my daughter just tust turned 4 this month and she is still haveing accidents at night.?

Question

i have tried taking her cup away from her, make her go before she goes to bed, she is currently wearing pullups. what can i do to help her???

Answer 1

It is very common for children this age to still have accidents at night, and drawing attention to it will only stress out your daughter and yourself.

Sometimes is due to emotional or physical concerns - and if you think that this may be the root of it you should talk to your doctor to alleviate your concerns.

Bedwetting also tends to run in families - talk to your mother and mother-in-law. You may find out that there just may have been a few amongst your siblings or in-laws - or even yourself!

My youngest brother wet his bed until he was in his early teens - meds, behaviour modification (no drinks after a certain time, not letting him pee as often as he needed to during the day to "enlarge" his bladder - and this was specialist recommended, how horrible!), waking him up several times a night to go never helped. He had to grow out of it.

The best thing you can do for your daughter is to help her not feel shame, help her understand that it is not uncommon and that she will grow out of it when her body is ready.

Best wishes!

Just a quick note to the recommendation of Maranda B - re: the alarm that goes off when the child starts to pee

From personal experience, if the bedwetter is wetting due to being in a very deep sleep and not feeling the urge, the alarm does very little. I have memories of everyone in the house being woken up by the alarm in my brothers' underpants but he was still sleeping soundly and deeply! Great idea in theory but not so great in practice!

Answer 2

Have you tried the bedwetting alarm? The alarm will go off if there is a little bit of moisture in the child's underwear. I read on another website that alarms are successful about 75% of the time (and it wasn't an advertisement for a particular product neither) . There are some kids who are deep sleepers though so the whole house wakes up except the kid who is wetting himself. If your kid can can wake up from an alarm clock then I would imagine that she could wake up from a bedwetting alarm. However it can take weeks or months before the child can stay dry with out an alarm. For some families, this is too much stress because the whole house is being woken up. They rather just wait until the child outgrows it. I have been told to wait until the child is at least 6 years old because there is about a 50/50 chance that she/he will outgrow it by then. If not then you will have to make some decisions on whether you would try to use some intervention.

If you're American then you can buy bedwetting alarms at medical supply stores.

_About alarm clocks:
Babies/young children are trained to sleep with noise in the house (typically parents talking to each other). Kids often sleep through an alarm clock when they first start using it. My kids took about 2 weeks (give or take) to wake up from an alarm clock so they can get up for school in the morning. Is it really any wonder that bedwetting kids find it difficult to wake up from an alarm in the middle of the night, at least in the beginning anyway???

Answer 3

my son has just turned six and he has only stopped wetting the bed a few months ago. i used pullups every night - just to save me the effort of changing the bed all the time. he didnt mind wearing them either because he was always in a dry bed and not woken. i actually purchased a device called a "dri sleeper" which you hook onto their jammies near the shoulder and a cord runs inside their top with a little rubber pad on the end. you then put undies on the child with a pullup over the top and place the end of the cord in between. when the child starts to wee an alarm sounds which wakes them and they go to the toilet. i found this fantastic. you buy them from a chemist and they cost about $90 - $100 in australia. i was also told that it makes little difference whether they drink before bed. good luck

Answer 4

During my pregnancy I read just about every baby book there was out there. And they all said that don't expect a child to be fully overnight pottytrained until 5 or 6 years old. Just because they have small bladders and usually sleep deeply so they dont wake up when they have to pee. Tips on helping are try to limit juices which are diuretics.(sp?) Also maybe talk to your doctor, cause I've heard of these little alarms that they wear in their underwear and the second moisture is sensed they go off and wake the child up to go to the bathroom.

Answer 5

Hi I am Shawn and I have 3 kids who are 6,3 and 1, the best I can tell you is don't give her anything else to drink atleast 2 hours before bedtime is when you should stop, and if that don't work then she may have a bladder problem or you should monitor what she watches on tv because she could be having bad dreams which could be causing it. If that doesn't work then take her to the doctor's A.S.A.P and they can tell you what it is and give her medicine for it if it is needed. Good luck and I hope you can accomplish fixing your problem. :) :)

Answer 6

This is normal for some kids. There still are kids who are 8 and 9 who still have "accidents". Have you ever heard of Good-Nites? (Or Nite-Nites, whatever they are called). They are like underwear but absorb like a diaper. They are things your child should wear when they go to bed so it won't go/leak onto your bed. Otherwise, I'd consult your doctor.

Answer 7

this is very common, more than you think. I watch a boy who still does and he'll be 8 in a couple weeks. they have tried almost everything, no drinks after 7, go to the bathroom twice before bed time etc... suddenly I suggested "pull ups" for him so they didn't have to wash his sheets every other day.

Answer 8

Don't worry tooo much, my daughter did thid until she was 8. The Dr. said he bladder just wasn't mature enough. Try setting an alarm at night and get her up to go. Eventually she will learn to wake up on her own.

Answer 9

i really wouldnt worry about it. every child is different first of all. my little brother wasnt fully out of pull ups till a few months before he started school. and a friend of mines daughter needed them till she was 9. its not uncommon so dont think something is wrong with her. and like the other people who answered said she might just be a deep sleeper. it will stop sooner or later. i really think the setting the alarm idea is a great one.

Answer 10

I would not worry and certainly don't make a big deal of it in front of your daughter
Talk to her doc.
Has there been any recent changes lately moving, new day care. This can effect night time accidents to.
If it was me I would not worry about it and just mention it at her next check-up.