Isn’t My Child Too Old to STILL Be Wetting the Bed?

Potty training.

It was a challenge in our house. I have three boys and I'll admit that it didn't come naturally to any of us…including me.

And then it was over!

{insert angel choir singing here}

All that hard work had paid off. Potty training was officially over. Life fell into a new normal without diapers, wipes & frantic searches for changing tables.

For a few months.

And then one night there was a wet bed.

No problem! Accidents happen. We changed the bed in the middle of the night.

It happened again the next night.

And the night after that.

It went on longer than I had originally expected – long enough for both me and my son to notice that things were a bit different.

The "novelty" of middle of the night laundry wore off quickly. I tried not to make a big deal about it. I knew that it wasn't his fault. He wasn't doing this intentionally. In fact, he was embarrassed by it. I was also concerned that it was interrupting his sleep pattern (and mine).

And then the mom guilt set in. Obviously, I had FAILED at potty training because my kid was wetting the bed.  <–don't you love how we can make anything into something to worry about?

That set me on a path of research. I found that it isn't uncommon for kids to wet the bed (especially if one or both of the parents were bedwetters).  In fact, 1 in 6 kids between the ages of 4 and 12 experience bedwetting. It was important to me that he didn't feel like he was delayed – this is normal and nothing to worry about for many children. It is also common for stress to increase or trigger bedwetting.

I looked back at the time period that this started and realized that our house had been a little crazy at the time. His bedwetting may have been triggered by his inability to cope with the changes, or it could be just a natural part of his development.

I decided the solution for our family was GoodNites Bedtime Pants. They worked great for us. They are incredibly discreet – his brothers didn't even know he had them on. We had no more middle-of-the-night wake ups or laundry loads.

GoodNites let us concentrate on the important things like an evening card game, bedtime stories, making a fort out of stuffed animals, an extremely leisurely bath, and a crazy-early wake up time by choice.  <–#ThatsMyKid

We continued to use GoodNites. Some nights were dry. Some nights were not. But using GoodNites helped me rest easy, and helped my boys feel comfortable and confident at night.

At our next physician visit, I chatted with our doctor about the situation. I wanted to make sure that my research was right. He assured us that it was completely normal and that it would resolve on its own with time and growth. He told me to worry about something else for the next few YEARS!

So it became a non-issue in our house.

I don't remember exactly how long it continued, but it was years not months that resolved this problem.

There is no shame in bedwetting. No shame for the child. No shame for the parent! It is simply a developmental stage just like a million other milestones a child reaches during childhood.  Instead of worrying, spend this stage embracing what makes our kids different, unique and special.  The things that make parents say – that's MY kid!  Every child has a different story, experience, timeline, behavior, trait, and that's how it should be!

This post was sponsored by GoodNites Bedtime Pants.

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