No matter how many sticker charts you have, incentives and even bribes, you STILL need to put him in diapers at night. Here’s your help to stop bedwetting!
Congratulations! Your toddler is now potty trained. The little cherub happily wears big-kid underwear throughout the day, and proudly and LOUDLY announces each and every bodily function before, during and after they take place.
But wait – the little tot is not dry at night! No matter how many sticker charts you provide, incentives or even down-right bribes, you STILL need to put her/ him in diapers at night.
I know you are tired of buying diapers and you had just moved the diaper funds to your Starbucks allocation. Before you feel disappointed… check out:
13 clever solutions to stop bedwetting!
(- And more than anything, please know that bedwetting is PERFECTLY NORMAL!
Get ALL your potty training questions answered in one place!
Is your toddler ready for potty training? Is your child’s bedwetting normal?
Our Potty Training 101 Resource Page has ALL the potty training answers AND encouragement you need!
As a mother of four boys, I have had a bed-wetter (or two, or three) and one that night-time trained without delay. I treated them all the same, used the same potty training incentives, same bed time routine… everything was the same! So what happened here? NOTHING HAPPENED. Nothing is “WRONG” – our boys are just individuals and as I tell them: “we all learn different things at different times – when we are ready!”
Fun Facts About Bedwetting:
- Most children are potty trained by 4 years old.
- By age 5 only about 15% are still waking up wet.
- Between the ages of 8 – 11 the number drops to 5%
- Boys are more likely to be extended night-time-wetters than girls.
- Children are 30% more likely to be bed-wetters if one or both of their parents wet their beds as children.
When should you mention bedwetting to your pediatrician:
- As with all things related to your kids, if it worries you – call the pediatrician. Personally I address it every year at our well-visit, just for good measure.
- If his/ her self esteem is adversely affected.
- If your child is older than 6-7 years old. You and the pediatrician may decide to wait with treatments, but it is best to at least discuss it.
- If the sheets have been dry for a while, and then the night-time wetting starts again.
- If your child is experiencing increased thirst, painful urination, discolored urine or snoring along with the bedwetting.
- Possible causes for bed-wetting: small bladder, bladder control nerves are slow to mature, hormone imbalance, stress, sexual abuse, infection of bladder or kidneys, sleep apnea, diabetes, constipation or a structural defect.
- This is what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say about bedwetting.
[bctt tweet=”13 clever solutions to stop #Bedwetting. Help your child wake up dry – today. Tips fr a mom of 4! ” username=”MamaintheNow”]
13 Solutions to Stop Bedwetting in Kids:
- Talk to your child about bedwetting. This is your chance to sit down and have one of many future heartfelt conversations with your son/ daughter.
- Share your own personal experience with bedwetting.
- Explain that you are not upset.
- Reiterate that you know it is not done intentionally. (It is always best to reassure them one too many times. Even if you never act mad, your child may very well worry.)
- Establish a predictable bedtime routine.
- Have your child use the bathroom as the first and the last part of their routine, this is called“double voiding.”
- Gently wake up your child before you go to bed, walk him/ her to the bathroom.
- Limit fluid intake after dinner, do NOT eliminate, but limit.
- However, this does not apply if your child has been hot, sweaty or very active.
- Stock up on Huggies Goodnights, they are covered under many medical flexible spending accounts.
- Have two or three sets of sheets that you rotate on your child’s bed.
- I put on clean sheets as soon as I pull the wet ones off – this way I am not trying to make his bed with clean sheets right at bed time.
- Buy a good water-proof mattress pad – or two, accidents WILL happen – even if he/ she wears nighttime “pull ups.”
- I have recently switched to disposable medical bed pads and they do NOT leak onto the mattress. They are VERY effective and there’s no chance of lingering odor since you just toss them after they get wet.
- IF you end up with a urine stained mattress, this is a SUPER easy and inexpensive way to remove the stain and smell of urine!
- Remember what it was like for you! If you had understanding parents – replicate that experience. If your family struggled to support you – improve your child’s experience.
- Start the dialog with your child’s pediatrician, it is always prudent to keep them informed of your child’s development.
- The two of you can formulate a plan, even if it is “wait and see” – that is still a plan of action!
- Make sure your child isn’t constipated, as that is a common culprit with an easy fix.
- Push fluids early in the day, offer a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
- Stool should have a “tooth paste” consistency on a regular basis.
- Confirm that it’s easy for your child to get to the bathroom in the middle of night. Put yourself in your child’s shoes and make sure there isn’t a logistical reason he/ she doesn’t make it to the bathroom.
- Does he/ she have to walk far to get to the bathroom?
- Is he/ she scared in the dark or afraid to get down from the bunk bed?
- Possible solutions: temporarily place a potty in the room, place night lights from their room to the bathroom.
- Back off… as with most things, parenting related, “you get more of what you focus on.”
- We revisit our bedwetting strategies with regular intervals, talk to the child about what is working and what isn’t, but then I have also learned to take a step back and just stock up on pull-ups for a little while longer.
- So much of bedwetting is related to physical development and maturity and no amount of alarms, sticker charts or withholding fluids will make a difference. Remember, your child is an individual, different from his siblings and time takes time.
BE PATIENT! – Eventually it will happen, you may need medical intervention for your child, a new mattress and washing machine, but it WILL happen.
We have yet to fully close this chapter of our parenting experience, but I can tell, by sticking to the strategies mentioned, we are making great strides towards dry nights once and for all!
Get ALL your potty training questions answered in one place!
Is your toddler ready for potty training? Is your child’s bedwetting normal?
Our Potty Training 101 Resource Page has ALL the potty training answers AND encouragement you need!
Do you have any bedwetting experiences from your childhood that has colored how you react towards your child’s night time training?
Our son will be 4 next month and we still put him in a pullup or goodnight overnight. We have tried to put him in underware overnight – some nights he stays dry but other nights he doesn’t and I was just getting tired of changing the sheets everyday! lol. The one thing we didn’t do though was to wake him up before we went to bed to pee. So, when I do decide to work on this again, I’ll remember to do that!
Aprille – let me know how he does! Four is still young though – I would give it a little time, if I were you. 🙂 GOOD LUCK!
My son is 7, we have tried so many things, we put him in goodnights every night, i had to get a waterproof mattress cover from http://www.protectabed.com/content/mattress_protectors.asp and i have tried limiting water at night, waking him up etc. Its like he is contstatntly wetting through the nights. i dont know what else to do. i went to the Dr about it, and he said i could put him on meds (they are expensive) and they dont really work. 🙁 im at a loss at what to do next. Help?
Anne, I am sorry you are feeling at a loss. We also have accidents on and off with our 9 year old. Our pediatrician always offered meds, which I don’t feel are necessary for us right now because he never has sleep overs. IF he did, then I might consider them.
I remind my kid to use the bathroom before bed time and I try to wake him up before I go to bed. He also doesn’t drink RIGHT before bed time. But the most effective thing I have done is TOTALLY back off from talking about it. He helps me make the bed when I wash his bedding – not as punishment, just to help me. I tell him that it’s hereditary and that both his dad and I wet the bed for a long time – which is “sort of” true. I find that taking the stress off – and NOT acting annoyed when it happens helps both him and me.
I want to check out the link you attached… I don’t have a super good protector.
Thanks for the tips, my daughter is getting close to being daytime trained (yay!), but I know night/nap time is going to be a whole other thing!
Blah! We have been working on this for months. My son was potty trained at 22 months. He will be four next week and STILL wears pullups at bed 🙁 Can’t wait to kick that $$ to the curb!
I feel your “pain”, Misty! Our oldest is still working to perfect this skill! 🙂
my Son still is bed wetting at 9, not every night just some nights. I occasionally wet the bed until I was 12. there has been no trauma or anything he is just a very deep sleeper. Its really upsetting sometimes for him and we have plastic on the bed.
Jessica – our oldest is the same way. We use Goodnights every once in a while – and then we wash A LOT of sheets… A LOT.
So, I found out when I was 20 that I have two ureters per kidney, which caused the bladde to fill up faster than normal, hence a deep sleeping child with this condition is more likely to be a bed wetter. I heard it is more common in boys but a small percentage of girls have this also. All those years of feelling Terrible and it was a real physical issue.
Wow – that’s incredible. Did they have to do an ultrasound to find that? I am so glad you got answers. THIS is also the reason why I refuse to stress over night time bedwetting… it will happen when it happens.
Many years ago my 13 year old son had a temporary bed wetting issue while he was bedridden with an ankle injury from playing sports in school. His poor ankle had swollen up like a small melon, and he couldn’t walk for about two weeks. The nurse at the doctor’s office told my son to drink lots of water everyday, which he did, so it seemed like he always had to pee. Early one morning I went into my son’s room to check on him, and found him laying naked on top of his bed sheets, and sound asleep. I sat on his bed next to him, and gently rubbed his leg. To my surprise, he stretched his arms, and legs, as if he were going to wake up, and then he peed on his bed sheets. Luckily I had put a plastic mattress cover on his bed. When he was awake a little later, he sat up in his bed, and seemed very embarrassed about his accident. I just hugged him, and reassured him that it was okay, and not to worry. There were a few more wetting accidents during this time, but as soon as his ankle healed, the bed wetting stopped.