New strategy for my 3 y/o wetting the bed....any suggestions?

Question

Let me tell u briefly the gist of the situation I am n. My son is 3 y/o & I am a single mother. He is potty trained & wears underwear everyday. I am working on getting him through the night w/o wetting the bed. He was doing really good. I would get him up until I go 2 bed & thats around 12am. Lately, he has been wetting the bed, like 2-3 times a night. I am at my wits end!!!!
Now, let me tell you his routine, I stop giving him something 2 drink after 6pm. So he has time 2 eat & use the bathroom a few b4 he goes 2 sleep. Now he watches his cartoons while he goes 2 sleep. The thing is, he will wake n the middle of the night 2 tell me that the movie stopped & 2 turn it back on again (he just likes the noise sometimes 2 help him sleep), BUT he can not go 2 the bathroom while he is up. And he walks right by it 2 get 2 my room.

What do I do? I don’t want to put him back into pull ups, BUT I am tired of changing/washing his bed linen 2-3 times a week/night. I cant be to nice about it b/c he will think I am playing, BUT I don’t want to be TOO firm that it scares him. But I am at my wits end. And I know that he is 3 so I am not expecting him to stop completely, but I truly believe that he is being lazy. What can I do to help the both of us? Could it be the TV being on at night? Its not a medical issue either, been there already.

You can email me if you like as well.....THANKS!!!

Answer 1

i agree with probably getting the tv out of his room, or at least not turning it back on.
You can discuss this with him over a period of a week or so and let him know what is going to happen at the end of the week. tell him several times a day about it. then start asking him what are we going to do at the end of the week?
I wonder if he is getting extra attention and such from waking up. When my kids woke in the night I didnt turn on any extra lights (other than the night lites that were already on) and I didn't have conversations with them. I did not want the waking in the night to be a 'pleasant or enjoyable' experience, or they keep wanting it. nite time is for sleeping.Period.
My 2 oldest kids used to ask for anything just to get out of bed or get me into the room again ( i need a drink, i need a kleenex, i need another tuck in etc.)
My 2 year old now, is trained day and night but she does still have the occasional accident at night. She will occaisionally wake up to go potty and sometimes sleep thru.
what i did for all my kids was place a towel under the fitted sheet and a towel ontop. this time around i have those large plastic liners,,,so i put that under the sheet to protect the mattress from getting wet.
Remember when you gave birth and the hospital had those large pads (cloth on one side and a plastic/rubbery material on the other side) that were meant to catch a large amount of blood and such from giving birth...well i have 2 of those.
i am not sure where you can buy those, but adults with bladder problems use them at night.
i use one of those ontop of my girls sheet, so i only have to change that and not the whole bedding.
i think what you are doing is just fine, and understandably it is frustrating...but i think a big key is Not to let him know you are mad or upset, but you also don't let him think it is ok. just quietly say 'oh oh you had an accident..lets try harder next time'
Talk with him during the day...ask him how it feels to sleep in wet sheets? not nice? well how can we fix this? empower him to help come up with possible solutions.
tell him you understand it may be hard for him to recognize the need to pee when he is sleeping, but he just has to keep trying...and practice makes perfect.
you dont want him to feel he is doing something bad.
but you want him to know that with some more effort he can be a big boy and have full control of his body.
When my girl was starting training (the 1st day she had undies all day, she stayed in all nite too from then on), she used to call me to her room say she had to go pee, i'd get her downstairs to toilet and she would smile and say 'no pee'
so i ended up taking the small portable potty seat upstairs (not in her room) and when she had to pee she didnt get to come downstairs...that constant asking soon stopped.
Let him know that you will no longer turning on the tv in middle of night..it's too noisy for you to sleep and it's possible the noise from tv is why he cant hear his bladder telling him at night to wake up.
maybe he can come up with another idea to help him sleep...a new bed toy/ bear/ fave. cartoon plush toy, a hanging mobile, a night light the rotates stars on the ceiling, a new night light etc. let him help with the ideas. i am sure you will be surprised.
hang in there...and try to keep your frustration in check, it will get better. line up his bed with towels or liners i mentioned to save on the changing. and talk to him.
i think the worst thing you could do is put pull ups back on him....but you could ask him i suppose. hopefully he would say he doesnt want them, and you can reply that you dont want to either, but some things have to change and get worked on. If he says yes he wants them then i dunno, thats up to you.
when we started training, but she was still in diapers, every time i changed her we would talk about yucky diapers, and they are for babies..are you a baby? she would say no. i say then why are you wearing them. who wears diapers? she's say babies. i say where do big girls pee? she knew and it was just a lot of constant conversations like that.
good luck to you

Answer 2

I can tell you my story on the potty training deal. My son is also 3, but is only potty trained during the day, because i've just recently finally got him to go. Here lately he has been wetting his pants during the day. I sat down and look at the times he was wetting, and guess what its when the tv is on. So i think my son doesn't want to miss the show so he decides to wet his pants, so he doesn't get much tv time during the day anymore and its spaced out not all together. So your son it may be the tv. Also make sure you have a light on for him to use the bathroom with. My son will not turn on the light unless he can see, he says there's monsters waiting in the bathroom on him, we've tried to tell him no such thing, but his imagination has the best of him. So i keep my hall light on, it shines in the bathroom enough he can go without turning on that light if he wanted.

Answer 3

my son was nearly 5 before we had a dry night!

personally, i'd get that tv out of his room! apart from overstimulating him, it will be messing up his circadian rhythem. set a regular bed time, something that allows for 10 - 12 hours sleep for him (during the night) and establish a routine.

If it's noise he likes when he goes to bed, invest in a calming cd and put it on repeat!

establish a reward system for dry nights... kids love star charts, and the reward at the end of the agreed time (start with something achieveable, 3 dry nights and he gets a new matchbox car) gradually extend the time he needs to stay dry but also increase the rewards too.

always send him to the toilet before he goes to bed, and always remain patient and understanding. little boys tend to be deep sleepers, and the 'full' button just doesn't trigger until they're older.

Answer 4

I have the same problem with my 4 yrs boy. He like to drink a lot of water before bed, but I can't stop him, because he keep telling he is thirsty. He getting worse when he sick. he will wet the bed 3 times a night. It is very hard for me also.
Normally I will ask him go to toilet before bed, then we will ask him go to toilet again at 11 to 12pm. Sometimes it is work !! Dry all the night.

Answer 5

Where I live, the nights are getting cool. Put warmer pjs on him. He may not want to get out of bed because he is cold. The other things are turn off tv after he is sleeping, and put night lights on his path to bathroom.

Answer 6

Put him back in the pull ups. He's going to be difficult to train. Some boys don't become dry until they are 9 or older. Invest in an alarm system that wakes them up when it senses moisture.

You are right not to scold. This is quite common with boys, some are very, very slow in developing the nerve/brain/bladder connections that allow them to remain dry thru the night.

This will limit his being able to have "sleep overs" or to participate in them. However, he is not alone, many, many boys are in this same situation.

Answer 7

what my parents to us is never let us sleep until we have peed...

before sleeping ask you child to pee...