How do you stop a 4 year old from wetting the bed every night?

Question

I am just the nanny not the mom. They kept her in diapers at night until just a few weeks ago and now that they finally took them off she wets the bed almost every night (which means I get to wash the sheets every day!). They have promised to buy her the toy she wants if she can go a whole week without wetting the bed but that hasn't helped.

Answer 1

Bed Wetting Solution :

This problem requires a patient, kind and loving solution from the family members rather than a medical solution. Mostly children stop bed-wetting with the advancement of age. Discourage the child to have fluid things before bedtime, ask him or her to pass urine before going to bed and also to repeat it before falling asleep. These routines may help a lot in bed- wetting cures.

The child should be encouraged to delay the daytime urination too. This simple practice known as stretching exercise might help the bladder to hold more urine during night as well.

If the kid does not stop bed- wetting even at seven years of age the doctor will resort to more aggressive bed-wetting solutions and cures.

A battery operated alarm device might help the child to rise up from the sleep just at the moment the kid is about to pass urine. This device is placed somewhere near the child and when it senses urine it sets off an alarm sound waking up the child to go to toilet. The child should be trained to reset the alarm before going to sleep again. This alarm device is available at almost all medical shops without prescription.

When all the bed wetting solutions fall flat the pediatrician might turn to medication. Various medicines are available to reduce the production of urine during night, to alter the child’s sleeping and waking styles and to increase the capacity of the bladder. Some doctors argue that these medicines have adverse effects. Not only they have side effects but will not produce the required bed wetting cures.

But beware of the claims and promises of mail-order programmes and devices, which are too expensive, cheating also. Always pediatrician is the best advisor of bed-wetting solutions and bed- wetting cures.

With a little patience and co-operation from the parents and the children the solution to the bed- wetting might become easier.

Stop giving fluid items to the child one hour before bedtime. Seek the assistance of the child to change the wet wears and the linen. Instead of making the kid a laughing stalk, praise the child for his or her efforts to stop bedwetting. Honor the feelings of the child by trying to remove his or her stresses and anxieties, thus providing the child a calm and secure feel, eventually to a full stop to the bed- wetting!

Hope this helps ;)

Answer 2

That's what night time pullups are for.  If she is potty trained and you are there at night you might want to take it upon yourself to take her to the potty about the time she may wet.

In some families there is such a thing as a weak bladder with a side of heavy sleeping.  In that case the child will possibly have a problem until she is older.  In our family it was 12.

But this is a four year old and she needs support and guidance.  So get her up at night or wash sheets every day.  Bribes will only work if this is willful wetting and at four it hard to know.

I have a grand daughter that would NOT potty train until she was told she wouldn't get to go to school like her brother and sister until she did.  She figured it out in three days.  If this could work for your charge then go to her parents and get your stories together.  But remember this may not be a willful thing.  Make sure you have a good washer.

Answer 3

I would wake her up at night and stop giving her drink after dinner.  

Answer 4

My son is almost 4, adn has been completely potty trained for a year now...except at night.  He is such a sound sleeper, that he doesn't wake up to go pee in the night.  We use the big boy underpants that are called good nights to help with wetting the bed.

Answer 5

Wait until she grows out of it.  Everyone is different.

Answer 6

You put her back in diapers/pull-ups.  It's very normal for a child this age to still wet at night.  It isn't anything she is doing intentionally, so bribing her to stop will NOT help. (It will just upset and frustrate her if she is unable to comply.)  It takes a certain level of physical maturity and specific levels of a particular hormone before children can hold their urine all night.  It isn't something you can teach her.  All you can do is wait for her to get a bit older. (Night wetting is considered 'normal' until around age 6-7.)  

Answer 7

I get my son out of bed in the night to use the toilet. same time every night.  

Answer 8

Make her go the bathroom just before she goes to sleep, try not to give any liquids after 6:00. If she has to have something water or milk. When the parents go to bed wake her up and take her to the bathroom. This should help alleviate accidents.

Answer 9

Positive reinforcement won't stop her from wetting the bed.  She is asleep, she has no control over it.  

I wet the bed until I was almost ten.  It was really a matter of anatomy (small bladder), poor muscle control (I essentially had to do Keigel exercises, my pediatrician told me that while I was going to the bathroom I should clench my muscles to stop the flow of urine, hold it for a moment, start going again, clench my muscles again, etc. etc.) and the fact that I slept so deeply I didn't know what was going on.

All of these things could be a factor but it could also be an emotional issue (bedwetting can be a symptom of a larger psychological issue), it could be dietary (she shouldn't be given any fluids within a couple hours of bedtime).  I cannot stress enough that bedwetting is not something her parents can bribe her out of.  It is just going to frustrate her because it is something she cannot control.  How would you feel if you were sleepwalking every night and someone said "I'll give you a million dollars if you just stop sleepwalking".  That is something you have no control over, you can't just STOP doing it because you want a reward.

This is something her parents need to discuss with her pediatrician.

Answer 10

Put the nappies back on. Wait until the nappies are back to being dry and try again. Shes just not ready or something has happened??

Answer 11

The best way to get a 4 year old to stop wetting is to wait until they are an 8 year old.  For everyone's peace, especially the child's, put the diapers back on until she is ready.

Answer 12

no liquids after 7 and make her go potty right before bed. then make her go potty right as she wakes up. that's how kylie got potty trained at night.

Answer 13

My daughter began to wet the bed at this same age.  she was a deep sleeper so I found an alarm that i had to sew in her unders that would go off at the least sign of wetness.  just her being informed that this would help her seemed to make her more aware.  she only had 2 accidents the entire time we used it.  good luck

Answer 14

My stepdaughter is 5 yrs old and still wets the bed every single night. I have used everything in the book. We stop her liquids at 7:00 pm, we make her pee before she goes to bed and again when we go to bed. We reward her for using the bathroom with small candies. We keep a progress chart and she gets a toy at the end. Her mother also kept her in pull-ups forever. She was completely potty trained and doing awesome and then her mother moved twice and she changed to two different daycares in a matter of months. And of course, that messed her up again. So she’s back to peeing again and it’s gotten worse.

I wish I had advice for you. Some people say to let them pee on themselves at night so they’ll maybe try harder because they won’t like it. Honestly? I got SO sick of washing the d**n sheets EVERY SINGLE DAY for at least 2 wks, I couldn’t handle it anymore. When she did pee through, she’d never even wake up from it. Never feel it on her. And wake up wet and stinky to which we also had to bathe before daycare and well, getting out of the house is hard enough, nevermind bath and showers too. She’d wear pull ups and fills them so much she leaks through them.

I feel like I’ve tried everything in the book. However I also know that night time is a bit harder for some kids.

Either way, I wish you luck. It’s quite difficult to deal with!