Nighttime Potty Training Question

My DD8 was 3 years and 7 months before she no longer needed diapers at night. I know the exact time because we were on vacation and I had forgotten to pack diapers. I had tried to leave them off when she turned 3 but I had to change sheets about 3-5 times per week, sometimes more than twice per night. Couldn't deal with that... Since we were at someone else house, I woke DD up in the middle of the night to go potty. We made it without accidents but I was stressed. When we came back home, I left the diapers off but didn't wake her in the middle of the night anymore. DD had maybe 1 or 2 accidents per month. I didn't limit her drinking because it didn't make any difference with her, either. I don't remember when she stopped having accidents but it's been a long time.

I just got DD2.5 potty trained during the day and I have no intentions to leave her diaper off during the night any time soon. Luckily, we don't have the problem of her getting teased about it. I hope, she will be dry at night by age four. I don't think that there is a lot you can do to speed it up. I think, the problem is that needing to pee doesn't wake her up rather than her having had too much to drink...

Something like one in eight kids wets the bed til age six. So, Relax, buy a couple of those plastic sheet thingies and make the bed twice, then all you have to do at night is pull off the top sheet, and the plastic sheet. There's another blanket, fitted sheet and plastic sheet underneath. Also maybe put her to bed in just a t-shirt and panties so a quick change is easy.

This too shall pass.

HTH
Nicole

edited to add... maybe since the "wet" sensation wakes her up this could be a training tool for her body. KWIM? Like letting a potty trainer go around in just underwear when you know he's going to wet so he gets the connection??

My 2.5yo boy stays dry as long as I leave him bottomless. I speculate the issue may be getting to the potty and negotiating the underwear in time. If he's butt-naked, that streamlines the process enough for him to make it. Or, it may be that he's conditioned to wet his pants if he's got anything on below-waist. So far, I have been unsuccessful putting him to bed in his undies. We worked on wearing underwear around the house today, but he still ended up naked by the end of the day after going through three or four pair. I wish I had sound advice, but it seems I've felt my way through every potty training process so far. Waking her to go to the toilet seems the only real solution for keeping the bed dry, but not a fun one.

my 5 1/2yr old son is still wetting almost every night and I've long since given up worrying about it. I have a waterproof sheet on, a fitted sheet and a fleece blanket, and I can change it in the dark and have it washed, dried and back on in the evening (without a tumble drier I might add!). The bigger fuss you make about it the more of a problem it can become. Nicole's right - it isn't uncommon at all, just not often discussed!

one caveat though. If you're concerned, just take her to your doctor and check that there are no physical problems. Doesn't sound like it though - my son's the same... heavy sleeper and small bladder.

best thing you can do for yourself is streamline the bedding so that it isn't something that gets you frustrated, or that will come across to your daughter and make the problem worse!

oh yes, your doctor will be able to tell you what's available as a next measure if you ever get too concerned. There are things that go bleep in the night in response to wetness which is supposed to train them to stay dry. There are options, but I really don't think it's worth worrying about yet, as long as you rule out physical problems.

Kerri.

If she is self-conscious, I've seen ads for "Good Nites" pull-ups which look like regular underwear; they are designed for school-aged children, who can wet the bed until they are 11 or 12. They might be expensive but you could check.

Jo,

I personally wet the bed until I was old enough to get up and take care of it by myself (I'm not sure how old I was, but probably 8 or 9). My twin sister never wet the bed. My 7-year-old daughter never has wet the bed, by 3-year-old son never has wet the bed, but my 5-year-old daughter would be wet every night if she didn't have a pull-up on. She knows she needs them and prefers it to waking up wet. We've ran out a time or two, and on those occasions I have personally set my alarm to get up with her a couple of times in the night to take her to the bathroom, but she still wakes up wet. In the mornings her pull-up is very full and heavy. My mom told me to just be glad they have pull-ups nowadays, because when I was little there was no such thing (not even disposable diapers), so I'll keep buying them as long as I need to. I have a plastic liner on the mattress, so on those rare occasions when even her pull-up leaks and she gets wet that way, I just get a towel, put it over the wet area, and she can get back into bed quicker that way (and so can I!) after she changes her P.J.'s We just have to wait for their bodies and brains to coordinate enough to wake them up to go, I guess.

TrudyP
www.mo3bk.com

I'd heard a while ago that natural dips in blood sugar during the night, when you're sleeping thus not eating, can make a child sleep too deeply to wake up when the bladder "signals" and that having a little protein before bed, like a big spoonful of peanut butter, can even out the blood sugar and make it easier to waken. Have no idea if this works or not. Some people may just sleep like the dead, regardless of blood sugar levels.

I don't want to make any of the mothers here despair, but my niece, now 14, still wets the bed. It's more rare now, but she had the same problem mentioned above, she sleeps too hard to wake up, and setting the alarm for two or three in the morning to go potty helped, but sometimes she'd wet the bed before the alarm went off. Her father wet the bed until he was nine or ten, and her grandmother wet the bed until she was twelve, so Mom thinks there may be a genetic or other family-related issue going on.

TrudyP, the double sheeted bed idea is sheer genius, though. Awesome!
______

May The Hair On Your Toes Never Fall Out

--Traditional Hobbit Blessing

My daughter just decided at 4yrs. old too that pullups were for babies and really begged not to wear them. We decided to help her out by doing the following and are happy to report our extra effort is paying off: 1.) No liquids after 6:30pm; 2.) potty before bedtime; 3.) wake her up when you go to bed or around midnight to have her go again. We are happy to report, she has been staying dry for the past 5 nights since we implemented this!! Hope this helps. We are now just trying to figure out when will we be able to stop the nightly rousings or for how long to implement this step before stopping.

It's nice to see all this discussion about a topic that's been stressing me for weeks. My nearly 4 y/o twin boys are still not nighttime potty trained. One has been trying with his "big boy underpants" for a couple of weeks but has only made it about 3 times. We too have restricted drinks before bed and wake him around 12:30. I feel badly for him, b/c he's trying sooo hard. He's motivated by his star chart and every nite says he's going to do it but wakes sometime between 2 and 5 a.m. crying. A part of me wonders if it isn't better to go back to the pullups and try again in a couple of months. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Will it make him more upset, or give him a chance to build his confidence again?

My other one has absolutely no interest in trying and is happy to stay in a full pullup all night long. That's frustrating too, but I think he actually knows he's not ready so he doesn't want to try. I'm ok with that.

I'm glad to see all of the comments on this issue. My 4YO son was a late potty trainer - didn't regularly pee or poop in the potty during the day until well after his 4th birthday. He just wasn't bothered by wet or soiled clothes or pullups - too much to do, I guess. Unfortunately, he's carrying that into his nighttime training, which is pretty much zilch. He's been sleeping in underpants for a couple of months now, and wets the bed 9 nights out of 10. He sleeps right through it, and gets up in the morning and plays in various locations in the house (sometimes sitting on the couch and whatnot), completely oblivious to the fact that his jammies are soaked in urine. We're against putting him back in the pullups, partly because of the cost and partly because I want to believe that he'll train faster at night if he wets the bed than if he can pee without consequences, like in the pullup. Otherwise, we're pretty much at a loss. It's getting REALLY old having to wash his sheets and blankets every single day. My wife and I both work, and having to devote all of the available laundry time to my son's soiled blanket and sheets is growing to be rather taxing.

my 3 yo son is having no trouble with daytime pottying. He has potty trained there for months. We found the only way to accomplish that part was to take his pull ups away and make him wear real underwear, otherwise he just wet his pull ups 'cause he knew he didn't have to stop playing to go potty, he could just go in his pants. We have no problems at nap time either, but night time is a problem. My husband works out of town sometimes and during those times I allow my son to stay in my bed for the night. He never wakes up wet when he sleeps in my bed, but the second he goes back to his own room, he wakes up with a wet pullup every morning. We have tried limiting liquids, making him go more often in the evenings to the bathroom, nothing seems to be working. I am glad to hear about the two sets of sheets ideas to make middle of the night clean up easier, since we feel our next step is to just take the pullups away at night like we did during the day. Anyone think this is a good idea???

My 5 yr. old boy is totally trained during the day, but during the night he is still supposed to wear pull-ups. Some nights, though, he decides to take them off and exchange them for underwear. I think it bothers him that his 3 yr. old sister is dry at night but he's not. He will wet the bed and not wake up until morning-- hours after the accident. After doing this several times, I have started checking for his pull-ups every night after he falls asleep to make sure they're on. But, yeah, really gross.