Bed Wetting Strategies for 5 and 6 Year Olds

Hi L.,
I'm a Grammy and when my son was young he was on a medication that kept him in deep sleep (once he got to sleep!). Before I went to bed (around 10pm), I'd just pick him up, sit him on the toilet, he'd pee, and I'd carry him back to bed... all the while he slept.. It worked. He got to feel good about himself and I didn't have to change sheets all the time. Honestly, I don't think he 'grew' out of it til he was about 8, maybe 9. I never, never made him feel badly about it. By the time he was 5 he understood that he just couldn't help it. He's now the proud dad of a 3 wk old son.. yipee.

patience is my only suggestion. My son wore pull ups to bed until he was six. Every Body matures differently and sometimes boys take a little longer to have the mature bladder and/or hormones to allow them to sleep w/o peeing the bed. I was washing the sheets everyday it is so frustrating, but it is really normal.

Hi L. - I actually just posted a similar question the other day (must've put in wrong category because I didn't receive any responses) Anyways, our doctor said they don't do intervention until after age 5. He said if our son (5 in March) was really strong willed about wanting to sleep with big boy undies that we could look into the alarm system as that is his first stage of intervention. I think waiting until 9 as another mother noted - atleast in our case - would be more of a detriment to his confidence. I was looking for advice from anyone else that may have used an alarm system and what their thoughts were. One other thing our doctor noted is that it isn't that you necessarily want to control the liquid intake, it's that you want to teach his body to recognize when it needs to go to the bathroom when they are sleeping.

Try chiropractic care. It is very effective with bedwetting.

when my boy was little i stopped drinks about 2 hrs before bedtime and woke him up before i went to bed to use the bathroom. it wasn't always fun but it worked for him. just made sure he drank as much as he wanted during the day.

Keep using the pull-ups, but limit his intake of any liquids at least 2 hours before bed time. I went through the same thing years ago. Whatever you do, don't make the poor little one feel bad about the bed wetting. If the limitations on liquid intake doesn't work, please see your peditrician.

I unfortunately don't have any advice for you L., as I am also looking for some. I have a four-year-old girl and she is a heavy sleeper as well. She was doing fine with training and has all of a sudden take a huge step backwards. She is wetting her pants at home all the time and her bed at night as well as a few times here and there at her grandmother and aunts houses. I don't feel she is doing it on purpose, but I am not sure. I took her to the Dr. to see if she had a UTI and it was thankfully negative. The nurse practitioner who looked at her thought it was a control issue and suggested we not let her know it gets to us. We have been doing that as well as putting her back in pulls ups. Is she being lazy? I think that may be a small part of it but I'm not sure. Of course it is wearing on my self confidence as a Mom as well as worrying me that there is something wrong with my child. I have also heard that potty training is a crutial time in a childs self confidence building and that worries me greatly. Any suggestions or words of encouragement or simimlar situations would be greatly accepted.

Hi L., The best advice I have heard is to limit fluids after dinner, and make sure they pee completely right before bed. Some people suggest waking them when you go to bed to take them to the bathroom once again (I've always struggled with this idea of waking a sleeping child, personally) or setting an alarm to wake them partway through the night. Other than that, he's probably just a really sound sleeper. For older kids or ones with emotional issues that may be contributing, you can use incentive charts (like a star chart or earning something for being dry) but I think he's young for that type of an approach. --S. H.

L.: When is his last feeding, ie drinks or food, for the day? My 3 and 5 year old do not have anything to eat or drink after dinner which is usually done at about 6 pm. They sleep through the night and do not need to wake up to empty their bladder. If, for some reason, they have something to eat or drink after 6 pm or had a late dinner, I will either wake them up in the middle of the night or put a pull-up on them. I am not sure if this is something that is helpful to you or not. Hope it does help.

My older son (now in his 20's) used to wet the bed also. It was a struggle until he hit puberty. There really is no great explanation for bedwetting except they are 1. heavy sleepers or 2. they don't produce the hormone needed to stop the urge to "go" until all other hormones kick in! The only thing I can suggest is to limit milk & juices at night & perhaps wake him before you go to bed so that he can try to go to the bathroom at that point. It may not help as he may not be able to wake up, but it's worth the try. I don't think it is anything you can control except to limit what he drinks after 5:00.

Get him up once at night and take him to the bathroom. He will not really wake up, but this has worked for a friend of mine. I would wait until 9 for any type of alarm system. This is a very common problem.

My son wet the bed until he was 7 or 8. My doctor told me that every child is different their bladder matures at different ages. I did do things to prevent it as much as possible. I made sure he didn't drink before bed and that he went to the bathroom before bed. I also would wake him up before I went to bed to go to the bathroom.