PDA

View Full Version : Night time PT regression, how to handle?



edurnemk
09-13-2012, 07:27 PM
DS is 4.5 yo, he's been night time PTd for about 9 months now. He has the occasional accident, but he's usually very good about getting up to go potty if he needs to. However since DD was born he's had a few regressions, which was expected, yet the night time accidents are driving me nuts. Some nights he gets up to go potty (he asks me to go with him to the bathroom, he used to go alone) several times. But lately he's been having a LOT of accidents. Last night he wet the bed TWICE! Between him waking me up and nursing DD 2-3 times a night, I'm exhausted! I've limited fluids from 6 pm on, and I don't let him drink anything after bedtime anymore, yet he still wets his bed almost every night. He also comes to our room in the middle of the night for a myriad of other reasons (he's thirsty, he's cold, he's scared, he can't sleep).

DH thinks he's just trying to draw attention, and we should punish him / take privileges away. I completely disagree as I feel this could backfire and he's just having a hard time adjusting and night time has been especially hard for him, since he knows DD is in my room and she gets attention at night. I also think he's overtired since he started school again and he's not sleeping well, and maybe that's why he's not waking up to go potty (I've moved up his bedtime half an hour in response to this).

The one idea we agree on is that maybe I should no longer help him change if he wets himself, that we should tell him that if he wets the bed he needs to change into clean PJ's and lay a towel on his bed, and not wake me up. Do you think this would work or would it make things worse?

Any other ideas on how to handle it? Honestly last night I was tempted to just put a diaper or pull-up on him, it's a step backward, but I'm so tired!

ehlana06
09-13-2012, 07:34 PM
What we did was right before we went to bed one of us would go into DS's room and wake him up and take him potty. Then he'd go back to bed. We had no more night time accidents after we started doing that. If he didn't go back to sleep we would put on some soft music and tell him that he had to lay in bed and listen to music but he wasn't allowed to get out of bed. It worked quite well for us.

bekahjean
09-13-2012, 07:56 PM
We are dealing with this right now as well. Will had been day and night trained for months. We limit fluids, take him to the bathroom before we go to sleep, and he still wets the bed at night. Since DH is currently deployed and I'm dealing with it on my own, I decided on night time pull ups. Yes, it might be a step backward. I'm not sleeping well with him gone and I made the call for my own sanity. Strangely enough, since I got the pull ups and made him wear them, he hadn't wet the bed. He doesn't like wearing them and says he's a big boy who doesn't wear diapers. I still make him, but he is so set on being a big boy that he refuses pee in them. He's been getting up at night and peeing in the bathroom.

It's not at all what I was expecting to happen, but I an glad he's waking himself up. I'm also glad not to be washing all the bedding every day.

nfowife
09-13-2012, 08:18 PM
You might want to look into constipation as the cause. I posted about an article a few months ago that discussed this. In children who had previously been dry at night reliably, it has been found that constipation is a leading cause of nighttime accidents.

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/03/bed_wetting_the_simple_cause_your_doctor_probably_ missed_.html