Bet Wetting for 5 Year Old

Try removing dairy from his diet, it has a strong tie to bed wetting! It sounds like you're doing all the right things otherwise!

Do not wake him at night! He needs to learn to hold it or wake up on his own.
By getting him up he is not able to get into the REM (rapid eye movement) part of deep sleep that both of you need for your bodies to repair themselves. Both of you need the deep sleep. If he wakes up wet then he needs to change his clothes & his sheets.
Boys especially have more problems as they grow & their bladders take a little longer to catch up, so they wet the bed. Try good nights made by Huggies, they are pull-ups for older kids.
I would tell him that he can wear the good nights or he can change his clothes & sheets when he wakes up wet.
Please forgive me if I seem critical, but you are hindering his ability to learn how to go potty at night by himself. I know it will be hard, but he needs to learn how to take care of his own bathroom needs & you both need the deep sleep.

God bless!

No, he needs to wear pull ups until he can stay dry all night by himself. That's too much for you to do, and restricting fluids only makes kids dehydrated and the urine gets stronger and bladder infections happen. Maybe you can work a bargain with him that if he stays dry he getsX, something small, and after so many day she gets XX. The goal would be for him to wear the pull ups and you get to sleep, he will eventually do it on his own because his bladder wil eventually grow.

He's just not ready and it's not his fault. I think the changing sheets and stuff is your job. It reinforces to him that he has done something bad, Michael Landon was a bedwetter and his mother would hang his peed on sheets out for everyone to see as they walked home. He would race home to get them in before his friends saw them, he even wrote a book about it, and the movie "The Lonliest Runner" was based on his life as a bedwetter. Other celebs that were bedwetters were Suzanne Summers and F. D. Roosevelt.

You can always check with a Pediatric Urologist but they always say it's constipation or a UTI from not drinking enough. Too much poo pushes on the tiny bladder and forces the urine out when laid on.

Probably till hes 9 from my understanding Boys bladders are less to mature than a girls. I have one boy and tree girls all my girls when theyare ready will never have an accident my son is 7 and still uses a good night. Plus there is also a factor of sleeping too deep. I would keep doing what yor doing maybe see if he can start getting up on his own with an alarm clock. Also something else I read about the other day if a child has large tonsils they are starting to research those who do and bed wetting its a though and maybe something to check out.

I had a cousin who wet his bed until he was about 10. Part of it was his body just not being able to hold it so long, and part was stress from school (and a confusing family life split between two homes)... I would insist on the pullups until his body is capable of holding it all night long, but also look into what's going on in his life when he's not with you. Maybe he's getting picked on in school, or really worried about doing poorly in something and it's effecting him.

Lots of kids have later night time "training".. I wouldn't worry about it too much... but I'd also not be getting up every 3 hours either.

I am wondering about how much stress is in the little guy's life....sometimes even school or day care has something stressful occurring. I would talk about the problem with his doctor. If mom knows family life has some severe stresses, play therapy with a good play therapist could help.

Scan down the questions here a bit. Someone just asked the same thing within the past week and got a lot of responses.

I don't want to discourage you but this could go on for a few more years. Just don't make a big deal out of it, get him to be responsible for it in any way that is age-appropriate and help him feel unconditionally loved. He can't help it. It is probably physical and not simply a skill to be mastered. One of mine wet till puberty and 2 of her kids did too. Others finally got past it most nights a few years before that and one was about your son's age. Hang in there. There are worse things even though I totally get how inconvenient this one is!

You might want to let him wake up in the morning wet a few times so he can get a feeling of what it feels like to be wet. He may not know what it feels like since you get him up every 3 hours. I know it will be hard on his esteem, but he needs to be getting up himself, or atleast calling for you when he has to go. Just a thought.
Good Luck,
A.

Hi. You have a really good answer in the next post. I would suggest that you change the sheets. He is not doing this in disobedience. Hang in, sweet Mom.

Average age for kids to develop the ability to stay dry is 8, even longer if there is a family history.
The Bladder is slow to mature, he is not physically able to hold it that long. I agree waking him up every 3 hours is going to allow him to get REM sleep.

Limiting drinks can help, also having him lay down for 30 mins at bedtime and trying again can help.

Talk to him and let him know that he's not the only kid who wears Good Nights, we don't call them pull ups in my house, we use the terms "Night time clothing". Let him know NO ONE has to know about it and it's nothing to be embarrassed about.

If you do go the route of letting him just wet the bed, use a plastic sheet. He should be the one to change his bedding. This is not for punishment but a way for his body to train itself.

If you use the Goodnights, he should change himself and wipe himself down. We keep baby wipes in the bathroom, my son knows to wipe himself down every morning. Again not for punishment.

Never use rewards or discipline. If he has a dry nights simply say that's great. Use rewards or discipline can create extra stress, which will only make it worse.

How long can he actually go before wetting? Does he NEED to get up every 3 hours or would 4 hours work also? Does he wake himself up AFTER going or does he lay in it asleep till morning?

I think they do have monitors that you can put on the bed that will alert the kid if there is "dampness". Not sure how these work but I think it buzzes them awake. (buzzing noise, not shock)

It is normal for kids his age to have accidents... But not usually nightly... Unless there is a physical issue. My uncle did and it wasn't until he was 12 that he didn't wet at least once a week... My hubby gets up to go about 2 times a night... Sometimes more, sometimes less...

I would try to see how long he actually can consistently go in a stretch without waking and then wake him then. It may be 4 or 5 hours...