When Did Your Chiild Stay Dry All Night?

My son was day trained at 3 1/2 but he was 7 before he could stay dry through the night.
Some kids are 11 before then can manage it.
It's very common.

It is not uncommon, particularly in boys, to have nighttime accidents off and on for a long time. I think my son's last accident was around age 9. They do get better than EVERY night, but it can be a disjointed process. You'll think they're good, then boom, every other night for a week... then back to dry for a month, then oopsie... a couple nights wet. It can be part of the growth cycles with the bladder, and also deep sleep issues.

Totally normal. Bare bones, very very few kids are dry at night in UNDER a year after daytime training. The nervous system has to rewire. In large part, it's because to be night trained one *usually* has to be fully daytrained. As in, they don't need a parent for any kind of prompting/reminders/schlepping.

There's something you can do to help *night* time rewiring, however.

DO NOT RESTRICT FLUIDS. As a matter of fact, push them, and DO NOT have him go potty before bed.

Here's the science of it.

The bladder is made of a stretchy water tight tissue that is ennervated. When you've "gotta go", that's the nerves sending a signal to your brain. The more the muscles are stretched, the stronger the signal it sends to the brain (signals come in varying strengths and get "queued" differently depending on the need. For example... if you have a broken leg AND a broken finger, you usually don't even know about the broken finger, because the signals sent from the more severe break override the smaller one. Or if you're scared, your nervous system literally *shuts off* your digestive system. You won't feel hungry, because the nervous impulses from fear have just nixed any energy going to, and all messages coming from your digestive system. Or think about your hand for a moment. NOW bend your fingers back. Feel the stretch? Now bend them back until it's painful. Now release and bend them back again where you FIRST felt the stretch. You won't feel it nearly as much, because your brain is paying attention for pain signals from that hand, so the stretch signal gets sent to the back burner. You can do this with other muscles as well. Stretch a leg, bend your hand back to where it's painful and the "stretch" feel VANISHES. Fun messing with your brain.).

Back on target

The problem with restricting fluids is that the bladder is rarely if ever full at night. It just trickles. And trickles. And trickles right on out. Any nerve impulses that ARE sent are far, far too weak to actually WAKE the sleeping brain.

In order for night training to happen.. the brain has to get used to waking from the signal that the bladder is full. With the trickle effect it takes 1-4 years of weak signals for the brain to learn to wake up enough to keep the sphincter closed OR to wake up to evacuate.

But if you've got some spare sheets and a waterproof cover, you can train the brain in 3 or 4 nights.

Make the bed 2-4 times (as in matresscover, sheets, matress cover sheets... right on top of each other). Push fluids. Not enough to be uncomfy, but a big glass of milk at dinner, warm milk or hot chocolate before bed, etc. Be prepared for MAJOR accidents, and praise the kid/ and scoot them to the bathroom whenever they manage to stop halfway through. And have them drink more before going to bed *as long as they want to* (as in don't force them. Fear and Anger YANK the micturition response from somatic/conscious control to autonomic/unconsious aka no control). When they wet the bed, just smile and strip off the first layer, hug, kiss, and back to bed. Toss the wet ones in the wash. No mess, no stress.

Usually, what happens is this: 2-3 accidents on nights 1 & 2. 0-1 accidents on nights 3 & 4. After that, an accident once every few days or every few weeks.

It's a "fast wire" system that only works IF AND ONLY IF they're already day trained. There's nothing that can be done to speed up the rewiring for daytime (although any kind of fear/anger/punishment can slow it like crazy).

Does the fast wire work for every kid? Nope. But it works for most.

Night Time Dryness... is not something that is attained until even 7 years old, and is normal and per Pediatricians.

My son is 5, and still wet at night and nap times.
Normal.
My daughter was also already 5, and still in night time diapers.
Normal.

AND even at 7 years old, my daughter had pee accidents at night.
Normal.

Per ALL of my daughter's teachers, diapers at night at these ages are NORMAL and the parents tells the Teacher. So they know. As well as they know about child development.

I never... withhold drinks at night for my kids.
I also, have like 4 waterproof bed pads, that I got from Amazon, that I put directly under my kids at night. That way, the sheets do not get soiled and clean up is super easy. I just rotate the pad if/when wet.

Your son is NORMAL.

During the night, for my 5 year old son, I change his diaper one time a night. Because, kids this age have a larger amount of pee, quantity wise. They are older. Then that way, "I" prevent an overloaded diaper, from leaking. It does NOT wake him, when I change the diaper.

My kids DO not and DID not, get 'confused' about wearing diapers at night but not at day, BECAUSE I simply explained to them that their BODY is not yet ready, to be dry at night.

Pee accidents at night, happens. It is involuntary.
Once, my daughter even dreamed she was on the toilet, until she felt herself wet. She was 7.

Daytime pottying and night time 'dryness' is 2 totally SEPARATE, things.
Night time dryness, has to do with organ maturity/nerve connections and brain connections. It is physiological, based.
Not per age.

.

Out of our 5 children, the three older ones stopped wetting the bed at ages 12, 8 and 6. My younger two are 8 and 1 1/2 and both still wet. I wet the bed until I was almost 11. It just stopped suddenly with everyone. There was nothing we could do to help this. But it does stop eventually. Good luck!

My daughter was potty trained for day by 26 months. No accidents. She continued to wet at night, with less and less frequency, until she was eight. She's had two bedwetting incidences during her ninth year so far.

Age 6 for both of my boys. We never made a big deal out of it. Just stopped wearing the pull ups at night about the time they started kindergarten. One never had a nighttime accident after that and the other had occassional night accidents until about age 8-9.

Yes, totally common. My oldest (now 7) was day-trained at 27 months, and is just now starting to have dry nights. Our ped said she would not be remotely concerned about it unless he was 12 and still wet at night - and even then, she would not be overly concerned, but it would be something to start paying attention to. It's about the endocrine system maturing and secreting a certain hormone at night that tells the kidneys to produce less urine. There's nothing you can do to make that happen faster.

I still put overnight underwear on my son at 4. He gets up during the night to go to the bathroom and wakes up most nights but some nights he wakes up with it full. You can also purchase sheet savers from one step ahead. They make them for twin and full beds. I just purchased one didn't receive it yet. I was a bed wetter to a very late so I really don't expect him to be dry every night.

My sons were about five and a half, going on six before the accidents stopped at night. One son (at age five) I would take him to the bathroom (half asleep) around 10:30-11:00 and he would pee and go right back to bed and then stay dry. The second son was not that good a sleeper and only had accidents once in while so I didn't bother.

I like Dawn's answer. My son JUST daytrained and am curious myeslf how long it takes till he's in big boy pants at night. I just wanted to say that if you go Dawn's route allowing him to wet the bed, buy those 'incontenence pads' in the adult diaper section and do two or three layers of pad,sheet, pad, sheet, pad, sheet so if/when he pees his bed, it's easy enough to clean up in the middle of the night. At my grocery store, they were cheaper than the puppy pads. I haven't tried them out yet to see how well they work. But if they're made for adults, I'd bet they can handle a little kid urine.

He was 4, almost 4 1/2. It's a developmental thing. Daytime dry at 2 1/2 (though he wore a pullup at nap just in case), but night took longer.

My son was daytime trained at 25 months. He was rarely if ever dry in the morning but at 28-29 months we just gave up the nighttime diapers. He was fine - maybe one or two accidents and that was it. We have never withheld fluids before bedtime.

Get rid of all diapers and Pull-Ups. It's confusing to put a diaper on him and then tell your son not to "use" it. (You may want to put the rubber sheets back on the bed for the first week or so, though.)

Point out that his other friends don't wear diapers anymore. Kids look up to other kids who are just a little older. Even at age 4, he's learning how to be a big boy by watching other big boys. Praise the heck out of him when he wakes up dry.

I personally think Pull-Ups are an expensive and environmentally non-sustainable convenience marketed toward adults. They've become a "perceived" need. Yet we've lived for generations without them, and somehow kids got potty-trained.
Good luck!

My son was day trained by 2 and stopped wearing night pull ups about a month after he was day trained. Hes now 5.5 years and I can count how many accidents he's had on one hand. Mostly cause he was sick. I think it depends on the child, because I don't restrict fluids at night nor do I wake him to pee at night. My nephew is almost 9 and still needs pull ups at night.

My oldest son used to wake up with a wet diaper, but I thought I'd give it a try with underwear anyway. He woke up dry and has had minimal nighttime accidents since! He was about 2 3/4 then. My youngest is going to be 3 this month, and I tried the same thing with no luck. I think it just depends, and you can try the underwear a few nights to see what happens.

My son was day trained at about 20 months and he averages about one accident per month at night now, at 29 months. We didn't do anything to night train him, he just did it about a month after we day trained. I don't restrict fluids, but I do put him on the potty before I go to bed at 10 or 11. This isn't so much to prevent accidents as to prevent him from waking me up because he has to go at around 1. He does this consistently, almost every night. I think the accidents are just nights he is sleeping too soundly to wake up and pee in the middle of the night.

All I can say is don't forgo the Pull ups until you are sure! Our son last winter did awesome. He turned 3 in January and was dry every night, or getting up to pee at least. We got rid of pull ups and all was fine until summer hit. Play hard, sleep hard and accidents galore! We finally got him to wear a pull up again but even now he soaks the pull up so much that I still have to change sheets! Ugh! Hoping this winter we'll be back to dry sheets again! We've done the withholding of fluids and all of that. I might try the Riley J method and see if it works.

My oldest grandson is 12 and he is finally staying dry since some time this summer, the next one, 10 yr.s old has been dry all night since about 3 yrs. old, our girls has woke up one time in her 7 11/12 yrs to go pee so she wakes up wet too. The 4 1/2 yr, old boy is actually dry about 1 time per week and if we remind him to go he'll not have a wet pull up, it's really hard to catch him before he wets after waking up though. The 3 yr. old girl is dry most mornings, the 2 yr. old boy is going to have some developmental issues so he doesn't count, and the baby is just 1 and we'll have to see about that.

So, out of 7 grand-kids only 2 of them are dry at night and neither of them that long ago were wet each and every morning, one is 12 and one is 3,