My child keeps wetting the bed...advice?

Need some tips/advice on 5 year old wetting the bed every morning. She was doing great for a while with just an accident or 2 here and there, but now it’s happening consistently. We put a folded towel down to tell her it’s just there incase, but she pees through the whole towel onto the sheet and blanket. She doesn’t drink anything because she’s scared to wet the bed, but we leave water for her so it’s there. It seems she does it right when she wakes up. She goes great during the day, with no accidents. Is there any type of underwear that can help with this? TIA!

10 Likes

My son is a heavy sleeper and the pediatrician says some kids up to age 12 have this problem

9 Likes

Is she constipated by chance? that can cause accidents due to them not fully emptying their bladder.

Put a good nights on her. It’s big girls pull ups and doesn’t make her feel she is going back wards

6 Likes

My 3 year old son had horseshoe/pelvic kidney he’s potty trained but constantly peeing/leaking he goes back to his kidney specialist the 3rd to have a check up as hi condition can cause bladder problems his pediatrician said it’s normal for some kids but idk the mom in me is saying it’s his kidneys causing the problem. Always get a second opinion if you feel something is wrong. My son was born with his condition.

Some kiddos just cant help it. My daughter is 9 and she did this every single night until about 7 months ago. She still has occasional accidents but very few. I was always like this until I was 10.

4 Likes

You can buy little monitors that will wake them up if they start to pee. It’s totally normal. But to make things easier you can buy those pads for incontinence and put like three layers of sheets on with one pad in between each layer. If he has an accident on first layer you just remove the layer and the pad underneath then let him go back to bed. Easier than changing out the whole sheets in middle of night.

7 Likes

Does she have her tonsils and adenoids? My daughter had bed wetting problems but we found they were due to sleep apnea because of her swollen adenoids. Had the removal done and no more accidents.

1 Like

Have you tried nothing to drink after 4 pm? Not even just a little drink until the next day

My daughter was doing this. Took her to a specialist and turned out, when she was going potty, not all of the urine was being released. So she would feel like she was empty, but she wasn’t. And it would come out in her sleep. We got a few of those absorbent, washable mats that they use for elderly people in the hospital and had her sleep on that, on top of her sheet. She eventually grew out of it.

1 Like

Does she get up and run straight to the bathroom or does she take a while to wake up? You may need to help her get up and head straight to the bathroom before she’s even fully fully awake. It is considered normal until the age of 12 however.

Mines almost 7 and has seen a urologist. They said she has a tiny, overactive bladder and prescribed her medicine for her bladder. It worked for a couple weeks and then we went back to bed wetting. I feel so defeated.

1 Like

I personally stopped giving anything to drink an hour before bed and always made sure my daughter went to the restroom right before she climbed into her bed…

1 Like

I say only give a drink one hour before bed. Which can be hard I understand. My son only drinks water and during summer that was hard. Our little guy had accidents here n there. We finally bought a bedcover/protector that goes under sheets protects against accidents n spills. What we started to do is make sure they use the potty right before bed…always. It will get better they are still young and definitely can sleep hard…:two_hearts:

1 Like

Only a few sips of water at least 2 hrs before bedtime. My son was a heavy sleeper. Just before I went to bed I’d wake him up to go potty. Most of the time he didn’t even remember me getting him out of bed. Limiting his drinks after supper helped the best.

1 Like

Take her to the Dr and have her checked. Have them do an ultrasound sound, on the bladder. My granddaughter is going through this now and one of the valves on her bladder, is not working properly and she’s being sent to a pediatric specialist and may have to have surgery! My granddaughter is so embarrassed from this, it’s horrible. We put a “pee pad” under her and it helps most the time and saves on laundry and mattresses!! It makes me so sad for her to see her wake up in the mornings.

1 Like

Whatever you do please do not shame or dramatize the situation to the child. Get seen by a Dr to make sure it’s not due to a medical condition. However know this can be typical behavior.

3 Likes

Pull ups, my son was fully potty trained, but started doing this when I had a newborn. At first I thought it was regression, until I realized he was just comfy in the morning and didn’t feel like getting out of bed.

Honestly it’s completely normal some kids wet the bed til 11-12 years old
For mine i just put a puppy pad down under them and then started adding a pad in their underwear and it made them feel better about it. We just kept telling him it was normal after we talked w our ped and he didnt have any medical issues

I used puppy pad and a pad in undie cause it was cheaper than the overnight pads for kids and pull ups

1 Like

Put a pull up on her to start. That will prevent cleaning any accidents. You may be a hard sleeper. You can wake her up to go if you choose. But, she’ll grow out of it eventually

1 Like

It’s normal until about age 11. My 6 year old still wears pull ups to bed other wise she would wet the bed almost nightly. We don’t push it as it is normal at this age still.

You should have her checked by a doctor to rule out infection, diabetes, muscle issues, sleep issues, many things can cause bed wetting, even emotional trauma and SA. One thing you can try is making her go potty right before you go to bed and waking her up in the middle of the night to go potty, she might just be a super heavy sleeper.

1 Like

My son and daughter started doing this (5and 7) turns out they were type 1 diabetic, my advice is get them checked and rule it out x

1 Like

My 6 year old still needs a pull up for bed. She will wet the bed regardless of when she stops drinking. Never ever has accidents whilst awake I think she just goes into deep sleeps

Get mattress cover for starters, it will help you a lot. Of course have checked physically. Then get rubber panties to help with sheets and blankets. My daughter had to buy them for 1 of my grands and she stopped bc she didn’t want to wear them. I wish you the best of luck

1 Like

My son has since about that age. Typical. See a urologist. They can do a diagnostic. We did. And we are advised based on that.

1 Like

Amazon has larger size cloth diapers that you can put on over her underwear. That’s what I did but my daughter has sensitive skin and got a bad rash so the PED recommended to just go back to pullups. The cloth diapers worked great aside from the rash, and the best pull up for night time is the ninja ones.

Get reusable bed pad and a mattress cover. Could be an infection

1 Like

Some kids have psychological problems. Anxiety also which can cause heavy sleep. They can’t wake up to tell if they have to use the bathroom. The worst thing is to make them feel ashamed or make them feel bad. Because some kids really don’t want to wet the bed but can’t help it.

1 Like

I always had mine go before bed n then I’d bring em to go again before I went to bed. Probably has a tiny bladder.

:smiling_face:Plastic sheet under 1st.
Can wipe clean with washcloth.
Sheer plastic panties. Cannot see them over regular panties.
Liquid check at night.
Emotional awareness for her.

Never shame or embarrass her Have patience. This is a common problem.

Maybe Bed alarm made purpose would help. She may be a deep sleeper. You a get reusable incontience pads on Amazon.

It might be time to see a paediatrician just to rule any medical causes out but it sounds like she might need bed wetting alarm…:alarm_clock:

My middle baby peed the bed til she was 10.5, she is almost 12 now and has only had 1 or 2 accidents in the last year and a half

Get up a couple times a night and ake her to the bathroom.

Take her to the Dr.
This isn’t super uncommon. It’s medical or psychological.
Get a plastic cover for her bed. Extra sheets and blankets. They make mats to stick to the sheet and Good Nights for girls.
Simply wipe the bed as needed. Switch the cover as needed. :blue_heart:

1, do you have a mattress cover for her before? If not, Get one or 2 per kid, ALWAYS. I had 2, one with a fitted sheet and flat sheet under the top cover and then the regular bedding. If there’s an accident, rip out the top and pop in the washer and that’s that. 2. Talk to the pediatrician, get a referral for a urologist and make sure everything is good there. 3. Take her to the bathroom at midnight even if she is half asleep. I did that with my kids. I would take to the bathroom 11-12pm while half asleep and then pop them back in the bed, if I was awake during the night I would try taking them again and then first thing in the morning too, between 6-7am, until they were good. You can do night time diapers or puppy pads as well until this is under control. Seems this is affecting the kid psychologically and stressing her out over something that can be solved by making a trip to dollar tree and buying the pads or some overnight diapers. :woman_shrugging:t2:

I see it mentioned a few times in the comments. My daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes at age 2. Heavy wetting and unquenchable thirst were some early indicators. Please ask your pediatrician for an in-office glucose test/urine check.

Definitely take her to the dr. My son was type 1 diabetic and this is a big symptom

Maybe a weak bladder? Or an aneixty disorder causing her not to feel when she has to go. I’d take her to her dr to see if they can shed some light into it.

Are you in the usa?
After the age of 3, if there’s still bedwetting it’s considered medical incontinence. This means that you can get supplies paid for through your insurance! Search aeroflow urology, and they’ll have to talk to her doc to confirm. But my son had been getting his supplies through them for years. They send pull ups, wet wipes, mattress protector pads (10/10 highly recommend, so much better than a towel), and they used to send disposable gloves, but that either stopped or was only for younger kids. He gets probably a couple hundred $ of supplies every month and I pay nothing because we have medicaid :slightly_smiling_face: even if you don’t wanna do pull ups, the mattress protector pads and the wet wipes are absolutely worth it