My 4 1/2 year old still regularly wets the bed.

[adinsabba]

During the daytime, and even at naptime, he's been fully potty trained for about 2 years already.  However, he still regularly wets the bed at night.  He sleeps on a side bed beside our bed. Plastic coated mattress, not a big deal changing sheets, etc.  I read about the idea that his bladder may simply not be strong enough to hold much urine and can be strenthened with various herbs, vitamins, etc.  We don't make him feel bad about it at all.  We do talk about him listening to his body in the middle of the night so he can get up and pee in his little pee pot that we have set up close to his bed.  He pees right before going to bed, and we get him up if we go to bed later in the night.  At times he even gets himself up and pees and is dry in the morning.  Anyone have experience with this for this age child?   Thanks.

[treeoflife3]

It can also be a hormone issue, where he isn't producing the hormone needed to basically shut the bladder off during sleep yet.  I was a bedwetter til I was 11 and there really wasn't much to be done except wait til my body matured enough to hold it during sleep.

[Katwoman]

My oldest only recently stopped wetting the bed regularly.  (She'll be 7 next month.)  She simply sleeps too hard and has a small bladder - I think.  ;)  We still take her potty 2 hours after she falls asleep and that works most of the time now.  In the last month she even got herself up - twice - in the middle of the night to go potty.  So, there is hope!  :D  It's hard, but I honestly believe it's a body maturity type of issue. 

It did cause some stress for her because he younger sister was dry through the night several years before her.  We just talk about everybody's body is different.

[Peony]

My 4.5 year old still SOAKS a diaper every single night. It doesn't matter what we do or do not do, she just is not physically ready to be dry all night long. She has been PLed for 2.5 years by now. She never has any idea that she is peeing in the middle of the night, she just doesn't wake up enough to feel it. 

[adinsabba]

Thanks for sharing that.  So you didn't take any supplements or anything like that.  You just waited it out?  I'm not really stressing about it, but if it is something that simple diet changes or adding more of a certain vitamin or herb in order to strengthen the bladder, or even develop a hormone, I'm into doing that.

[LynnS6]

We just waited it out. No herbs or supplements. Ds was close to 8 when he was finally dry at night. Is he in nighttime diapers? If he isn't, I'd try those to avoid the sheet changing stuff.

[luv my 2 sweeties]

This is so, so common.  It's totally normal.  My son had some wetting problems (a few during the day, even), so I talked to our doctor about it when he was 5.  She said it's so normal that she wouldn't even give it a second thought until he was 6 1/2 or 7 and even then it can be a normal thing they grow out of.  On rare occasions it takes intervention with an older child, but at 4 1/2, they don't even bother. 

One thing that we *did* do for my son was to get him up to pee just before we went to bed, after he'd been asleep for about 3 hours.  He would hardly wake up at all.  It helped him be diaper-free at night since it kept him dry most nights.  But if taking him to the bathroom had waked him up enough to make falling back to sleep difficult, I would not have done it.  Not worth it!  I'd just buy some Underjams and wait it out in that case.

[sunnygir1]

We use diapers.  Dd was 4 in February and soaks 1-2 diapers almost every night.  Occasionally she wakes up to pee, and slightly more frequently (but still occasionally) she wakes up dry in the morning.  She was out of daytime diapers at 2 or a little older.  I'm not worried about it, just waiting for her to be ready.  She sometimes wants to try undies for the night, and sometimes we let her, but that has always resulted in her waking up in a soaked bed at some point in the night.

Our family doctor said that 20% of children entering kindergarten are still regularly wetting the bed, and that his kids were two of the latest he's seen, so he rarely worries about it even at older ages.

[DuckDuckGoose]

My boy will be 5 in a couple months and he is just starting to stay dry more nights than not.  I really hate buying pullups and it feels like such a waste considering he is dry a lot lately, but the few times I have had him wear underwear or light cloth trainers he has wet them.  I think the pullups are a security measure for him.

I'm wondering if the hormone kind of kicks in and out.  A couple weeks ago he started appearing to go potty a few hours after he went to bed.  We were psyched! Because waking him before we went to bed never seemed to matter. But then he'd have a few setbacks.....  I just hope we can take away the nighttime pullups soon.

So take heart! Its normal. In fact when we signed him up for kindergarten they had a box on the health history for bedwetting and when the nurse reviewed his sheet she said, goodness knows why we even have this box on here. Almost all boys have this one checked!   It made me feel a lot better. :)

[Emma Bryan Fuller]

Mine too. Bedwetters until 5/6 yrs. Both are older now and NEVER wet the bed.

[sunnygir1]

Might be late for you, but you could look on the trading post for some used cloth diapers.  If it's only one or two wet diapers you can just rinse and wash with a regular load.  We have 6 cloth diapers big enough for my 4yo, and that's enough that I don't run out (and she wets almost every night).

 

Originally Posted by DuckDuckGoose 

My boy will be 5 in a couple months and he is just starting to stay dry more nights than not.  I really hate buying pullups and it feels like such a waste considering he is dry a lot lately, but the few times I have had him wear underwear or light cloth trainers he has wet them.  I think the pullups are a security measure for him.

I'm wondering if the hormone kind of kicks in and out.  A couple weeks ago he started appearing to go potty a few hours after he went to bed.  We were psyched! Because waking him before we went to bed never seemed to matter. But then he'd have a few setbacks.....  I just hope we can take away the nighttime pullups soon.

So take heart! Its normal. In fact when we signed him up for kindergarten they had a box on the health history for bedwetting and when the nurse reviewed his sheet she said, goodness knows why we even have this box on here. Almost all boys have this one checked!   It made me feel a lot better. :)

[adinsabba]

Thanks for all the feedback and reassurance. 

[DuckDuckGoose]

I do have 2 Snap-EZ cloth trainers that we used way back when he was daytime training. They are waterproof and can hold one small accident (which is usually what it is is he is wet at night) BUT the only time he is dry is when he is wearing the disposable pullups!   Talk about frustrating! I might just try them again but I sure do hate changing the sheets in the middle of the night.

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by DuckDuckGoose 

I do have 2 Snap-EZ cloth trainers that we used way back when he was daytime training. They are waterproof and can hold one small accident (which is usually what it is is he is wet at night) BUT the only time he is dry is when he is wearing the disposable pullups!   Talk about frustrating! I might just try them again but I sure do hate changing the sheets in the middle of the night.

Or get a few cloth diapers that will make it through the night.  I almost never change sheets in the middle of the night with dd in cloth, and she's a heavy wetter.

[D_McG]

totally normal.  I don't really get why you're just letting him wet the bed though?  Why not use pullups or something?

[Youngfrankenstein]

I just saw this thread.  My son stopped wetting at age 10.  We just used Goodnights.  We tried various things over the years but I guess it really just came to him outgrowing it and for us to make it less of a hassle. 

[umsami]

At 4-1/2, especially with a boy, I wouldn't worry at all.  My 7-1/2 still wets the bed too.  Honestly, the best thing IMHO is to not make a big deal about it.  If your DS still needs pull-ups, Goodnites, etc.--then provide them.  Encourage him to go the bathroom before bed.  You can wake them up to use the bathroom before you go to bed--but honestly, I don't know if that really helps much with my DS.  He's a super-deep sleeper, and his pediatrician basically said that it self-resolves about 10% per year--and to not stress over it.

I do think you should consider pull-ups or cloth pants.  There are ones made for older kids as well, but honestly, for us we ended up going back to disposables because the volume was too much for the cloth trainers.  If your DS has more normal output, they'll probably work fine.  One brand I really liked was Antsy Pants.  http://getantsy.com/

I will tell you that of our four kids, only our eldest had this issue.