Already Potty Trianed but Started Wetting Bed again.......help?

Hi Joy, i'm Val..I have a question, is your husband deployed?? Or gone a lot?? I am asking that because many kids will have different reaction when 1 of the parents are gone for a while..For exm., my 2 y/o wouldn't sleep when my husband was gone for a month doing his Warrior Leader School, and i went through hell, but as soon as he came back home, little by little, she went back to her normal schedule! If your husband is deployed, you might want to talk to your peds Dr and see what he/she says!! Hope the best for you!!
Val

He may be potty trained, but that doesn't mean his body is able to wake him up when he has to go in the middle of the night.
I had kids who would wt the bed at 8 sometimes because they sleep so deeply that they just weren't waking up. Most important is to make certain he knows he isn't in trouble when this happens. If he is anxious about it then it can become even worse. Has anything happened in his life recently to cause him stress??
I would make sure he doesn't have some sort of bladder problem or urinary infection. they can be very mild and not cause symptoms, but still cause excessive urination.
Also, does he drink a lot of sugary drinks throughout the day? Or caffeinated sodas also. This can lead to problems at night even though you don't allow drinks after a certain time.
Where is his bed in relation to the bathroom? Is he afraid to get up and go to the bathroom at night when it is dark?
Or maybe it is just a laziness, not wanting to get out of bed thing. I had one child like this and every time he wet the bed he had to take a shower in the morning and strip his bed and put his bedding into the washer. This helped tremendously! not only did I not have to deal with the wet sheets and such, but he learned consequences of laziness as well as basic hygeine. The problem rapidly lessened until it went away completely.
Patience is essential because at only 4 he may have a few more years of 'accidents' in his future.
All kids are different and what worked for one may not work for another and it may just take longer for one to grow out of the phase.

All children are different and some children's bladders develop slower than others. It could be that your son's gotten older and bigger and his bladder hasn't developed as much. I would continue putting the goodnights on him at night. You might want to try to get him up in the middle of the night if you get up to use the bathroom yourself and have him try. It may cut down on the amount of goodnights you need to use and will help him realize he just needs to get up in the middle of the night if he needs to go potty. You may think that he won't realize it if you're getting him up but it really does work. It worked with my second child. My oldest didn't fully potty train till he was 3 1/2 because he was so gosh darn stubborn but my daughter pottytrained during the day at 2 but her bladder wasn't ready for a full night so I got her up and took her to the potty and she realized she oould do that herself. It took a month and she was up on her own going potty at night. I hope it works for your son also. Good luck.

Hi J., I'm a nurse and a mother so I hope what I say helps a little. I know it's frustrating to think you are out of the "diaper stage" only to backslide to bedwetting, but it's very normal for young children to regress a bit. Boys typically potty train a little later, but if your 3 1/2 year old has already shown the physical ability to stay dry at night then you have to assume the problem is with his motivation. Since you mentioned that you also have a 5 month old it could be that your older child feels a little left out and with 3 yr old logic thinks that if he's a "baby" he'll get a little more attention. I'm not implying that you aren't paying enough attention to him (please don't think that I would presume to do that!!). I just mean that maybe the 3 yr. old is feeling a little upset about having to share "his" mommy? Try scheduling a little "mommy time" with him every night right before bedtime (in addition to whatever bedtime routine you already have in place). Maybe play a game, read a book, or just cuddle and listen to music. Spend about half an hour with him and make it clear to him that this is "his mommy time". If it's possible to have your spouse watch the baby, that is. If not, then let the older child "help" you with the baby and make references to what a good helper he is and how he's such a good big brother. Try to make him feel special for being the "big boy" but don't make him feel like he's being "bad" for wetting the bed. Try not to dwell on the bedwetting thing with him at all and just let him make the decision on his own. He will most likely grow out of it soon enough and, once he is able to understand that his baby brother didn't replace him in your heart, he may begin sleeping through the night without accidents again. If you are very concerned you can contact your doctor to make sure that he doesn't have an infection (rare in boys this age) but it's one thing to rule out if all else fails.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!
R.

From what I have read Children are incapable of holding their bladders until at least the age of 4. I know many kids can before this age and I am not sure this is accurate, but because I read this I allowed my daughter to wear a pullup until she was 4 1/2. I didn't think either of us needed the stress of accidents. Because she only wore the pull up at bedtime she did not get confused. It wasn't until we started giving her an M&M each morning she was dry that she stopped going to the bathroom in her pull up. She has had one accident since we stopped wearing pullups and that was because we forgot to turn on her nightlight making it too dark for her to get out of bed. Good luck - it comes with time.

I had the same problem with my son when he was that age too. Are there any major changes around? Has he been sick? If there are any underlying problems, be sure to find and deal with them first. I didn't find any at the time. So I just let him wear the good nights until they were dry all the time again. We didn't really talk about it so that I didn't give it any undue attention. He is older now and having the same problem again but is embarrassed to wear anything. So I just leave extra sheets under his bed for him. When he wets, he changes his sheets and leaves the wet ones by the door of his room and I just know to wash them when I see them. Now it is a medical problem (he has epilepsy and his seizures have changed to when he is asleep) but regardless, we just deal with it the best we can. I don't think it is a big deal...just ride it out with the good nights at this stage.