5 Year Old Son and Bedwetting

I completely understand. I asked the same question on here when my son was around that age. Many answers I got suggested chiropractic. I was very skeptical that it could work for bed wetting but about a year later I decided to give it a try. By the time he had 4 treatments the wetting had slowed down to 2-3x a week and by the time he finished 8 of them he no longer wetted. I couldn't afford the on going once a week treatments so we quit going, he occasionally pees but he's getting better as time goes by. If I could afford to keep him there I would. It definitely works!!!

I'm suspecting Enuresis. This is when children will bed wet, mostly with boys, up to age 10-12, usually stopping when puberty hits. My 23 year old son went through this. If this is the case, not much you do will help. It's a medical condition when the bladder takes much longer to mature. Punishment would be wrong since it's a medical condition. At age 5 doctors may feel it's a bit early to make that diagnosis so they'll suggest to limits drinks after dinner, as your doctor did. You can try doing a "double void" where you potty him a half hour before bed and then again right before getting into bed.

Bed wetting in order children was such a shame for the entire family that it was kept secret. But today you see that it's becoming more public and being recognized as a medical condition, as it is. This is why you see more bigger kids "overnights" because they're taking it out of the closet and doing away with the shame because it's not the child's "laziness".

Many kids will sleep through the wetting. It's not like he's getting a bucket of ice water thrown him to jolt him awake. His body is getting relief by emptying the bladder and the warm urine isn't going to wake him up. Some kids do, some don't. And the warm urine slowly cools but the body adjusts, again not jolting him awake.

Do not punish or shame. It's a medical condition.

Allow him to keep wearing the overnights.

Double void before bed. Waking during the night is not going to help. It's only going to interupt his sleep and add more problems to both of you, like a cranky child and learning poor sleeping habits.

Use waterproof mattress pads under the sheets. We use this on every mattress in our house just to extend the life of all our mattresses.

Explain to him that it's not his fault, and his body will learn to hold the "pee" longer as he gets older. Let him know it's ok.

Let him know he can still go to his friend's house to stay the night. Just make the parent only aware of the situation. No children need to know!

Let him know that no one will ever know unless HE tells them. Keep it to himself as other children won't understand that it's a medical condition.

Keep the doctor informed. Ask him about Enuresis so it is documented that it's been discussed. By the time he's 6 if he's still wetting the doc may diagnose him by then.

Once you understand that it's a medical condition it becomes easily managed and more acceptable to deal with.

The only time my oldest son was punished was when he didn't follow our rules of cleaning up after himself. He would sleep on the urine stained sheets for 3 days if we didn't see that he didn't take care of the mess. He was age 8-10. All we asked was that he stripped the sheets and put them in the hamper and put his wet clothes in the hamper. He became that typical messy pre-teen that was gross, lol.

Good luck and it's ok!

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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It won't work...waking them up doesn't really do any good because they are just not going to wake enough to go. You have to drag them in there and then drag them back and they just sleep through it and as soon as they lay down they wet.

His brain is not telling him to wake up to go and there isn't anything you can do to make the brain start sending that signal. It eventually will come and he'll start being dry.

Limiting his fluids only makes the urine stronger and does nothing to keep the bladder emptier, he can't stay dry right now. His brain isn't ready.

He is still young to stay dry at night, especially for boys. My 11 year old grand son is just now staying dry and when he is stressed out he still has accidents.

If you still have concerns then take your son to a Urologist, who will tell you the next common reason for night time wetting is constipation. The pooh puts pressure on the bladder when they lay down and pushes the urine out. So, if he's not constipated he is just going to have to grow out of this when his brains catches up.

My personal opinion is that if kids have issues with wetting then they need to wear pull ups so I don't have extra laundry every day. My time is worth something and doing sheets and waterproof mattress pads every day is time consuming and I deserve better.

My stepson was very difficult to finally get trained at night. I think the stress of moving back and forth between Mom and Dad's home didn't help the situation very much. I can still remember, sitting groggily on the side of the bathtub...helping him balance his little tush on the stool at 2:00 am every morning!!! He would not even remember the trip to the bathroom the next morning. My oldest daughter also had issued with bedwetting, until she was around 10 years old! The doctor finally did some tests and told us that her bladder was unusually small and he would be surprised if she COULD make it through the night without going to the bathroom!! We were told to do "bladder stretching exercises"...she was supposed to wait at least 10 minutes after feeling the urge to urinate during the day, to try and stretch her bladder and give it more capacity. ( Your son is probably too young to try this with, you would just end up with a whole new host of DAYTIME issues!!).
I would say set your alarm for the middle of his sleep cycle, and just get up and take him to the bathroom. If he is already wet, then you know you need to be getting up sooner for him. Get a nightlight for the bathroom so you don't have to turn on the overhead light....don't talk to him very much...just be as quick and quiet as you can be. It may be a pain to get up in the middle of the night but it is a lot less trouble than changing the sheets and washing them everyday!!! Be patient, be calm and don't get upset with him, HE doesn't want to be wetting the bed anymore than you want him to!!!
Good luck to you

I agree. Leave him alone. He doesn't have the bladder control yet so why put him through all that. It will only make him feel bad about something he has no control over. It can't hurt to try to cut back on liquids a little, but understand it could take a few more years before he has some control.

Your son is too young to expect dryness overnight. That won't happen for a few more years. You can't potty train for nighttime. It will happen when your son's body is ready for it, not before.

My son also turned 5 in April, and has the same issue. He clearly has a small bladder, since he needs to use the bathroom sometimes as often as every hour during the day. His last drink is with dinner at 6:00ish, so his bladder shouldn't even be full, but he's a deep sleeper. our pediatrician told us it's pretty normal at this age for bedwetting. We're just going to leave it be for now. This happened with at least 2 of my nephews too. One eventually outgrew it, the other had a younger sibling who was dry at night & he somehow forced himself to learn to get up during the night & use the bathroom. He didn't want to have to wear "diapers" to bed, when his 3 year old brother didn't have to. My daughter is almost 2, so that may be a trick that works for us as well. Good luck!

I have not read all of your responses yet, but I vote for just waiting it out. I wouldn't even try it until he starts waking up dry more often than not, and I wouldn't worry about it for a couple of more years. Good luck!

We take our daughter to the bathroom b/4 we go to bed and she goes right back to sleep. She is 5 1/2 and still in a pull-up at night.

Hi H.,
my son who is now 15 was abed wetter up until he was 71/2 bt 8 it completely stopped.
We tried many things butmostly did not make a huge deal of it so he wouldnt feel like something is wrong with him.
Try to stop any drinking 2 hours before bed time. Also use a matress protector.

Some boys do not get the signal in time.He My son wet in the day time up until he was 5. He would ignore the urge because he was too busy with something else. I heard there is some type of drug but I was not interested in that.
My son had no disabilities so I was not too concerned.
You will need patience and remember he is not the first and eventually will get there.
Good luck,
L.

yes, definitely take him potty one more time before you go to bed. i did this for about a week with my girls when i was potty training them at age 3. that worked. the fluid intake would stop for them at 6, their bedtime at that time was 8 so they had nothing to drink for 3 hrs before bed. if they asked for a drink i would give them very little warm milk.
i would take them potty once more around 10 or 11 pm when i would head to bed. they would be half away or not but would go potty. they would stay dry all night. eventually they learned to hold it throughout the night.
so don't be afraid of him not wanting to sleep after you get him up. but he needs to be potty trained.

One of my daughter's took a long time to stay dry overnight. In my experience, you can't really "train" for overnight - just be patient for it to happen. This daughter was trained for daytime at 3, but was almost 7 before she was dry overnight. She was/is a very deep sleeper and just didn't wake to go. I know some people have success with waking a child before they go to bed, but for us it made her overall sleep very restless and then she was grumpy all day. So we just stuck to the Goodnights at night and also got a mattress pad that goes over the top of the sheets (so it can be pulled off and replaced if there's an accident without changing the whole bed). Eventually she stayed dry more frequently and we were able to go to underwear at night. We would still use the Goodnights if she was sick or really tired or when traveling to keep her confidence up. Her younger sister (3 years younger) was dry at night before her, but we just made a point not to make any comparisons and it wasn't a big deal. Kids are all different, and I think docs don't generally consider nighttime wetting a potential problem until at least age 7. Hang in there and just give your son some time.

Hi H.! I’m M. Francis from the GoodNites NiteLite Panel. Mamapedia is partnering with GoodNites through September. Your question is one I encounter frequently from parents, so I wanted to offer my feedback.

First of all I just want to reassure you that five years old is still a very common age for kids to experience nighttime accidents. Your son is growing fast and probably seems like a big boy in many ways, but his body is still catching up! You may find that he’s more likely to wet the bed if he is overtired or out of his usual routine. Again very normal! One of my sons had regular nighttime accidents until he was almost ten. Since your pediatrician isn’t worried, I would continue what you’re doing. If he seems comfortable wearing the nighttime sleep pants, you’ll both feel more confident and less stressed knowing that he’ll wake up in a dry bed in the morning. You can teach him how to dispose of the nighttime underwear so that you don’t have to worry about it at all, and make sure he understands that nobody is angry at him and that you know it’s something he can’t control. That way you’ll both have a better night’s sleep!

There’s lots of information at GoodNites.com about bedwetting and helping children have a better night’s sleep. Let us know how things are going!