow out of it. I know you want her to get up and use the bathroom but right now it's just not happening. To keep her from wetting the sheets, you may want to use a pull up at night. Encourage her and help her to understand what you want her to do and she'll get it one day. Never pressure her or make her feel bad about wetting the bed. I hope I was able to help. :)

O.

Some kids just have this issue and most grow out of it by the time they are 5. There can be genetic tendancy, more common in boys, but runs through the fathers line. See if your husband or his dad had any problems with bed wetting. They have sensors that you can hook up to their underwear to go off like an alarm clock once they start to get wet (to help the child learn to wake up when they need to pee) but I think that might be a little scary for someone who's only 3. I had a brother who had problems until he was 11 (genetic) so be patient. It's really usually not their fault. The other option to is to see how many hours of sleep she's getting. If she's overly tired she won't be able to wake herself up to go... so you could put her to bed earlier if that's an option. Good luck!

My seven year old still has to wear Goodites every night. If she forgets to put it on she wets the bed every time. goodnites.com has alot of good info on bedwetting. Good luck.

Hi

i had this very same thing with my oldest son , this helped me out alot was cut drinks off at 5 that way you give her time to empty bladder and see if that works.

T.

I have a friend who's daughter did this until about 6 years old. Put her in pull ups. There's nothing to be done. It just takes some kids longer to be able to get through the night dry. The doctor told her they wouldn't consider this abnormal until about 7 or 8 years old.

I understand where you are coming from, my son wet the bed until he was 7! It was a nightmare! I took him to the doctor and they precribed a nasal spray that actually worked. It wasn't long after he started taking the spray that he finally just stopped wetting the bed on his own. I think that some children just wet the bed and can't help it, but they will grow out of it. Have faith!

It is considered normal for a 3-4 yr old to be wetting the bed. Her bladder may just not be big enough yet or she may be a very deep sleeper, which was mine and my daughter's case.
It is also hereditary. I wet the bed until 6th or 7th grade. I found out I had an uncle that did also. My 8 year old still wets the bed. From my own experience, I think cutting off drinks early especially as early as 5pm-7pm is cruel. You might limit them, but if they are thirsty, then they need a drink and it doesn't work anyway. We have also tried getting her up around 12- 12:30 am and taking her to the potty...she still has a full pullup in the morn. But thank God for pullups...I wish I had had tham as a child. Kids with ADHD also have a greater tendency to wet the bed. Just don't punish her or make her feel bad about(personal experiences)
Give it another year , then ask your doctor, but some kids just do it. I have two other kids that didn't wet the bed.

Save yourself some time and effort and let her wear pull ups at night. I have a 8 year old that still wets at night and his doctor says his bladder will catch up. He sleeps very sound and just cannot get up (we have tried). His father was a bed wetter and both his fathers parents were bed wetters. They were almost nine when they stopped and pediatrician says that is when mine will most likely stop. Don't worry, my husband never wets the bed anymore so there is hope for little one. Have a great day and hope this helps a little.