Bedwetting

[StellaMarie]

How do you get your child to not wet the bed? How old was your child when they stopped, or when you started to get them to stay dry in the night? What did you do? What worked, and what didn't?

[bear]

I think it depends on the child. My understanding of bedwetting is that it is most often due to the physical development of the child. I think it is certainly helpful to monitor drinking habits at night and to enlist your childs help in changing the sheets, etc. but in some kids it just is what it is and they will eventually grow out of it.

My daughter was probably 6 before she stopped wetting the bed. She was a sound sleeper and her body just did not alert her enough to wake her up. We initially did pull ups with her and then switched to underwear when she was older. We monitored her drinks and had her help change the sheets. I also used to wake her when I went to bed and have her try to go. I honestly tried to be low key about it because more often than not I don't think the child can help it.

My son on the other hand went straight to underwear at age 3 and never wet the bed.

[jasminemom]

Hello,

I think my daugther was around 2 - 2.5 when she stopped bedwetting. I routinely asked her to do "number 1" before she gets to bed. And after she jumped to the bed, if she asked for a drink, she can only drink from her baby cup (so not too much). She is kind of those kids who thinks that she's a very big girl, so that according to her, bedwetting is "ohh for babies".

If she wants to go the bathroom she would wake me up, even in the middle of the night (she still cosleeps with us).

Hope this helps

[StellaMarie]

Thanks. My daughter is 5 and a half, and I just don't think she's physically able yet to not wet the bed. Mentally, she wants to be there, but she has always had trouble with deep sleep - the peeing wakes her in a terror where she's not really awake, her body is sending her signals she can't yet process. We have her in pants with those Pampers bedmats, to help things along, but it doesn't seem to have moved her much. (By the way, the bedmats are GREAT for older children, when you don't want to use nappies).

I was wondering if that was about average for her age, should I be worried or is she doing like Bear said, just what kids do. I'd like to help her, but I get the feeling (not) bedwetting is more something that happens on its own rather than anything that can be helped along or taught.

[bear]

I think her age and bedwetting is quite normal and I would imagine within the next year she will stop. It sounds like it has been pretty consistent with her, as it was with my daughter, and not a new or sudden change so my thought is that she just hasn't developed enough bladder control to make it through the night yet.

I certainly wouldn't hesitate to mention it to her dr. if you are concerned.

[NightRose]

It totally depends on the age of the child. I was still wetting the bed at 5 and getting punished for it because according to my parents I should have known better. Sometimes the bladder development and the mind development aren't on the same page so to speak so the child doesn't realize they have to go to the bathroom and doesn't wake up.

When I had my son I read tonnes of books on child raising and potty training and one thing I kept seeing was not to rush the child into potty training. Yes you can show them the potty and what not but don't get upset if they can't do it right away because it could lead to being frightened of going to the potty. And the same thing goes with bedwetting. If you get upset and angry the child will basically become frightened and it inhibits learning to go to the bathroom at night. Children become easy embarrassed about wetting the bed and a lot of times it isn't their fault.

My son wasn't fully potty trained till he was almost 4 but he still had the occasional accident. I would have to put pull ups on him when he was sleeping just in case he had an accident. Eventually when he didn't have any accidents for a while I took him out of the pull ups at night. He had a couple more accidents after that but very sparsely so it didn't warrent pulling more pull ups on him. I would say he hasn't had an accident since he was 5 years old.