Night Time Potty Training Suggestions

My son will be 4 in Aug and we pulled his diaper off almost a year ago. We do not give him any drinks after dinner (5ish) Then at bed time (8) we have him use the toilet. Then we bring him down to use the toilet every night before we go to bed(11ish). I have a plastic sheet on his bed in case of the occasional accidents. A week ago he started waking at the time we usually take him, and going right back to bed. It took a year for us..but his is a lot younger. Plus pull ups have a greater chance for yeast infections because it does not pull the moisture away from his skin as well as diapers.
Good Luck!

1 mom found this helpful

Well I can honestly tell you they can either do it or NOT

My oldest sometimes still wets the bed, he is 12

My 3 year old does NOT.

My oldest has a small bladder the doctors said
NEVER limit fluid intake,

Waking them up in the night is fine,

I don't know if you recall but I young boy actually dies recently because his father said he couldn't drink any fluids.

M

1 mom found this helpful

My stepson has evening wetting issues and we have limited his drinking/eating before bedtime. We eat dinner at 5 or 6 pm and he may have water and a snack if he is hungry before 7pm. After 7pm, there are no liquids and no snacking. This has worked very well. He rarely wets the bed anymore.

A friend of mine picks his son up at night (about 10pm, when he is ready to go to bed) and puts him in front of the toilet and asks him to pee. This has worked for them. If he does not do this then the son usually has a wet bed in the morning.

It is said by scientific studies that boys bladders may grow slower than girls. Therefore, they need to relieve themselves more often and have bed wetting issues. This usually corrects itself by age 10 or earlier, depending on growth spurts.

Good luck.

I know all children are different (and their systems are unique)- but I have a theory on this. We live very naturally and the only thing we give our children to drink is pure well water and fresh goat or cow's milk. Even if my son drinks before bed, as long as he goes to the potty before he goes to sleep, he wakes up dry. He has just turned three, it has been this way for 4-5 months. I notice when he has sugary things (like if we are at a party or out to eat) like fruit juices and Koolaid, he doesn't stay dry sometimes. So, I wonder if it's too much toxicity for his kidneys if its not a low sugar, natural drink. Just an idea... who knows? When I stopped giving him juices (we have organic grape juice or apple juice on special occasions, like Sunday dinner) he also had less hyper times and fewer tantrums... I think they were too much of a blood sugar spike for him. He eats plenty of organic whole fruit so he's not missing any nutrients (and getting more fiber!).

My 6 year old nephew also wets to bed. We have started limiting fluids after dinner time and waking him before we go to bed (around 11). We have found this to be successful and are hopeful that we will be able to get rid of the pullups soon. Good luck!

Our son is 6 y/o, too, and without pullups we would be drowning in laundry! It has been totally unpredictable each night. Sometimes we will wake him 2 or 3 times and he will still wet himself and other times we'll wake him once or not at all and he's dry in the a.m. Would like to know how this goes for you, too.

Hi S.,

Since I was a poor sleeper, I use to wake my son up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He use to say he didn't have to go but once I took him into the bathroom, he would go. Once he was finished, it was right back to bed and he would fall asleep with no problem. It worked wonderful! Good luck! Potty training is never easy : ).

HI S.

We're in the same situation with our 6 year old daughter. She wears the nighttime pants, and many mornings she's dry. However, she's a deep sleeper and we can go for three or four nights in a row where she'll have wet in the night. When she gets up in the AM after wetting, she'll change herself and take care of things, only telling us if her sheets got wet as well. When she does go at night, she floods herself.

We tried waking her up early, we've tried getting her up in the night and nothing seems to make a difference. Incidentally my husband and one of his sisters had the same kind of history, so I feel sure by the time she's 9 we'll be done with this. We've kept it pretty low-key, explaining to our daughter that she will be able to be dry eventually but not to worry about it too much.

We've tried to restrict fluid intake in the evening, we avoid caffeinated beverages, and still it happens. Since she's already sensitive about it, we don't make a big deal about it but she won't consider sleeping over anywhere but Grandma's at this point since she doesn't want her friends to know she still wears the pullups at night.

I guess after reading other responses, we'll keep trying the wake up at night routine until she gets sorted out. She's our fourth child, and her next older sister (8 years) has a habit of waking just enough to try to find a bathroom and running into our room, where I wake up enough to send her to the bathroom. Once she goes, she's fine and goes right back to sleep! Every child is so different.

R.

S.,

Children's bladders all develop at different rates. My step son didn't stop wetting the bed until he was 12 years old. We never used pull ups, but did have to deal with a lot of midnight messes. In the nursing home where I used to work, the residents who were incontinent would sleep with no bottoms on and waterproof pads (you can find them at hospital supply stores) that were machine washable. When they urinated, the staff could easily clean them up, change the pad and they could go back to sleep. Not the most dignified way to deal with the situation, but if your son doesn't share a room and wouldn't be too self conscious about it, I think it is a better way to deal with it than waking him up. It is real hard to function when there is interrupted sleep...for you and for him.

D.

Hi S., Have you tried him without? I think at 6 he should be able to hold while sleeping. I would put a protective pad and let him go without. Also, no drinks (with caffene) before bed. If you think there is another problem, check with your doctor. Best wishes, Grandma Mary

S.

Has anyone suggested to you that you not give your son anything to drive after a certain time? I would suggest no liquids after having dinner. I have heard about other people using this method.

If this makes you feel uneasy, give him lots of liquids in the afternoon so he has time to pass the liquid before going to bed.

I agree that your son is way too big for pull-ups.

D.
I'm 60 years old, been married to the same man for 38 years and have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law.

We got several washable incontinent pads from a medical supply store to put on top of the sheets, never did pull-ups. I checked a book out of the library (don't remember the name--sorry!) that suggested a progression; first, before you go to bed, scoop up the SLEEPING child and set them on the toilet until they pee. If you actually wake them up, sometimes they get upset and fight and it's a failure (this is what happened with our son) Eventually their body will get used to the getting out of bed to pee, then they will start to wake up and need to be helped into the bathroom. Eventually they will wake up and make their own way in. Regardless of what you decide to do, you have to stop the Pull Ups cold turkey, and at 6 your son is old enough to strip his bed if it is wet and put all the wet sheets/pj's into the washing machine.

In addition, we did a sticker reward program--1 dry night = 1 sticker on the calendar, 50 dry nights in a row and he earned an expensive Star Wars Lego set that would normally be reserved for a birthday/Christmas present. We set the reward and the number of nights in a row with our son before we started and really talked up his progress and would "visit" the toy at Target often to keep up the excitement.

Your son is a heavy sleeper (good for him) and will eventually be able to hold his bladder all night. The best solution is to keep all liquids away from him for a few hours before bedtime. Do you or your husband get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom? If so then I would wake him up, but otherwise he just has to learn to 'hold it'. How does he do during the day? Does he go a lot or wait till the last minute and then dash to the bathroom? Figure out his daytime habits and try to train his bladder for the night time.
Bedwetting used to be a bad thing, but its really a normal stage of development.

My son is 5 and we have tried everything, (including limiting fluids (WHICH I DO NOT RECOMMEND BECAUSE THE CHILDREN CAN GET DEHYDRATED! & That's why we stopped)and making him use the potty right before bed)except for the potty alarm (a little buzzer/alarm that vibrates and rings if the child starts to wet themselves.. a pediatrician told me about it) and the only thing that has worked for him, is waking him up. He is such a sound sleeper that he just doesn't wake up even when he gets soaked. Even when he used Pull-Ups, he'd just soak right through them, no matter how much or little he had to drink. Limiting fluids also isn't a good thing to do anyways because they may become dehydrated, especially with summer here. It is extremely inconvenient seeing we have a 4 month old daughter also and my husband works overnights so, it's only me here with the kids at night but, it does help his self-esteem and saves me from doing tons and tons of laundry!

I used to wake my son and daughter up at 11 or 11:30.. not really wake them up.. but go into the room.. shake them lightly.. taket their hand.. and walk them to bathroom... sit them down.. they would go.. then put them back in bed.. till this day.. my 9 year old and 12 year old still get up around 11 or 12.. and go to the bathroom on their own. It worked great. I woke them up right before I went to bed... also try to limit drinking after 6 p.m. and if they are thirstty give an ice pop around 8... good luck

S.,

My sons are the same way - almost 5 and 6. You will have to be VERY consistent. I also have a 10 month old so I have to admit I am not the best at going in to wake them because some nights I end up just crashing.

I have tried limiting drinks after a certain time and everything but they still end up wetting most nights. I have another friend whose 7 year old does the same thing. From what I hear from my MIL, my BIL was the same way until about this age. They are just heavy sleepers.

Good luck,
L.

Hi S.. :)
I have 2 boys and my friend how has 3 boys said that some boys sleep so soundly, that's why boys wet the bed more than girls and for longer.
I just wanted to comment that limiting liquids in general is not dangerous. OF COURSE if your son is really thirsty or running around sweating you should never deprive him of liquids. But our normal routines kids usually drink a lot during the day. Maybe you can just watch his daily routine and make sure he is getting fluids during the day, then depending on your bed time, stop giving water or juice after 6ish. I actually don't give my kids much to drink at all after dinner (again with exception of them running around and sweating or if the AC isn't on and they are extremely hot in the summer...common sense really). But if they want something before bed I'll give them a half cup of milk. the water goes right through them but the milk doesn't.

Hope this helps. Actually that one comment you got from the lady that says maybe his body is trying to get rid of something...there might be something to that as well. I'm gonna look into it myself. Kind of interesting. I wonder if we do pee more to get rid of certain toxins from food...not sure but in your situation it's probably worth checking it out. Good luck!

i have a friend who's mother did this. she woke all 3 up in the middle of the night and sat them on the potty. try it and see if it works!

I did this with my ex husband's daughter at 8 years old after frequent bed wetting incidents. We limited her liquid intakes so she really didn't have anything after dinner. then did the potty thing before bed at about 9. between 11 and midnight i would wake her up and make her go to the bathroom. Then again an hour half to two hours later. If she had an accident during that time, i made her change the sheets and get up every hour. It very rough for the first couple of days. But their body gets use to waking up to pee when the need is there. Also invest in some water proof mattress pads and maybe a couple of water proof square pads. All of which you can get at walmart or kmart for pretty cheap.If this doesn't seem to help I would take to the doctor and see if he has any suggestions. Good Luck!

When my brother was that age my parents would walk him to the bathroom, tell him to go potty, and then wash his hands and put him back to bed. It worked for him. A.

Hi S. - There are so many important things to worry about with kids - for me, I decided not to let this be one of them. My oldest was not faithfully dry at night until 9 years old. My youngest at 3. As others have said, they are truly all different. You can do the restricting fluids and waking up at night if you want to and it will work but basically, you'll only be training yourself, not your son. Your son will stay dry at night on his own when his bladder is big enough to support it. If it's important to you to get rid of the pullups, then go for it. However, remember that your son won't be doing this on his own so sleepovers will still be an issue.
With my daughter, I would discreetly let the other parents know what the deal was and they would make sure she had privacy at bedtime to put on a pullup and get to bed without drawing her friend's attention or they'd help her remember to stop the liquids early and go potty before bed and again later. Sometimes she decided to forego a sleepover till she was consistently dry.
Good luck to you - R.

I'd give it a try and see if it works. Others have mentioned limiting drinks prior to bedtime. But you might also want to look into food sensitivities and/or magnesium deficiencies if you continue to struggle with his night time peeing.

My daughter is one of MANY people I know who react with enuresis due to a food or chemical sensitivity. In DDs case soy is the culprit, but friends have children who react the same way to: dairy, gluten, wheat, oranges, among many others. Everyone is different, so limiting your son's consumption of the offending food before bedtime may do the trick or a complete removal from the diet may be necessary. (If you'd like more information regarding this, Doris Rapp's "Is this your child" is a good introduction to commonly overlooked food (and chemical) sensitivities.)

Hi S... My parent did that with me 25 years ago!! LOL They would have me pee before I went to bed and then a few hours later when they came up my dad would get me from bed (usually I was still fast asleep) and put me on the toilet. I would pee but sometimes would be half asleep! My parents insist you need to do this faithfuly evvery night for a year and that got me inito the habit of knwoing to wake up in the middle of the night i I had to go. good luck!! I hope you have success!