night dryness - when to expect it

jetgrrrl · May 2013

My almost four-year-old has been potty trained for nearly a year (although he has occasional accidents) but he has never once been dry through the night. Any idea when this should happen? By contrast, our neighbor's daughter, same age, has not worn a diaper since last June. I'm a little frustrated. DH suggests we put him to bed without a diaper, which I think is absurd since obviously, he's just going to wet the bed if he's never made it through the night without a diaper! Anybody know what the guidelines are around this - should I be talking to my doctor about it?

kpips20 · May 2013

DS has been fully day trained for a long time but is nowhere near staying dry overnight. We've tried what PP said - limiting drinks after a certain time, waking him up to go potty when we go to bed etc - and nothing has worked. I asked the pedi at his 4 yr appt and she said it's very common for some kids to take a really long time to night train, even up to 6 or 7 especially if they're deep sleepers (which DS is).

jetgrrrl · May 2013

We don't let him have anything to drink after dinner because he can pee so much at night that he actually wets through the nighttime diaper and wakes up soaked. Also have him pee right before he goes to bed whether he says he needs it or not. I don't think I could bring myself to wake him up to pee. If it's normal then I can live with it, I assume it will be a few years before he's going to sleepovers, it just seems like other kids are past this already.

Mama-Bear · May 2013

DS1 (5.5) still wets at night, one of my twins (almost 3.5) has been dry at night for months.

mrs.mastro · May 2013

DS has been potty trained a whole year and still wakes up soaked in the mornings. Like PPs said, it is not worth it to me to limit his liquids, wake him to pee, etc. just to try to get him to stay dry overnight. And his pediatrician also said it's not a concern, and he will eventually be able to hold it without forcing it on him.

Angela814 · May 2013

DD1 was potty trained at 2.5 years and dry at night at 6 years. We just used a pull up (or goodnite) until then.

DD2 was potty trained at 27 months and still wet nearly every morning.

lite-bright · May 2013

I think it's something that comes when the child is ready and can't be forced.

My three-YO wakes some mornings dry. Not enough to night-train, and heck, we're still working on day-training, but it actually happens for her, while it did not for my DD1 at that age.

My 5-YO has always been a heavy sleeper and would just pee the bed until her bladder was big enough to go the whole 10-11 hours that she sleeps. That wasn't until just before she turned five, although she'd been PT'd for more than a year by that point. She wakes now on the rare occasion she has to go, but she won't get out of bed without permission and just cries until I come get her and take her to the bathroom.

Mrs.Greg · May 2013

Every child is different. My DD will be 4 on Friday and has been wearing undies to bed for almost 2 months without any accidents. Prior to that, she wore Pull Ups to bed and woke up dry every day for like 2 months. My best friend's DD is 5.5 years old and still wakes up with a soaked Pull Up most mornings.

groovygrl · May 2013

I think every kid is so differnet and I'm totally not worrying about nighttime dryness w/ DS- he will be 4 this summer & if I could just get him to regularly poop on the potty I'd be happy...he has some harder poops so I don't want to limit his water and have not even considered it. On the flip side, his sister PTed pee & poop in about 2 weeks at age 2 1/2 and was dry through the night (no discussion, no nothing, just noticed her diaper was always dry in the morning) starting about 3-4 weeks later.

proudworkingmom82 · May 2013

DD is 4.5 and has been potty trained since 3 years 3 months but still isn't dry at night. My only suggestion is to try and cut fluids and like other people said wake for a nighttime bathroom break. However I don't think you should be concerned, I think it's normal.

iteachk · May 2013

My 4 year-old has been PT for nearly two years and still soaks her Pull Up during the night and during naps. I'm not worried.

kreeper611 · May 2013

I've heard it could take quite a while even a few years. Among my friends and their kids, this is true.

DS potty trained last summer and earlier this year started asking to wear underwear to bed. We held off since DDwwas due in April and sure enough he started peeing overnight. He had gone months without a wet pull up, but I wasn't surprised. We'll give it some more time.

neverblushed · May 2013

It could easily take several years after daytime training, especially for a boy. If your child has a propensity to bedwetting (one of mine does) expect occasional accidents to happen until age 12.

My DD was night trained within a few months of being day trained at around 2 1/2 years.

My DS wet the bed almost every night between age 3 and 6. He would wet through a pull up, too! There was no waking him up at that age, either. He just sleeps SO soundly.

At around 6 to 7 years, he began to go through longer stretches of a few weeks with no wetting, then have a bad week where he wet the bed three or more nights in the course of a week. My pediatrician assured me that between age 6 and 10, we'd see a big drop-off in the wet nights. That has turned out to be true. He'll be 9 at the end of the summer, and in the past year, he's only wet the bed three or four times. A handful of his friends' moms have let me know that their sons wear a pull up/occasionally wet the bed as well, so it's not that uncommon.

Talk to your pediatrician, but still wetting the bed every night at age 3 seems pretty common to me.

ncbelle · May 2013

I think there's a huge range of normal on this. Callum was day trained for almost a year before he was dry at night (so about 3.5). We started doing a dream pee with him about 2 hours after he went to sleep and I think that helped him learn. Eleanor just PTed a little over a month ago and started staying dry overnight almost right away (much to my surprise!). Both kids pee right before lights out and we don't restrict water (Callum drinks a ton and Eleanor doesn't). I think it's still normal to be night wetting at 4 though.

VTbride05 · May 2013

When my son was 4.5 he was still wetting through a pull up at night. While I know the research shows that this is a developmental milestone that can not be pushed, we wanted to try. We started taking him pee 3 times a night. He did great, had only a few accidents. Now, 6 months later, we still take him pee before we go to bed. He has an accident less than once a month. It worked for us. We committed to a month of taking him (we didnt get a lot of sleep) and it worked.

memali26 · May 2013

I am in the camp of it being developmental and it will happen when they are ready. Our pedi really stressed that the brain/bladder connection needs to be developed enough to wake them to go, and she said that can happen anywhere from 2-7yo for an average kid.

DD1 was fully daytime trained, only diapers at nap/night, by 28 months. She started staying dry at naps shortly before she turned 3, and has been wearing undies for naps for about 3 months with no accidents. She started waking up with a dry diaper in the morning about 2 months ago, and after a solid 5 weeks of no wet diaper in the morning we started putting her in undies at night. We're a week in and so far no accidents. We don't limit her liquids (she still drinks 4-5 oz milk before bed most nights) we don't do a "dream pee," she has just apparently reached the point where she can hold it for 10-12 hours overnight. It's been not quite a year since she potty trained.

jlw2505 · June 2013

Day and night time training have nothing to do with each other and putting him to bed without a diaper will only result in very tired mom/dad and child. When a child's body is ready, it will happen and you can't compare your child to any other, even a sibling. Doc's don't worry until closer to 8-10 (depending on the doc). Night time can be very, very hard for kids, especially those that are deep sleepers. Dream peeing and waking your child don't do a thing to help your child either - again, just makes everyone tired and gets you trained to wake up your child who most likely won't even remember you waking them.

My nephew was 11 before he was trained, a niece was closer to 9. My oldest night trained 1st at 2 years 9 months and day trained a few weeks later. My younger DD was around 3 1/2 when she day trained and close to 4 when she night trained. My DD's son was in 1st grade when he night trained but he was day trained at just before 3.

Just give him time and don't worry about it at this point.

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