Help with Bed Wetting!

My 4 year old has had this problem and my pediatrician told me to wake him every night before I got to bed (my son goes to bed around 8 pm and I go to bed around 11pm). This has seemed to really help. This way he goes before he goes to bed, before I go to bed and there normally has not been a problem since. I find this a simple solution and actually now there are times when I hear him wake and go to the bathroom himself. This has helped him to make the connection between head and bladder!!!! Much luck to you. I'd love to hear if this advice helped

Get some PODs you can purchase them at www.pottytrainingsolutions.com (I think or just search potty training-PODs), they are terrific and I would almost swear by them. What they will do is allowing him to feel when he has an accident, but they will not mess the bed, and his clothes. It looks like a large maxipad, and doesn't absorb the wetness, it still leaves it on the skin. Most children who use these, when they are almost potty trained are fully trained before the end of the container. I hope this helps. If it doesn't and he is still wetting the bed, it could be a medical condition and I would seek help from his peditrition. Good luck.

T.,
I know some kids who had problems with bed wetting when they were much older, 10-13 years old. Keeping them off of anything caffinated really helped and, although it's not easy, they were taken to the restroom in the middle of the night until they quit wetting the bed. Also things like stress in the home or in the child's life can be a factor. I'm of course not sure that any of these apply to your little boy, they are just things I know about. I'm sure keeping drinks away after 7 will help too. Good luck. I hope it's over soon - for his sake too.

My son also wears a pull-up at night. I wet the bed until I was 11, my sister until she was 10. My girls wet the bed until they were 4 & 6. Sometimes your body does not send the signal to your brain that your bladder is full and you need to wake up. As you grow older, the signals change and you know when to wake up. There really isn't anything you can do but let the body take control.

Hi,

I am a SAHM so this happened to work for my three year old. I usually tell him that if he wants to have drink then he needs to go potty after he drinks some milk or water (usually it's just a sip). There were times when he would wet the bed and it was continuous. So I told him that if he wet the bed next time, he would have to take a quick bath right after he wets the bed. He'd usually wake up crying because he felt wet. So I did this for like two times one was like 2 am and the other time was 4 am. I can tell you he did not like feeling wet and woken up for a bath. He doesn't wet the bed anymore. He usually wakes up in time to get up and go potty in the middle of the night. Sometimes he almost doesn't make it so he wets his undies a little bit, so we just clean him up and change them out. It sure beats having to change all the linen and waking up for the bath. My son has recognized when he needs to go to the bathroom and that there can be consequences for wetting the bed. I hope this helps. Take Care.

C.

He may have an underdeveloped bladder. I would direct that question to his doctor.

Hi T.. I have a 6 year old son with the same problem. A lot of people kept telling me that he was just being lazy and not wanting to get up, but that isn't the case. My mom had the problem when she was a kid and grew out of it around 8 or 9. I dont know if heredity has anything to do with it or not. I have talked to his pediatrician and she said that if we have tried the not drinking after dinner and getting him up in the middle of the night and it still doesn't work to not worry about it. Kids usually grow out of it. I guess a lot of kids are like this for some reason. I wouldn't worry about it too much, he will most likely grow out of it.

S.

Deep Sleeper? I would try taking him again in the middle of the night to take him again. Our son sometimes has this problem as well as my mother in law and her family. They are such deep sleepers, they don't wake up. Good Luck!

I had this same problem at your son's age. My parents had to talk to my doctor. I had a sleep disorder where I slept too deeply at night so my bladder getting full at night did not phase me and didn't wake me up like it should have. I had to have an alarm thing that went under my sheets and when it got wet it would go off and it was loud and scary. My parents were not aloud to turn it off I had to get up and do it. I guess it only took one night of that thing and I was cured! Since then I have never wet the bed again.

I would chat with your doctor or ped. about what might be the best route.

Some kids have problems with this and there really isn't anything that they can do about it. Their little bladders can't keep up with the growth of their bodies. Obviously children do not WANT to wet the bed... so try to never make a big deal out of it.

However, sometimes there are medical issues that your doctor can help you with. I recommend discussing it with your pediatrician and see what they have to say.

One last tip... milk doesn't go through the body like water. Maybe after dinner time, you could limit what he drinks to milk only.

I would definitely talk to his doctor about it if you haven't already. I wet the bed for years as a child due to a bladder condition that finally had to be corrected with surgery when I was 8. Make sure he's not getting UTIs.

Here are some things that my mom used on me that helped:

Don't let him drink more than a couple sips at a time after dinnertime (for me it was around 5pm), and nothing caffeinated past lunch-time (around noon or 1pm). Caffeinated drinks shouldn't be allowed often anyway; caffeine stays in your system for up to 24 hours and can really contribute to the bed-wetting.

Take him to the bathroom at least twice an evening (once after dinner and once before bed), and make him stand/sit there for 5 minutes trying to go, to make sure it's all out.

During the rest of the day, try to get him to go to the bathroom (even if he doesn't feel like he needs to) at least once every two or three hours. He may not be understanding or even getting the message from his brain saying that he has to pee until it's too late, and going this often lets his bladder get used to being empty... He should start recognizing when his bladder feels full, and that will help him at night.

Cranberry juice and water are always the best things to drink for kids with bladder issues, so try to stock up. ;)

If none of that improves his bed-wetting, then middle of the night trips to the bathroom, again making him try for a full 5 minutes, may be in order.

In the meantime, if you want to try any "big kid diapers" or plastic sheets or whatever will make your life easier on the clean-up end, feel free.

*makes sure to save all this so it's handy when she has to deal with it in few years* (Both my husband and I wet the bed as kids, so I'm fully expecting to have this come up with our daughter.)

Hi T.,
My niece had the same problem and wet the bed until she was 9. There is a nasal spray that can help some children, but you'll have to get a prescription. She wore a "good night" (bigger size pull up) until her bladder and brain signals got it together. We tried getting her up in the middle of the night and everything else we could think of, but nothing worked. If she was invitied to a sleepover, she and her mother would hide the pull-up and a ziploc bag in her sleeping bag and she would put it on and take it off before anyone knew it was there. And if she had an accident, she would put it in the bag, and no one would know. After less than a week with the nasal spray, she stopped. Since there is a major company that designed larger size pull-ups that have been on the market for years, you know your son isn't the only one.

Hi T.,

I am in your boat- my son, almost 6, still wets the bed nightly. We have been very relaxed about it, and have made sure not to make him feel bad about it. We told him that his body doesn't make the connection to wake up to pee. He wears a pull-up to bed, which is hard for him, because his 3 year old sister has been night- trained for several months. We even had him checked out with a specialist- they ran several tests. His bladder is fine. There is a family history of his grandmother and uncle wetting the bed, so I think it must be just how he is going to be. So, we have accepted the fact that we will continue to put him in the "goodnights" until he stops... which could be 9 years old! Some people have suggested medication, which could be an option for you. Also, I have heard of an alarm that goes off and wakes the child when they pee. I hope that it helps to know that other kids are in the same situation. To us, the only big deal will be when he goes to a friend's house to spend the night in the future. I think he knows that if a friend made him feel bad about it that the boy isn't such a good friend after all...

Good Luck, T.