My 4 1/2 year old still wets the bed at night.?

Question

He has no accidents during the day, and sometimes he can go the whole night without an accident, but sometimes he can't. I cut out any drinks/food after 7, I've given him showers in the morning when he does pee (war, showers just to wash the smell off of him, he hates showers and will usually do better for the next few days). I don't know what else to do, the dr said that most kids are potty trained by 5 yrs, and that's coming up in December.

Answer 1

This is not that unusual. Some children sleep very soundly and don't wake up to their full bladder until it's too late. Or, some kids bladders haven't grown enough to hold an entire night's urine. Our pediatrician said that only if the child isn't dry at night by age 6 that they worry about a medical condition.

My suggestion is to allow the child to wear pullups at night until they announce that they are ready to be done with it. It doesn't really hurt anything and it saves you from changing the entire bed in the morning. Give rewards for a dry night rather than a punishment for a wet night and you might see better results.

Good luck!!

Answer 2

Your doing pretty good with not letting him drink anything after 7 and you can't know exactly what age your child will be fully potty trained no one can but since he's not potting on his self any other time I would have to think he'e got it down pack. But remember back to when you were his age do you remember those dreams you had that you were on the toilett I'm sure you do so see if you can set your alarm clock for about a week for the middle of the night maybe about 2 am maybe even 2:30 and wake him u to go to the potty I know that's late but it's worth the try and if you do it for about a week maybe to a week in a half he should be used to getting up at that time to go to the toilett.

Answer 3

My daughter did the same thing until she was 5 years old. Some nights she would have an accident and some nights she wouldn't. As she got older, she grew out of it and doesn't have any accidents at night. She is 7 years old now. The doctor said that it is normal and not to worry. He will grow out of it. It gets frustrating, but don't say anything negative or put pressure on him because this will have a very negative impact on him and make him feel bad. he is not doing it on purpose, he has no control over the situation. He will grow out of doing this soon.

Answer 4

DO NOT STRESS!!! my daughter has been having the same problems. It got to the point where right now she wears night time undies (diapers). You can get them at Wal-Mart. Did your doctor explain that it could be something as simple as your son could have a small bladder?? For us, it was the fact of a new sister. So when it got that I was washing her and the mattress 3 times in one week, I said enough is enough, and bought the night time undies. She only has stayed in them for maybe 2 months. I'm starting to get her out of that. And she has done fine. Remember no two kids are alike, So don't go by an exact age. And its okay. I hope this helps what I've said--

Answer 5

it is very possible that his body is:
1) not waking him when he needs to go.
2) not shutting down urine production like most do during the night, so his body is producing more than the norm.
3) he is such a deep sleeper that he wakes up just enough to relieve himself but not enough to really realize what he is doing.
4) there is a chemical imbalance going on that contribues to #2.

one of my sons is in this category. He is almost 7 and still occasionally incontinent at night, usually about 4 hours after sleep. He has had no daytime accidents for years. we tried no fluids after 7pm as well, with no success. our pediatrician feels that it is a lack of the chemical in the body that decreases kidney function while sleeping. there are medications that can help w/this, but we are reluctant to try them as they could result in a lifetime on the med. what we do is, almost every night, get him up about 10-15 minutes before he historically wets (in our case about 12:30a) and have him go to the bathroom. We tried using an alarm clock and he slept through it (although it did wake us up if we had fallen asleep.)
Our son is genuinely upset that he cannot hold it all night long and we know he tries! but his body just isn't able to do so. the dr does believe that he will grow out of it.

Answer 6

My son is almost 4 and he is still wetting the bed on some nights. I normally have him go pee right before bedtime, and do not give him anything to drink and hour or two before. It helps sometimes, but he still has accidents.
Also something I have noticed in my child, If I do not force him out of bed as soon as he wakes up he will lay there and wet himself out of laziness. You may want to check to see if your child could be doing the same.

Answer 7

I have a 4 1/2 that will be 5 in December too. Freaky. Yeah, mine does it too. He's great during the day but he's stopped getting up in the middle of the night to go pee and wets himself. Due to my frustration I talked to my doctor. She said it could be a under developed bladder but if I want it to stop cut out liquids 2 hours before bedtime and wake him up in the middle of the night to go pee. Mine's a really hard to wake up so it takes me like 30 minutes to actually wake him up enough to go to the bathroom. I'm hoping he'll get use to it and start doing it on his own w/out me having to wake him up.

Answer 8

My son (who will be 5 in August) is going through the same exact thing. Only it's every night with him. He stays completely dry all day, he just can't seem to wake up at night to go. We even wake him up about 2 hours after he goes to bed to go potty and he still wets himself later on in the night. It just takes boys a little longer to get used to it, especially if he's a heavy sleeper. You are doing everything you can. Just be patient. There's nothing wrong with him.

Answer 9

Mine does it too, occasionally, but only if he conks out before I send him off to bed. Otherwise I make him pee before he lays down, that works 100% of the time.
Also, the thought of princess sheets as a backup set for when he wets the bed may motivate him to pee before bedtime! Evil I know, but only someone who's had to strip and launder the same bed three times in a week would understand!

Answer 10

Don't put too much pressure on him. If he's only having accidents at night, it means that he isn't doing it to be bad. His muscle to hold urine all that time is probably not developed yet. Don't hold your kid up to a standard of 5 year olds. As adults, we pride ourselves on being unique. Keep that in mind with the little ones. Each child is different. Try to tell him that it's okay, and that you're not mad at him. Don't worry....he'll out grow it.