Question: How do I prevent my 4-year-old daughter from night bedwetting?
Wetting the bed at 4 years old is very common. In fact, at this age, it is almost to be expected. In recent years, many children do not become completely night-time dry until 5 or 6-years-old. This may seem unhead of to those of us who were trained at 2 or 3, but there does seem to be a trends towards both potty-training and becoming dry at night taking longer to achieve among kids today.
If your child has never been dry, the continued use of a pull-up or disposable diaper may be needed for the time being. As your child matures, her bedwetting will more than likely disappear on its own. The use of a disposable pant or other products is not a concern until 6 or 7 years of age at night.
Because of the different developmental milestones and the different times kids reach them, most bedwetting programs say not to start using bedwetting alarms until around 7 years of age. During this time from 4-7, your child may have occasional or even nightly bedwetting incidents, but they should be getting less and less. At around 7, their brains should be wired to wake up when the urge to go to the bathroom hits, so a bedwetting alarm can help stimulate the sensation of needing to urinate with waking up.
But at age 4, I would not be discouraged or concerned. If you want to put your mind at ease, talk to your pediatrician to make sure your child doesn’t have an infection or other physical abnormality that may contribute to her bed-wetting. But if she has never been dry at night, time is usually the best healer and a disposable underpant such as Goodnites or Underjams may help her sleep soundly through the night and protect her bedding.
The best thing you can do is make sure you do not punish her or embarrass her either alone or in front of her friends, and instead be compassionate and caring and let her know she will be dry soon, and wearing the underpants will help until her body grows up just a little bit more.