My son nighttime potty trained pretty early on. By the age of 3, he was waking up dry. We've never really had a problem with nighttime accidents until this summer. He is 6 now. He never used to have to use the bathroom at night at all, but this summer, he often has to wake up in the middle of the night to go. Sometimes he makes it in time, but sometimes he doesn't. Usually, he just barely doesn't make it and he might wet his underwear while he's in the bathroom. A couple of times, he wet the bed. There have been no significant changes in his life or added stresses. He doesn't complain of pain when he pees nor does there seem to be any changes in his daytime bathroom habits, so I don't think it's a bladder infection.
If I had to guess a cause, I think maybe he is getting dehydrated during the day due to the hot weather and then either he is drinking more water in the evening or it's taking that long for his body to process the water he is drinking? I'm trying to encourage him to drink more water during the day and less in the evening, and we make sure that he uses the bathroom right before he goes to bed. It's difficult to preemptively wake him up and make him use the bathroom before we go to bed, the way I know some parents do. But I just think it's strange that this is becoming an issue three years after he originally potty trained. Has anyone else ever had this happen to their child?
Thanks!
I think he'd probably just drinking larger amounts & may be a deep sleeper?
Waterproof pad/sheet/waterproof pad/sheet for quick changes.
He'll get it.
Don't stress.
Well, night dryness is not something that can be trained really, so you got lucky his bladder matured enough to either hold it all night or wake him, as it seems it still is most of the time, so no worries over that. I would set a time to cut off fluids for a few nights and see if that helps, like nothing to drink after 6 with the exception of a small amount of water while brushing his teeth. Sometimes kids just have accidents at night, even kids that normally don't, and that is completely normal. I would not stress it at all.
My 5 year old stays dry at night most of the time. He will occasionally have a rash of nights where he either gets up to pee or wets the bed, sometimes sleeping soundly until morning. Usually this happens for just a few days and then back to dry nights. I suspect it coincides with a stage of growth, his body is changing quickly and sometimes it can't keep up OR he sleeps more soundly while going through a growth spurt? Another thing to consider are bowel movements...my daughter had a harder time making it through the night if there was pressure from needing to pass a bm. As an adult I take care of that in the morning but my kids usually do their business later in the day.
Almost every child around this age goes through this. They grow, their bladder doesn't, they have accidents, their insides grow then they stay dry again.
If he's waking up to go then he's drinking enough. Perhaps he's drinking a lot in the evenings.
