BEDWETTING DRIVING ME BEZERK!

teabag4me8

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 3:43 am

I know she's still little, but my 3 year old wets her bed 2-4 times a week in the middle of the night. Aside from the strain it is on me to wake up at night, change her sheets, change her clothes, take her to the bathroom, etc. she wakes up her siblings in the process as she screams at the top of her lungs because she's disoriented and covered in her pish! (we're in an apartment in Israel so everyone sleeps in the same room). I then have to spend the next while calming everyone else down because she was so loud (and take them to the bathroom b/c they woke up) before I can go back to bed.

She's been potty trained during the day for about 5 months now and does amazing more or less when she's awake. I've tried waking her up in her sleep before I go to bed and taking her, lowering her liquids before bed, running to her the second I hear a peep (as not to wake everyone else up) but nothing seems to work. It seems she is in such a deep sleep that she doesn't even realize she's doing it. I know I need to teach her the feel the sensation but how can that be done if she's sleeping like a log?

I would appreciate any advice as I'm so tired and sick of washing sheets!!! shock

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 4:10 am

Put her right back in diapers until the diapers are dry for at least a week. 3 is very young! I took my 7 year old to the dr for bed wetting and the dr explained a few things and one is that children have a hormone that needs to develop before they can physically be dry at night. This is a different process then being dry in the day. You cant rush a hormone that isnt developed yet.
If she wont agree to diapers just put it on after she's sleeping or convince her that pull ups are really underwear.

amother

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 4:32 am

Just put her on Pull Ups every night. She is still very little. My 6 yr old also wets every night and is in Pull Ups (I know they are expensive in Israel, but so is doing an extra load of laundry every day). It is really too bad that she is made to feel like she is doing something wrong when she can't help it.

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 6:35 am

Wow, she's dry 3-5 times a week at age 3! I'm impressed.

Use pull-ups as long as she needs them; no extra laundry or disrupted sleep.

To learn to wake up out of a sound sleep to go to the bathroom, you can use a bedwetting alarm, but not before age 7 (we used one at age eight). Your daughter is much too young for anything other than what you've been doing.

Hope that helps!

de_goldy

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 8:31 am

Agree with the others - put her on pull ups or a diaper for the night. My 3.5 year old has been day trained for almost a year and every night she makes a pish, goes to bed and when she falls asleep I put a diaper on her. This way she is not walking around in it for hours before she actually goes to bed.

teabag4me8

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 9:12 am

Wow - thanks for all the replies! Truth be told I have tried diapers at night, but not consistently enough. I guess I'm just not used to it as my older son (now almost 5) trained fairly easy at night...I just assumed it would be easier for her as a girl! (as I heard girls are easier to train). My only concern is that whenever I do try putting her in a diaper after she's sleeping (because she refuses while awake) she wakes up so angry and distrustful...she's a very emotionally complex 3 year old!

I would never want to give her an ultimatum, either dry at night or diapers because it's not her fault and I would never want to give her a negative association with potty training. (It's not good/bad..it just is!) Any ideas on how to gently convince her that diapers aren't all that bad at night?

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 9:29 am

Don't call them diapers - they're special training pants, and grown-up three year old girls can put them on and take them off all by themselves!

Let her know that some people stay dry when they are younger, others when they are older. Don't show disappointment in your words or tone of voice.

How about leaving toilet training aside for a while? Maybe say, "let's try using these training pants to keep you comfortable at night. At the end of the school year, if you want to, you can try sleeping without them and we'll see what happens. Maybe your body will be ready to stay dry then. If not, we'll try again after the chagim."

teabag4me8

Thu, Feb 24 2011, 12:48 pm

Thanks cm - I'm pretty sure though she'll refuse, as she's adamant on wearing only underpants - all the time! Your suggestion was definitely great, but I'm not sure she'll go for it. If this whole hormonal thing others wrote about here is true, it seems it's out of my control anyway and merely a physical maturity issue. If that's the case then I definitely have to figure out a way to get her to wear "big girl night pants" and wait it out until she's ready.

I really don't care if she wears diapers/pull-ups/whatever...she just wants to be like her older brother and friends who all seem trained at night (at least that's what their mothers tell me).

SharonB

Wed, Apr 27 2011, 4:03 pm

DD (3 1/2) trained really well during the day almost a year ago. At the beginning she was in a nappy (diaper) at night and then she moved to pants. She did well but after 3 consecutive wet nights I decided to buy Pull-Ups. They are expensive but a lot easier than washing sheets everyday - especially in the winter. She has some dry nights and we praise her for those. When the weather warms up we'll try again but she's a very deep sleeper and so we know it might take a while and a few more packs of Pull-Ups.