Howdy,
My 3.5 year old son has been daytime potty trained for about 8 months. He is still wearing pull ups at night - which I am starting to feel like they are a mixed blessing. They keep me from changing the sheets at night, but then he doesn't go to the bathroom at night.
This past weekend I let him wear underwear to bed and he wet the bed (of course) and came and got me. The next night, I put his underwear on under his pull up (so I wouldn't have to change sheets at 4 in the morning again) and he woke up at 11:30 with a wet pull up and underwear. The boy sleeps so hard at night that he doesn't even notice that he is peeing. (My husband took a nap with him one day, when he had an accident, so this is how we know.) Is it just too early to try the night time potty training, or should I just buckle down for several nights of multiple sheet changings? Part of me thinks I just need to let him get a little older, but the other part thinks he can do it, if he could wake himself up before he soaks his underwear.
(I have even tried in the past to wake him up and take him potty, but it was a little like trying to wrestle a grizzly bear.)
Thanks for your time.
L.
I get my 4 yr old up to go potty before I go to bed, and have since he was potty trained at 3.5 yrs old. I carry him to the potty, pull down his pants and then he pees and I carry him back to bed....LOL I don't even think he remembers in the morning but he hasn't wet the bed yet. I figure I'll give him a trial run here pretty soon w/out me taking him....but he drinks a full glass of water before going to sleep.
Good luck,
M.
My advise is to have your son wear pull-ups at night until he is ready to wear underwear. I have twin girls. One, when she decided she was potty trained, that was it, night and day. However, we had a lot of problems with the other one. She was day timed trained by about 3 1/2, but she's a very heavy sleeper and did not get the out of pull-ups at night until just after she turned five. We tried everything, limiting drinks, getting her up in the middle of the night, putting her in regular underwear thinking it would make her wake up. Nothing worked and it was more stressful on her dad and I. We thought she would never get out of pull-ups, but we decided not to pressure her to do something her body wasn't ready for and she now gets up in the middle of the night if she needs to go.
sounds evil, but how about giving him lots of fluid in the first part of the day, so he has less to pee out later?
your bud,
s
I would let him get older and not worry about the frustration and your lack of sleep, especially since he is well potty trained for during the day. He will come to the place eventually that he doesn't want to be a baby and won't want the pull up on at night. My son did on his own. When he started to have accidents again, I told him he had to wear night time pull ups for 3 dry nights in a row before he could go back to underwear. We only had to do that once. If he continues to wet the bed when he is older - my brother did - then I would make sure you have a mattress protector and an extra 2 blankets folded up with a set of clothes. Then, he can get up himself without waking you up, change clothes, throw the wet ones in the bathtub, put one blanket down as a bed on the floor and bundle up under the other. He'll tell you in the morning and you can wash everything when you wake up. He won't be as embarrassed. He will be responsible. And you can stay asleep.
We are going through the EXACT same thing with my 4 year old daughter. She just turned 4 in July and she sleeps so deeply that she doesn't wake up to go to the bathroom. She was day time potty trained since 2.5 so we are ready for night as well. We tried the cold turkey approach and took away the pull ups at night but my husband and I just ended up exausted because we changed sheets for a week and a half at 2 am. We also tried putting her underwear on under the pull up but be careful, she started complaining of burning in her privates the next day (we quickly stopped that so she didn't get a yeast infection!!)
This is what we are doing now and it seems to be going pretty well, she wears her pull up to bed and we go get her about 11:00 and try to take her to the bathroom (sometimes it works, sometimes she's too out of it) and we've limited her liquids so that she doesn't have anything to drink after 6:30. We also started the "Pee-Pee Chart" (sounds wierd, but it's working!!!) and for each night she is dry, she gets a sticker. When she had 5 nights we took her to Target and got her a small toy. She was so proud :) I think it comes down to the child training their body to know it can no longer use the bathroom when they are sleeping. Your subconcious has to know that or adults would still be wetting the bed! :) I talked to her docter about it and she said its still normal until the age of 6, but hopefully we make it into undies before then!! Good luck!
To all moms:
Please look into The Potty Pager, a device we used on my children. Like you, I would be up in the middle of the night waking kids and changing sheets. That got tiring real fast so my husband and I started taking turns waking them up twice a night in hopes of getting to them before they wet the bed. We ended up losing sleep and still having instances where they would wet the bed before we got there.
After talking with the people at "The Potty Pager" and telling them my story, the woman flat out told me we weren't doing them any favors by waking them up. We purchased two pagers, one for each kid. My husband and I went cold turkey on waking them up at night. It took about a month to work but they somehow taught themselves to wake up before they have to pee. My husband was a skeptic at first but we're thrilled now. It's been a month and a half since we took them off the pagers (after three weeks of dry nights in a row). They have each only had one accident since and even then, they woke up right as they started to wet the bed so it wasn't like they were soaked through.
I 100% endorse this product. My pediatrician recommended it to us and I love him for it. You can find them at www.pottypager.com or at 1-800-497-6573. Best of all, it's a silent pager so the rest of the house can sleep and the child is not embarrassed if it goes off.
Two final notes. 1. Do not chastise your child for wetting the bed. This is a learning process. Make him responsible for the accident though by having him help bring the sheets and underwear to the laundry room. 2. Invest in a good, breathable but waterproof mattress pad. It's cheaper than buying a new mattress and better than sleeping in something that smells.
Best of luck,
B. (A happy, well-rested mom)
Some kids are just heavy sleepers (ie my daughter) who is 6 and still has accidents. My son (now 4 ) has never wet his bed since he was potty trained at the age of 3. I used to get upset and have to do the 4 am bed change nearly nightly, then I just realized she will outgrow it (hopefully sooner than later) and we go with the goodnights to sleep. Hope this helps.
