5 1/2 Year Old Wetting Bed Every Night. What Can I Do?

I'd use pull-ups until her body is ready to sleep through the night without wetting the bed. For some kids it takes longer.

any other symptoms? painful urination? If not.......

go to pull ups for awhile longer. Too much pressure on your little girl could exacerbate the problem. She may not be ready. Next time at the pedie ask about this.

Some kids just sleep too soundly to wake up when they have the urge to use the bathroom. If they are deep sleepers and/or have small bladders, they physically can not make it through the night and stay dry. It's not a matter of will, or doing it deliberately or not wanting to succeed bad enough.
My son wore pull ups at night till he was about 7 yrs old. When he could wake up dry every morning for 2 weeks, we were finally done with the pull ups. There was still an occasional accident here and there, but we knew he now had the ability and it could be done.
I didn't want him to feel badly. I didn't want to deal with wet pajamas/sheets/blankets/stuffed animals/pillows (and we used water proof mattress protectors, but they needed to be swapped out and washed frequently so it didn't smell like pee), etc.
Some kids just need to wear pull ups a little longer than others. It's more common than you think.

Well, to be honest if you don't want to do the laundry use pull ups. I chose to spend my time during the day doing other things besides bed linens over and over.

I have a 6 11/12 girl still in pull ups who wets every night and a 3 yr. old boy who is dry every night. Some kids just don't get brain signal until much older. Their older brother just stopped wetting the bed about a 6 months ago. He wore under jams or adult over night diapers.

Our Pediatric Urologist told us cutting back on fluids causes dehydration and they don't get a full bladder so they never get the full bladder feeling and just wet. It's a hard thing to deal with, especially when a parent is ready to be done with it. She can't help it. It may be several years before she is able to stay dry at night.

Get some over night pull ups, we use the dark plum colored package, they have Disney Princesses on them. They work very well. With a pull up we just use a couple of wipes and get the covered areas very well and she is off to school.

She's not ready for undies at night. Put her back in pullups and when she wakes up dry consistently for a few weeks, try undies again. It sounds like she's being put under too much pressure to stay dry which will probably only make things worse.

You may want to try eliminating milk from her diet for a week or so and see what that does. Some people who aren't necessarily allergic are still sensitive and this usually shows up in the bladder. Often other forms of dairy, like sour cream & butter are okay.

At five her bladder is still growing. It will catch up. In the meantime do not yell or get angry. Put her back in Pullups. They have big girl pullups for older kids too. I think they are called Good Nights.
Let her know you know it isn't her faut but that she has to try to stay dry.
get her out of bed at midnite.
Have her strip her bed,
Get a waterproof mattress cover.
Alarms cost about $150 8 years ago, they will wake the child at the slightest hint of moisture.
My son wet the bed until he was 12. We went the medication route because he also would have daytime accidents in school, he was on the meds for about two years. I dont' think you are at that point yet.

This is still developmentally appropriate. If you are really concerned, you could talk to her doctor to make sure there isn't a medical problem, but most doctors won't do much about it until approx. age 7. I would put her back in pull ups and just give it more time. My boys wore their pull ups at night until age 6.

There are some great answers already, just wanted to support those. My son wet te bed until he was 13. The doctor will tell you this, but it is true about the bladder. For some kids the badder does not grow in time with the rest of their body, so all the urine being created can not be contained. The other issue is that some children lack that chemical release in the brain that says they have to go. It may not show up for years. Okay, I know this is going to be unfun, but we would wake my son up at night, once right before we went to bed, and then several hours after going to bed. He slept in goodnights for a long time, but getting him up at night helped train him to wake on his own. We also did the plastic sheet, I suggest the kind that zips closed because the other kind is hard to keep on, then a pad between the plastic and your child, and hen make the bed normally. To make changing the be less hectic place one of those crib protectors between your child and the sheet, or go in for he disposable pads you can get at medical supply places. Those made life so much easier. When your child will be away at night remember to tell their caregiver all about it, privately, and remember to send extra clothes and goodnights. Finally try to relax. Your child is not unusual in any way. You guys can get through this.

My son is almost 6 ( in less than a month) and he still wears pull ups at night.
Night training is biological not a "training" thing. You will see she will just wake up one day and be dry. You can try waking her up before you go to bed and every couple of hrs after. But that gets old FAST.

My oldest daughter was "blessed" with an extremely small bladder...and the doctor said he would be shocked if she COULD make it all the way through the night without needed to empty her bladder! So...continue doing what you are doing...but add one more thing...set your alarm for 2:00 am ( or sometime in the middle of her sleep pattern) and take her to the bathroom. Keep the lights low...use night lights in the hall and the bathroom....no conversation...just lead her into the bathroom and set her on the potty. Hopefully this will take care of the problem...at least part of the time. Was she already wet when you went in at 2:00...move it up to midnight...just experiment to see what time works best for her.
Hopefully both of you will be able to just get right back to sleep after you take her into the bathroom. This is what I did with my stepson for about 6 months when he first came to live with us.
I also agree about putting her back into pull ups...why torture her AND yourself with wet sheets every night? What is that accomplishing? Get the ones that don't pull the wetness away from her...use the ones that say they help "signal" your child that they are wetting....so that she is uncomfortable in the wetness and has a reason to learn how to do things differently!!

Hi, I'm M. Francis from the GoodNites NiteLite Panel. Mamapedia is partnering with GoodNites through September, and we see questions like yours all the time so I wanted to jump in with some advice! I noticed you posted this a while ago...how are things going now? You're doing the right things by limiting liquids close to bed, and making sure your daughter goes to the bathroom at bedtime. But you may be relieved to hear that wetting the bed at age 5 or even 6 (and beyond!) is still quite common. A lot of kids just need more time for their bodies to catch up, especially at night, when they may sleep so deeply they miss the signals of having to use the bathroom. In the meanwhile, I'd focus on making your daughter as comfortable as you can so that nighttime isn't a source of stress for either of you. GoodNites.com has a lot of great information about bedwetting and just how common it is, which you might find reassuring!

Our 5 yo still wets the bed at night. We have tried many options as well- no water before bed, potty before bed. I have tried waking him up an hour into his sleep. It is frustrating. The only thing I have not tried is the alarm that goes off when they pee- it is like $80 and I felt like that is pretty pricey- especially if it does not work.

Good luck!

I know many parents wake their child up about two hours after they fall asleep to go to the bathroom. She will still be out of it but you just guide her to the potty and help her . I guess this really helps prevent accidents.Good luck to you :)