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toilet training a 3 year old boy?
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Any one got any ideas or suggestions regarding toilet training for my three (although nearly four) year old boy?
He's been toilet trained in the day for ages now, maybe a year, but has struggled at night with it, we tried at Christmas but stopped after a couple of weeks due to him needing an operation, but we started again a week or two ago.
He's usually dry until about 2-3am and will occasionally get out to have a wee in the night, we tried waking him up in the night to get him to try, which he normally did, but thought that in the end it was a bit pointless as he wouldn't learn by himself.
We've stopped him drinking after about 5pm on an evening and making him have a wee before bed, but he's still usually wet in the morning.
He did start waking up when he wet himself last week but seems to have stopped that again.
Any ideas or tricks we can try?
Its starting to seem a bit futile at the minute, especially after it was so easy with our girl, who had just turned three and literally never had a wet night, it was more a problem getting her used to it in the day!
He's been toilet trained in the day for ages now, maybe a year, but has struggled at night with it, we tried at Christmas but stopped after a couple of weeks due to him needing an operation, but we started again a week or two ago.
He's usually dry until about 2-3am and will occasionally get out to have a wee in the night, we tried waking him up in the night to get him to try, which he normally did, but thought that in the end it was a bit pointless as he wouldn't learn by himself.
We've stopped him drinking after about 5pm on an evening and making him have a wee before bed, but he's still usually wet in the morning.
He did start waking up when he wet himself last week but seems to have stopped that again.
Any ideas or tricks we can try?
Its starting to seem a bit futile at the minute, especially after it was so easy with our girl, who had just turned three and literally never had a wet night, it was more a problem getting her used to it in the day!
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Not giving him a drink is not a good idea because he could wake up in the night feeling thirsty. One of my grandchildren was cured of nighttime bed wetting by being allowed to have a glass of water in the bedroom. When she woke up thirsty, she then used the toilet as well, because having the drink woke her up enough.
Nighttime "pajama pants" are a good idea. As he gets older he will see them as babyish and the problem should resolve itself eventually.
You're right about sleeping deeply thing, when we started lifting him out he kept falling asleep on his potty :P
Admittedly it did seem to work, but only if we got up with him a couple of times in the night.
Night time pants are a non starter with him, he'll just wee himself if you put one on him, because he knows he can, even in the day
We used pyjama pants and after about six months they were normally dry apart from the odd night
Same here - half the time they did not even wake up (although they still knew to go when we put them on the toilet).
When he started to get up and go by himself in the night, we left the landing light on during the night, as if we didn't he would wake up but be too scared to walk to the toilet.
He will grow out of it. It might take a few years especially if he is nervous.
You don't want to turn it into a psychological problem affecting adult life.
My parents would also leave a potty in the room.
If your son's body is not yet producing the hormone then he will not wake naturally when his bladder is full. So you can either place him in pull ups until he is ready, or try and wake him regularly in the night to lift him. There are other aides to help; we just bought an alarm that sits in the pants and sounds as soon as the child starts to wet, hopefully waking them up to go to the loo (we're going to give this a try in the summer hols). But we may have to go down the route of her having hormone required in tablet form if it doesn't resolve itself soon.
Not sure if that helps but wanted you to know that at 5 he's still young, it's very common, and the other side of it if it progresses.
I think you are expecting a bit too much at the moment imo! My 3 year old, a month ago, became toilet trained within about 2 days and is remarkably dry at night but I don't expect him to be dry at night yet!
I think you need to ease off for a bit, not for your son's sake, but yours.
What you describe with your daughter is not a very common problem . The bladder wall has nerves which send a message to the brain to wake up to pass urine .This has to be first recognised and the the brain trained to react to the message .
http://kidshealth.org/teen/diseases_conditions/urinary/enuresis.html
Not all 3, 4 ,or 5 year old get the message just yet .
This is what the nurse at the enuresis clinic told us for children of her age (8yrs old) not Teenagers as the article you linked to says. The article also goes on to discuss the hormone that may cause enuresis.
This link gives percentages of nocturnal enuresis in children at different ages: http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Nocturnal-Enuresis-in-Children.htm
I completely agree with this. My step son had the same issue and i think he was almost into teenage years before he was dry at night. He had medication to help and even that wasn't a straight away solution.
But, I remember the doctors saying don't limit drinks.
Many children starting school are often still wet at night so please don't worry.
When you decide to discontinue them I'd make the bed up with a plastic sheet over the normal sheet and a folded second sheet over the top of that so that if it gets wet in the night you can quickly whip it off without having to remake the bed with a sleepy child.
My kids never took to being woken - they were heavy sleepers and couldn't wake and wee on demand. My daughter was dry at night by four but my son was unreliable until about 6. Entirely normal.
Sorry, you misunderstood me .I am not saying you are wrong and that your daughter does not have the problem .I am saying that it not the first port of call you think of for a 3 year old boy .Its not a common cause in a three year old boy is what I meant .
Don't you think leaving him on the toilet all night, is a bit unkind?
naw. they just sleep at that age.:D
Of course, now I've said all that it'll all go horribly wrong tonight!
Restricting fluids shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as the room is cool (not freezing), and the child has had enough fluids during the day. My nan had a fair amount of success with my two when she looked after them by letting them drink up until 6pm and then making them go to the loo before she put them to bed at 7pm. They used to sleep right through until around 6am (which was their usual wake up time) and there was never a problem. Obviously, if they're ill or feverish then don't restrict fluids, but I doubt there's much wrong with them not drinking for an hour or so before they go to sleep.
Oh, and take a note of what they're drinking. Don't allow them squash, fizzy drinks or anything containing caffeine before going to sleep. My two used to have water as a last drink, and it started to ease of the wetting a fair bit, whereas squash or fizzy drinks used to see them wetting more frequently.
I hoped some replies would also mention when is the right time to train a little boy to stand in front of the toilet bowl instead of sitting on the toilet to do number ones.
My 3/4 year old grandson is being difficult about standing and he is getting too big to sit on the toilet. He begins nursery school in September.
How can he be too big to sit on the toilet? Some grown men urinate whilst sitting on the toilet. (I think - but what do I know - I'm not a man, but I'm sure it's possible)
My sons the exact same he's now 10 & never really been dry - we actually gave up on NHS eneurisis clinic and went private as we werent getting results.
We had tried absolutely everything, lifting, the alarm & now tablets. He sleeps like a log and wouldnt wake even if lay in a swamp !!
He is now on a combination of 2 tablets, Oxybutonin taken at 7pm and Desmomelt taken after bedtime but just before he falls asleep at around 9pm. It's still hit and miss but get 2 out of 3 dry nights now as opposed to every single night! Apparently his body will start producing the missing hormone upon puberty anyway so he's just having a bit of help until then.
Restricting fluids is bad as it doesnt train the bladder to cope with liquid at capacity. We were actually encouraged to increase fluid intake to prevent dyhydration & 'stretch' the bladder to enable it to cope better.
Give him 7 drinks during the day (stick to water or milk). Last drink an hour before bed. Lift him when you go to bed.
Never make him feel bad or complain about washing sheets, as they get older they get more and more ashamed it's pretty upsetting for them.
NHS wont help until he's around 7 as it's completely normal at his age.
More info here;-
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Bedwetting/Pages/Treatment.aspx