Dealing with nighttime wetness in dd3....suggestions for this age?

[Tap]

Is there any potty training advice to help a night time bed wetter? DD3.5 is still wetting at night. She wakes up dry 1-2 times a month. My older kids were dry at night before the day, so this is new to me. She has been in panties for 6mths during the day and is dry even at nap (wets at nap 1x every 2mths or less). She sleeps heavy and if she gets woken up (hard to do) it is difficult for her to go back to sleep, so I don't want to wake her/ take her potty in the middle of the night.

 

She gets very thirsty in the evening, and even if I increase her day time fluids, she still wants at least 6oz water after dinner. This will be very, very hard to cut out for her and I don't think I really want to. She seems to really need the water in the evening as she plays physically hard all day.

 

She goes to the bathroom before bedtime with no problem and goes pee within the first hour of waking up too.

 

At her age, I don't know if it should be looked at as bed wetting (like you would in an 8yo) or just incomplete potty training. I don't want to try meds or other invasive devices yet.

[LibraryLover]

Are most 3 yr olds reliable at night? Only one of mine was, and I never thought a thing about it. We used cloth diapers for all 4, so we didn't use pullups, but we did have those thick Nicky cloth pullups things. I would not be worried about this and if it made life easier, I'd do pullups, or cloth ones.

[MotherGoose]

I would definitely NOT think it's really bed wetting. I used to work in the mental health field and we didn't consider it so until they were school age or so. My dd, 4, is also a heavy sleeper and potty-trained on the late side, around 3 yrs 2 months. She displayed none of the normal signs of readiness really, although I tried with her several times before the birth of her sister at 3 years old. I didn't push things until she came in the house one day, still wearing her diaper, and said, "I peed in the yard (pulling her diaper aside to show me) like Daddy!" We live in the country and daddy does that to "keep the deer away." :) Anyway, that's when I decided IT WAS TIME for potty training, and didn't look back. As for nightime, I have a similar story. I'd put a pull-up on her when I put her to bed, and she'd play for a little while before she went to sleep. After awhile, she told me she'd pee in her pullup when she didn't want to stop playing and would then get a new one to wear at night, and told me she'd wake up in the morning and just pee in her pullup because she didn't want to get up. When I figured that out, I got one of those pads to go on top of the sheet and told her we were done with pullups. She does pretty well, does wet some but it rarely leaves her panties. I do get her up before we go to bed and she's so asleep that she can't even stand up but she'll pee in the potty and go back to sleep. Don't know if your daughter could do that too if you could carry her to the potty and do everything for her. Otherwise, my advice is not to worry about it and not scold her, just see it as a developmental thing that will come with time.

[oldskool]

My 6 1/2 year old DD just became trained at night. We just assumed she would grow out of it and used pull-ups until she did. She is also a very heavy sleeper and it just was impossible to wake her up at night. About a month ago we started to talk to her about trying to stay dry at night. DD just makes sure to use the potty before bed, and occasionally if we think she has drank a lot of fluid in the evening, DH will get her up in the middle of the night to go. My other two kids were trained at night as soon as they were in the day, so this DD was different. I think it just takes time for some. On the upside she has been the best sleeper and didn't wake up at night like the other two.

 

Lesley

[Susan in KY]

My son was sleeping through his cues to get up and go pee at that age, so I bought an aquarium overflow alarm. I shortened the wire, attached it to his underwear, and slept beside his bed for three nights. It worked like a charm. I think it was better than other bedwetting alarms because 1) it was cheap! and 2) it was at the point of wetness so it went off in the first second of bed wetting.

 

ymmv

[myfatherslily]

Yup, my 6 year old DD, too, has just started keeping her pull-up dry at night sometimes. She sleeps like a rock. Her 4 year old brother wear underpants to bed. They're just all different. There might be things that could help, but do you really want to have any stress over it? It'll happen when she's ready:) For awhile I thought my DD just didn't care and peed in her diaper on purpose. She would sometimes wet her diaper/pull-up before she went to sleep! But time went on and it was clear that, although the wetting before sleep was on purpose, wetting during the night was definitely involuntary.

So at 3, I'd definitely not worry about it:) All kids are different!

[my2kidsmom]

pull ups (night jammers or good nights)

 

My dd wet the bed until she was almost 9 and we put her on ddvap (a nasal spray). We used a variety of things from the time she was about 3 to try to train such as limiting beverages at night, waking her up and taking her, setting an alarm, etc.

 

Since you dd is still very young, I really wouldn't worry too much about it. I also wouldn't kill myself or my back by waking up multiple times in the night to get her up and to the bathroom. When we did that, it only made my back hurt and made both of us tired the next day.

[Dawn in OH]

It just takes longer for some kids to develop the ability to sense that they need to use the bathroom during the night, especially for a heavy sleeper. Given the age of your child, I wouldn't be too concerned yet. It's very normal at that age.

 

Just use some Pull Ups, Underjams, etc. for a while so that you don't have soaked pajamas and sheets.

[tampamommy]

I don't see this as a problem in a 3.5 yo, but then again I did something with my dc that many parents disagree with. And I would do it all over again.

 

I never withheld drinks, all the way up to bedtime. We live in a hot climate and my dc sweat a LOT. When they were young, we often played hard outside almost every night until dark. It just didn't seem healthy to me ever to withhold water. Especially since I am usually quite thirsty just before bedtime too!

 

So I let them drink, and just took them to the bathroom before I went to bed. They usually needed to go. It took 5 minutes. Sure was a lot easier than changing sheets in the middle of the night.

 

I had quite a few people tell me that I was setting my dc up for bedwetting at a later age, because they wouldn't learn to get up on their own. I disagreed with this, feeling that purposely waking them up to go would do the opposite--TRAIN their bodies to wake up as needed.

 

Um...the total number of times my dc wet the bed in their young years was maybe 2 (both when they were sick).

 

And those naysayers turned out to be wrong. It did indeed train them to wake up on their own. :)

[3lilreds in NC]

My girls were both older when they were dry through the night - Emma was at least 5.5 and Abbie was over 6, maybe as old as 6.5. I am from a family of bed wetters so I never thought it was a big deal, I guess.

 

Isaac is nearly 3 and shows no signs of being dry through the night, or potty training, for that matter, since he peed AND pooed on the floor today. :001_huh: He does know better but I don't think he pays attention and clearly I don't.

 

Anyhoo, sorry, no advice for you, except night time pullups and patience. :D

[myfatherslily]

So I let them drink, and just took them to the bathroom before I went to bed. They usually needed to go. It took 5 minutes. Sure was a lot easier than changing sheets in the middle of the night.

 

This is mostly what I've done with my 4 year old. Mostly because he has lots of night terrors and needing to pee is one of the triggers. So I have him go when I go to bed or I take him if it's starting to "wake" him up (i.e. crying in his sleep).

Didn't work with DD, due to the whole sleeping-like-a-rock thing:) I tried but she would get very distressed about it.

[RoughCollie]

Anyhoo, sorry, no advice for you, except night time pullups and patience. :D

 

:iagree:

[Pretty in Pink]

My oldest was able to stay dry at night by 3.5 years of age, but my second child wore Pull Ups until he was 5. My 4yo still wears Pull Ups at night.

 

I'm kind of in the 'let them learn on their own timetable' camp.

[proverbs356lady]

One of my children was like this too; heavy sleeper, wetting the bed at night for what seemed like forever.

 

I made her bed with a waterproof pad and extra sheets so it was easier to remove the wet stuff in the middle of the night.

 

I took her to the bathroom before I went to bed each night. I didn't try to wake her up. I just picked her up and carried her to the bathroom and sat her on the toilet. She never fully woke up and always went right back to sleep.

 

Eventually she outgrew it. A bedwetting 3.5 yrd old is very common. Hang in there!

[Laurie4b]

Is there any potty training advice to help a night time bed wetter? DD3.5 is still wetting at night. She wakes up dry 1-2 times a month. My older kids were dry at night before the day, so this is new to me. She has been in panties for 6mths during the day and is dry even at nap (wets at nap 1x every 2mths or less). She sleeps heavy and if she gets woken up (hard to do) it is difficult for her to go back to sleep, so I don't want to wake her/ take her potty in the middle of the night.

 

She gets very thirsty in the evening, and even if I increase her day time fluids, she still wants at least 6oz water after dinner. This will be very, very hard to cut out for her and I don't think I really want to. She seems to really need the water in the evening as she plays physically hard all day.

 

She goes to the bathroom before bedtime with no problem and goes pee within the first hour of waking up too.

 

At her age, I don't know if it should be looked at as bed wetting (like you would in an 8yo) or just incomplete potty training. I don't want to try meds or other invasive devices yet.

 

I don't think it's bedwetting or incomplete potty training. I think it's normal and you were lucky with your other two.

[MaMa2005]

At DS's 5 year old check up, I mentioned to the pediatrician that he still is not dry at night. (DS soaks a Goodnite pullup). The pediatrician wasn't the least bit worried. He said he doesn't consider it a problem (or 'bedwetting') until DS turns 8. Since it doesn't bother DS (we do not make a big deal of it), we are just letting nature take its course. BTW, DS was completely potty trained during the day at 28 months.

[jenL]

My 3.5 yo is fully potty trained during the day, but at night he still needs to wear a pull-up. Like your dd, he sleeps so heavily, he doesn't wake up to know he needs to go. We've tried to wake him before we go to bed, and it is disasterous, so we've decided to let him do it at his own time. For now, we'll just continue with the pull-ups even though I hate paying for them.

[Denisemomof4]

I didn't read the other responses but remember, she's still very young. :001_smile: This may be normal for her. What we did with ALL the kids is before WE went to bed we put them on the potty. We didn't talk, didn't stimulate, just gently awoke, whispered, "Time for potty," carried them in, put them on, and then tucked them back into bed. They usually didn't open their eyes. :001_smile: We used pull-ups until no longer necessary.

[Tap]

Thanks everyone. I do agree it is most likely her age and nothing else. I think the way I worded my post made it sound like I think this is more like the older child version of bed wetting and not part of the normal potty training process. I do think it is normal, I just was wondering if anyone had suggestions to nudge it along. :D

 

I can't carry her to the potty at night, as I have a blown disk in my back...and she is 45+lbs. A bit tooo big for lifting/carrying the dead weight of to the potty at night. Dh is already in bed at this time so he can't help. And...if she wakes up I have a 3yo up at 1am who just had a power nap! :seeya:

 

 

We will just keep using the Pull-ups and go from there. Thanks!

Edited July 7, 2010 by Tap, tap, tap

[dirty ethel rackham]

I don't see this as a problem in a 3.5 yo, but then again I did something with my dc that many parents disagree with. And I would do it all over again.

 

I never withheld drinks, all the way up to bedtime. We live in a hot climate and my dc sweat a LOT. When they were young, we often played hard outside almost every night until dark. It just didn't seem healthy to me ever to withhold water. Especially since I am usually quite thirsty just before bedtime too!

 

So I let them drink, and just took them to the bathroom before I went to bed. They usually needed to go. It took 5 minutes. Sure was a lot easier than changing sheets in the middle of the night.

 

I had quite a few people tell me that I was setting my dc up for bedwetting at a later age, because they wouldn't learn to get up on their own. I disagreed with this, feeling that purposely waking them up to go would do the opposite--TRAIN their bodies to wake up as needed.

 

Um...the total number of times my dc wet the bed in their young years was maybe 2 (both when they were sick).

 

And those naysayers turned out to be wrong. It did indeed train them to wake up on their own. :)

 

This was the approach we used when dd was not night-dry at 3 1/2. She had been dry during the day for over 6 months. I did not think it was a problem, but, since I went through he** as a bedwetter, I wanted to see what I could do to help her along. I stayed up until 11 and I got took her to the bathroom just before I went to bed. I didn't make a big deal out of it. Within a month or two, she was dry.

[Denisemomof4]

Thanks everyone. I do agree it is most likely her age and nothing else. I think the way I worded my post made it sound like I think this is more like the older child version of bed wetting and not part of the normal potty training process. I do think it is normal, I just was wondering if anyone had suggestions to nudge it along. :D

 

I can't carry her to the potty at night, as I have a blown disk in my back...and she is 45+lbs. A bit tooo big for lifting/carrying the dead weight of to the potty at night. Dh is already in bed at this time so he can't help. And...if she wakes up I have a 3yo up at 1am who just had a power nap! :seeya:

 

 

We will just keep using the Pull-ups and go from there. Thanks!

 

:glare: I hope she's dry at night sooner than later! By my last, I was SO ready to be done with the whole diaper/potty training thing. I couldn't WAIT for it to be done!!! I can't tell you how happy I am now that I no longer have to deal with diapers and pull-ups. Now I have a farm and shovel poop daily. LOTS of poop. I never knew how good I had it with children. :D

[Tap]

:glare: I hope she's dry at night sooner than later! By my last, I was SO ready to be done with the whole diaper/potty training thing. I couldn't WAIT for it to be done!!! I can't tell you how happy I am now that I no longer have to deal with diapers and pull-ups. Now I have a farm and shovel poop daily. LOTS of poop. I never knew how good I had it with children. :D

 

LOL, I always tell people who insist I should get a dog, that I will get one when they come out with a breed that doesn't poop!

 

DD11 would looooove a dog, cat, mouse, rat....anything she can pet and has a heart beat. LOL

 

I just don't want to worry about picking up poop. Period. It really is my main reason (well aside from fur in the house-but that is another whine). Even if it was small little puffs of citrus scented sunshine....I don't want to deal with it. :D

 

I figure I provide a lot for my kids, that if they have to wait until they are adults to have pets...so be it!

[silliness7]

My advice...Pull-Ups. :001_smile:

My 1st wet til 10

My 2nd wet til 4

My 3rd stayed dry at night as soon as he potty trained...2.5

My 4th wet til 7

My 5th stayed dry til 4

My 6th is newly potty-trained and wears a diaper at night which is dry about 1/3 of the time.

 

I'll admit that the Pull-Ups can be a crutch. What I did with my 4th was I bought I big box from Sam's. When it ran out I didn't replace it for a week to see how she would do. It took YEARS but she finally graduated out. Hooray!!

 

But having btdt, with my first one I've learned to just go with the flow. I did have him tested for abnormal pipes. he was fine. When I finally broke down and bought the $100 alarm and the sure-fire program that explained how to use the alarm to maximum effectiveness and with the best intentions of helping him through the process once the new baby was sleeping through the night, he grew out of it. He refused to wear Pull-Ups of any kind and we did ALOT of laundry.

[Denisemomof4]

LOL, I always tell people who insist I should get a dog, that I will get one when they come out with a breed that doesn't poop!

 

DD11 would looooove a dog, cat, mouse, rat....anything she can pet and has a heart beat. LOL

 

 

 

oh, you have NO IDEA. Shall I take a video or a picture of the poop from my horse? My full sized pig? My dh? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean my dh. :lol:

[MJN]

tell you that we used chiropractic care for bedwetting with our son when he was 4. After two adjustments, he never wet the bed again.

 

HTH -

 

Molly

[Lolly]

I don't think it's bedwetting or incomplete potty training. I think it's normal and you were lucky with your other two.

 

:iagree: I'm a believer in early potty training. Nighttime doesn't even count. I just keep them in a diaper at night until they are dry when they wake up. It isn't like it is something they can control when they are sleeping.

[IsabelC]

Have you tried diapering her in cloth overnight? Apparently some kids respond to the feeling of being wet and learn to wake themselves up if they need to go, so if you've been giving her disposable diapers/pullups, it might be worth a try. If you don't have any cloth to fit her, you could try just putting a clean soft piece of fabric inside a disposable for a similar effect.

 

Molly, are you able to share exactly what your chiropractor did? I would be interested in any new ideas for my kids. I have a 7yo who stills wets the bed about 1/3 of the time, a 5yo who wets every night, and a 1yo who has been fully day and night trained since 14 months (she's the one we EC'd, of course).

[ChrisB]

I would try taking her to the bathroom about 1.5 hrs-ish after her bedtime, or before you go to bed. If she stays dry, just keep doing this until she can do it on her own. If she still wets her bed, I'd put her in a diaper or pull up and periodically try taking her for the before-your-bedtime potty to test for readiness.

[Laura Corin]

I would put her in pull-ups and wait a bit. One of my boys wasn't dry at night until he was six. It came in the end.

 

Laura

[Teachin'Mine]

I wouldn't consider that to be bed wetting. I'd let her wear a diaper or a pull up at night. She'll outgrow this soon enough. :)

[CactusPair]

Pull-ups worked great for both my kids, one girl, one boy.

They're pricey, but totally worth it.

 

Ds wasn't dry at night until he was almost 7.

 

My nephew was older than that.

 

Dd was about 5.

 

I never considered it a bedwetting issue, just a physical development issue. I felt the dc were completely ordinary in this regard.

[texasmama]

Two of my four children were still mostly wet at night at this age. I believe it is developmental and not something to be concerned about or to address in any way unless you want to limit fluids in the last few hours before bedtime. I put a pull up on those two kids and they eventually outgrew the night wetting. They were both very heavy sleepers and just slept through their body's cues of needing to go potty.