Potty Training - Big Rapids,MI

My newphew was the same way. My brother talk to tylers doctors and they cave him a device that you hook on to his underwear and when it feels a little wetness it beeps and it would wake him up and he would go to the bathroom. After doing that for one to two months he dont need it anymore.

I have a 4 year old also who still wears pull ups. Sometimes he wakes up dry and other times he exceeds the pull up. He is more frequently waking up dry. Sometimes it is hard for little boys to connect the dots of waking up. I have a nephew who is 12 years old and still wearing pull ups to bed. My own brother was also a young teenager before he quit wetting the bed. My folks tried everything from the alarm clocks to the sensors. One day it clicked and he is now in his late 30's with 4 boys of his own some with similar problems and some with out! My brother-in-law was also a deep sleeper, his father would wake up about 2 am and walk him to the bathroom until he could wake up on his own to do it himself. They trained him to walk to the light (as they left the bathroom light on). You may talk to his pediatrician at his next visit for suggestions.

My son is 8 and still wears a pull up to bed. He just can not wake up and our physician has told us that it is very common for the body to grow faster than the bladder. We now buy the ones that look like boxers for him so he does not feel bad. We have tried everything, waking him up, restricting water, the alarm that goes into his underpants at night, rewards etc. Nothing has worked and our physician told us that it is very important that we do not make him feel bad about it. I most recently found out at a Mommy luncheon I attended that several of the boys in his class also wear pull-ups to bed and have trouble wetting. It made me feel so much better. We have not done the overnight yet but I am sure that time is coming. I wish you the best of luck!

it does take longer, generally, for kids to be night time potty trained than day time. and all kids are different.
it's not unusual for a kid to wear a night time pull up only at nightt till they are 5-6. after that you should seek a dr's opinion. i bet if you talk to your pediatrician or look it up on a kids health website it would give the same information.
i would go to a pull up instead of diapers at night. and i just saw a new night time boxer at walmart, i can't recall what brand. you should check them out. not sure how they work. so maybe at the sleep overs no one needs to know he's only wearing a pull up or boxers..not a diaper.

Medically, night wetting is not considered a problem until children are at least 6 years old. Does bed wetting run in your or your husband's family? Every child stops at different times. There's an Arthur episode on PBS that talks about it. We used DDAVP (a medicine that decreases urine production at night) for my daughter and it was great. My son used a wet alarm and that also worked well. However, she was 6 and he was 8. I doubt that your doctor would do anything at this point. Don't make a big deal of it; he's too young to be embarrassed unless adults teach that it's an embarrassing thing. If his little friends mention the diapers/pullups, then use it as an opportunity to discuss that everyone's bodies work in different ways.

Hi,
I was not able to complete the night-time potty training until we completely gave up the diaper. I started by getting up in the middle of the night to take him to the bathroom. I tired of this quickly. What finally worked was laying out a clean set of sheets, underware and PJ's before bed and talking with him about how he (not me) would change himself and the sheets when he had an accident. I instructed him to put the wet items in the bath tub. It only took a few temper tantrums for him to realize it's easier to get up and use the bathroom than to change sheets and pj's. He still has an occasional accident, which is pretty normal for boys his age. It was all done very matter-of-factly. No anger or shame - just how it's done when you're a big boy. I'm sure you got lots of advice. Good luck!

Have you tried the pull up cool alerts?

This is not something that you can train them to do like potty training. It is something that is developed. According to my pediatrician, she said don't even try until they have a dry diaper for atleast 5 nights in a row. I have a 5 year old and he started staying dry at night at a little over 4 and I have a 4 year old how does not stay dry at night yet. You might want to try overnight pullups instead of diapers. It might make him feel a little better at sleep overs. Good luck!

K.- my son is 7 and believe me when he started Kindergarten I was at the ped's asking what was wrong with my son- why he was still wet at night- our DR- and several others, said not to worry about night time wetness until he is 8 or 10. Like I have posted before- they make "night time underwear" up to 100 lbs- this to me, is a sign that there are several kids not night trained at this age and older- My son sleeps REALLY hard- Nothing to get mad over- and yes it would be nice to be done with it- even my son agrees.Nature will take care of it, if you limit his intake before bedtime- I normally stop at dinner time- then take him to the potty several times before bed, you are doing all you can do. They do make some good nites that look like boxers- My son doesn't seem to mind wearing them to sleep overs.

We used a night time sensor with alarm, but not until he was 7 years old. I also had him tested for the chemical that concentrates the urine during sleep (we're not born with it and it kicks in after a few years of age). He had it, so we just didn't worry about it. My friend told me about her experience with this alarm she used with her son and it worked wonderfully for us.
Just like everyone else said. Make him as comfortable as possible with himself until it resolves itself (or you intervene at a much later time, as you so choose).

There is no way around it, if he is having accidents during the night, he should go back to pull-ups.

This happened with my DD. She was potty trained at 3, but continued to have accidents at night. After about three nights of me getting up in the middle of the night to change her sheets (one night 3x's), I was exhausted, and told her that we had no choice. She cried and was upset, but I assured her it was not a punishment, but that Mommy just could not keep changing sheets at night--it made me a grummpy Mommy during the day! I think putting the burden on me helped. She then wore them until about 5 1/2.

Luckuly she didn't do sleep-overs until she was 6. But, would he rather have an accitent at a friend's home, or wear a pull-up. No one needs to know.

I wish you luck-- I know this is so hard on their little self esteem. This too will pass:)

Have you tried taking him in to go potty when you and your husband go to bed? That worked with one of mine. But another of mine, it didn't. She was such a sound sleeper that that wasn't enough. She wears diapers to bed as a 5 year old. I wouldn't worry that there's something wrong with him and know that he is still growing and needs his sleep also. I would rather that Kristen get a good nights sleep in a diaper, than poor sleep in wet jammies, etc.
I always try not to make her feel bad that this happens though. Even when I ask if she thought she had to go potty while she was sleeping. Since she's the youngest, she isn't faced with a younger not wearing one yet like my oldest was. She was the same way--a sound sleeper wearing diapers even after she was potty trained. For her it was upsetting when her younger sister didn't have to wear a diaper to bed anymore and she did. We told her that she could stop wearing them when she had 4 nights in a row with a dry bed. After a while her frustration had grown because she wasn't waking up, so we started taking her in to go potty just before we sent to bed. For her, that got enough out of her system to make it til morning.

Lots a' luck!
M. Mom to 4 girls

My oldest son is 9 and we had the same problem wtih him. It didn't stop until he was 6. A friend of mine has a 6 year old who also just recently quit wetting the bed. Apparently my little brother had the same proble whereas I never did. My youngest is 4 and has occasional bed wetting issues, but not so much as my oldest did. I just used the plastic under the sheets and dealt with it. The only thing you really can do is limit fluid intake and have him go to the bathroom before bed. One other thing you can try is setting an alarm for him to get up and go in the middle of the night or you can wake him up and have him go to the bathroom. It's not 100% effective though.

It takes a lot longer for them to learn to not wet at night, it is almost always beyond there control, when his body is ready it will stop, also boys tend to take longer then girls when it comes to nightime dryness, my daughter was potty trained at 2 and about a month later was having no accidents at night, but her older brother took until he was 3 1/2-4 before the night came for him even though he was potty trained at the same age. Don't feel bad about him still needing to wear diapers at night, any mother would not have an issue with this, sometimes I think it is more us the anyone else, he and you have nothing to be embarassed about!

My son slept so deeply we had the same problem. Our solution was pull-ups. It only lasted until he was about 5. When he began asking to not wear pull-ups at night. At that point we required he use the bathroom RIGHT before he got in bed. We also only allowed one small drink after using the bathroom. It sometimes just takes boys longer to control those muscles especially at night for deep sleepers. Our doctor said this is very normal for their age. It also helped that pull-ups allowed me to relax and for him to not feel like a baby.

Hello K.!

My name is Bec to friend or Becky.
It has been some years for me but my son went through the same as your son is now. I restricted his drinking to an earlier time and we used pull ups in place of diapers when he went away and at nite it seemed to help for my son. I think it made him feel more like a big boy and I used to check on all three of my childern at nite so I would wake my son up and ask him if he would like to use the rest room before I went to bed at nite that helped him so he did stop wetting and started waking up on his own to go at nite, well it's worht a try and I hope it hepls you. bye now Bec

When I potty trained my son, we just went straight to underwear and he's never worn a diaper since, even at night. For the first couple weeks, I took him to the potty every time I got up to nurse my baby (2-3 times a night, you could set your alarm to wake you up). The first night I was too late, so I woke up earlier the next night. Pretty soon he started waking up on his own. Good luck, I hope this helps.

As a mother of four boys with lots of little friends, don't fret over a four year old that wets the bed. My boys are allowed to have their first "big" sleep over with all the boys from their class for their seventh birthday. I've known at least three that wore pull ups for the event. I know mothers of girls whose bladders just couldn't handle that long night time stretch. Talk to your pediatrician for confirmation that there isn't anything else contributing - when my oldest was six - he started wetting the bed again - but he was diagnosed with diabetes. You never know, but your doc can calm any fears and just let you know if it is just a "little bladder" problem.

That is completely normal. It's more common in boys than girls. Because their bladder hasn't completely matured. It could go on for another year or more. Plus some kids are just sound sleepers.

My oldest will be 7 in March and he just stopped wetting the bed within the last few months. Whereas my 4 year has never had trouble with bed wetting. I think it just depends on the maturity of the child's bladder. I tried EVERYTHING to stop the bed wetting and nothing helped. We just had to wait til his bladder matured on it's own.

my son had the same problem 40 years ago the doctors gave him some medicine to stretch something be cause it wasen't big enough to hold all night it worked!!!!!!! cs

I myself was a bed wetter and 2 of my siblings also were.We all did into our early teens.My poor mother.
My son was also.I had him to doctors and was refered to U of M.They told me that it can be hereditary.There was a nasal spray that he was prescribed by my PCP to use before bed time that did help.He finally stopped when we got him a water bed.
He was a very hard sleeper.So my thought was that the bed helped him not sleep as soundly. He told me when he moved and turned he would wake up(it was the old school water bed).
My advise is go to the internet and get some info.I think it is just something you have to ride out.I totally know what you are going thru.
My mom used to say I was being lazy.Yeh I wanted to wet all over myself.I would wake up after I had done it.
My son got as he was older that when he went to stay with friends he wouldn't do it.I think that is because he didn't sleep like he did at home.
He is 37 now with 4 kids and not one of them are wetters.
My daughter didn't start wetting until she was about 9.She did not do it every night.As she got older it would happen maybe every couple weeks or more. It was when she was about 16 that she went to a urologist and found a medical problem.Her urethra had to be dilated,the opening was to small.After that she never wet again.So you could also seak medical advice.
Sometimes there are medical reasons that they do this.So from both sides I know your feelings.Just remember never yell at him and make him feel bad.

GOOD LUCK hope I was some help