Night Time Potty Training - Staten Island,NY

My 6 year old still wears a pull up at night potty trained since she was 2.5. She is a deep sleeper and won't even wake up if we try to get her up to use the potty. My 4 year old son just started wearing underwear at night this week after 3 weeks of not wetting in his pull-up. He has been potty trained since just before age 3. Each kid is different and it has more to do with genetics and brain growth than learning to hold it.

There is no such thing as nighttime potty training. When a child is physically able to sleep dry, they will. A large % of children are wearing pull-ups at night at age 4. The % goes down until as late as age 12.

My daughter wet at night, less and less frequently, until she was 8. Now at nine, we've had only two wet nights this year. I think we may be done with the extra laundry now (!)

The tendency to wet at night is somewhat genetic. My daughter's father also wet the bed as a child.

So please be patient, it is now your son's fault, there is nothing you or he can do to prevent this from happening. Don't cut off liquids, that doesn't work, don't wake him up during the night to go, that doesn't work and just leaves you both tired.

You can't actually TRAIN him not to wet at night if you plan to let him SLEEP at night. He's not doing it on purpose, so he can't stop on purpose.

You can help his body by not offering drinks at bedtime or making sure he uses the potty before sleep, but beyond that, you'll have to wait until he gets there developmentally.

The good news is, once he's able to do it, it'll pretty much take care of itself.

HTH
T.

I think part of it is their sleep and the ability to wake up and use the restroom. My DD is only partially dry during the night/naps, but 100% during the day. If she's dozing off and feels the need, she'll get up, but if she's OUT, she's out. We put her in a diaper at night (she's 3.5) and praise her any morning that she is dry. We also try to limit drinks too near bedtime and make her try the potty before she goes to bed. At this point, I'm not that worried. When she's older I'll worry more about it. Wetting the bed is such a common thing with little kids.

My daughter is 5 1/2 and still wears pull-ups/Overnights at night - she is SUCH a deep sleeper. Even her pedi says that when their body is ready, they will be ready. I would probably get a lot of grief about my daughter's age and pull-ups/Overnights, but, that's what's happening!

Sue W. is right – very, very few kids can be "trained" out of peeing in their sleep (enuresis) because it's almost always simply a case of certain body functions not being mature enough to stay dry. This maturation happens at different rates among individual children. All but an unfortunate few get there before adolescence.

Here's a list of common causes of bedwetting (from http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/urinary/en...:

Doctors don't always know the exact cause of nocturnal enuresis. They do have some theories, though, on what may contribute to someone developing the condition:

* Hormonal problems. A hormone called antidiuretic hormone, or ADH, causes the body to produce less urine at night. But some people's bodies don't make enough ADH, which means their bodies may produce too much urine while they're sleeping.
* Bladder problems. In some people with enuresis, too many muscle spasms can prevent the bladder from holding a normal amount of urine. Some teens and adults also have relatively small bladders that can't hold a large volume of urine.
* Genetics. Teens with enuresis often have a parent who had the same problem at about the same age. Scientists have identified specific genes that cause enuresis.
* Sleep problems. Some teens may sleep so deeply that they don't wake up when they need to pee
* Medical conditions. Medical conditions that can trigger secondary enuresis include diabetes, constipation, and urinary tract infections. Spinal cord trauma, such as severe stretching of the spinal cord resulting from a fall, sports injury, auto accident, or other event may also play a role in enuresis, although this is rare.
* Psychological problems. Some experts believe that stress can be associated with enuresis. It's not uncommon to feel stressed out during the teenage years, and things such as divorce, the death of a friend or family member, a move to a new town and adapting to a new school and social environment, or family tension can all feel overwhelming.
Doctors don't know exactly why, but more than twice as many guys as girls have enuresis. It is frequently seen in combination with ADHD.

Sounds like your son is still young. Hang in there – he'll probably mature enough to stay dry during sleep sometime in the next couple of years. If kids are still bedwetting by the time they're 5 or 6, it's probably a good thing to have a medical check to make sure there are no underlying problems.

Some kids can be walked to the bathroom during the night, but quality sleep is important to health and development, and not all children will handle this disturbance well. And it's not the same thing as sleeping dry through the night, it's basically one more tradeoff the parents must make in order to cut down on laundry or purchasing overnight diapers.

I know my friend would cut her kids off from drinking like 2 hours before bed time. I have also been told to wake them up in the middle of the night. This does not work for everyone trust me as it does not for my 9 1/2 year old. A lot of his is genetic. He sleeps so heavily he does not wake up. Even trying to wake him up in the middle of the night to go is vertually impossible. So if those above does not work just know you are not alone. But I do know it works for some!

Good luck and God Bless!

Nighttime, as others have noted, takes longer than daytime dryness. How heavily the child sleeps, whether or not the child sleeps so deeply that he can't be wakened in time by the urge to "go," his genetics, and much more all play a role. Above all -- please don't discipline him or punish him over nighttime wetting because it's totally out of his control for quite a while to come.

What worked well for us was that when I went to bed, several hours after my daughter had gone to sleep, I would gently get her up and walk her (with my hands right on her shoulders) to the toilet; pull down her panties, help her onto the toilet (or potty seat) and almost every time, she would pee and the rest of the night would be dry. I didn't turn on the bathroom light or a light in her room, but a light was on nearby that was sufficient. Turning on lights wakes them too much. This does not work for everyone or every child; some kids will instantly be too wakeful and hard to get back to sleep, while others will not pee at that point and will still wet the bed later, I'm sure. For my daughter, I think the act of sitting in position on the toilet was her body's cue to just let the pee go, even though she was mostly still asleep.

You could try it with your son. If doing this wakes him and jazzes him up and he's cranky the next day it's not for you, but it can work if he is mostly really sleepwalking!

Hi R.,
You can't "train" a child for overnight dryness. It's not like daytime dryness where they learn when they have to go, and take themselves there. Night training is not about waking up to pee, but about the bladder growing and maturing to the point that it doesn't empty at night. He is 3 years old. Many 3 year olds still wet at night. I'd forgo the pullup for a diaper, which will hold more liquid and costs less, if he's just using the pullup for the same thing.

It will probably be a bit longer before he is 100% nighttime trained. It's more about the 'trigger' going off in their heads that they have to go.

You can limit drinks before bed, wake him up one more time to go right before you go to bed, etc...but I think mostly it's just time.