Help! My 4 Year Old Wets the Be

Totally normal.

Work on dealing with the mess in an easier fashion and you'll feel better.

Tips, advice, and great products to ease the strain can be found at www.bedwettingstore.com

There is an old post of mine on Mamasource about this. Try not giving milk after 4 or 5 PM. Water is fine, just no milk.
C

Is he just wetting at night? Or is it anytime? Wetting during nap or having accidents throughout the day? Our pediatrician (who has two young boys himself) said that it is very COMMON for boys to still wet the bed at night until 6. Once I heard that I decided not to worry about it. My son just turned 5 and wears a pull-up at night. He doesn't think anything of it. And I know some of his friends do too. We did switch to underwear for awhile, but he was still wetting pretty regularly. I'll try again when he's just wet in the morning once or twice a month. And of course, we have a vinyl mattress pad on his bed.

Hi J.,

My daughter is four now but has been potty trained since she was about 16-18 months. So I didnt really go through too much of the potty training days, but I do know that If she drinks anything after 7 she occasionally used to have accidents when she was 2. Try not giving any drinks or fruits after 7. I have been working in childcare for 4 years and I know we make them go to the bathroom before they sleep so they dont have an accdient, because once they turn three they have to be fully potty trained which means no pull ups or accidents.

E.

My daughter was still wearing pull-ups to bed at age four. My husband and I started taking turns getting her up a couple of times a night to take her potty & eventually she was able to take herself.

First, I disagree with anybody that says by age 4 all kids should be able to stay dry at night most of the time. ALL KIDS ARE DIFFERENT. Some kids aren't able to go through the night until they are 6 or 7.

That being said, my daughter is almost 4 and she sleeps in a pull up. She is a big drinker and a heavy sleeper. If I were to wake her up several times a night to go potty, she may not go back to sleep! I just now got my youngest child to sleep through the night consistently, I'm not willing to voluntarily get up to take my daughter to the potty.

There is lots of good advice on here, withholding water close to bedtime is probably the best. But don't pressure hime too much or it could lead to a bigger problem.

Good luck!

studies show that little kids bladders don't grow as fast as the rest of them. and that is usually the reason for older kids to continue to wet the bed. if you limit fluids about 2hours before bed, empty the bladder before bed, and i am sure you already do these things, then there are few options left. pullups, a waterproof pad, a cover over the mattress. or you can seek medical help. there is medicine to help the bladder. you should definately take your concerns to your pediatrician. your son should be able to hold his urine at night or only have sporadic episodes of wetting....like illness, or exhaustion from playing to hard and he slept late or something. regular bed wetting at his age is not usual. not anything to panic about, but may need to be addressed.
good luck,
L.

J.,

While 4 is not that old and still very natural for accidents to be happening, you can try a few things...
Our son is a couple of months past three and he is now completely dry except for maybe once every three weeks or so if he has had too much water, etc before bed. But we started him off by just putting him in underwear...no pullups because those just suggest to the little one that if they have an accident they'll be ok. Then, try not to give any liquids after 6:30 or so...or if you do, give him one sip of water, but not much. When we started, our little one would fall asleep around 8:30PM and we'd go in and take him to the bathroom every two hours and then by the third time (around 2AM), we'd just leave him be for the rest of the night. Once that was ok, we took him every 2 1/2 hours and backed it up to last time being at 1:30AM, etc...etc...Now, we put him down at 8:00...take him around 9:30, and again before bed (for us around 11:30PM or so) and then leave him for the night. So far, he goes that last time when we go to bed and he is ok for the rest of the night. He just gets it all out those two times and he's fine. Try to start that and slowly back up the time you take him last and I bet he'll be good to go within a month. Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes!

My only advice is don't stress about it. After seeing my mom lose sleep for years while trying to nighttime potty train my brother, I decided I would not put myself through that. My son will be 5 next month and he still wears pull-ups to bed and they are wet every morning. I did try getting him up at night to use the restroom but he would stand there asleep so he was not learning anything and I was up every two hours...forget it. I have decided it will happen when it happens and to just let it be until then. Good luck.