My 4 year old is completely potty trained but she still wets the bed, which I know is normal. My problem is, she LIKES to pee in her diaper if I put it on her. She won't wake up to pee b/c she just likes the diaper. I KNOW this, b/c the other day as soon as I put it on her, I heard her pee in it. I asked her if she did and she said yes. I told her that we only put the diaper on for night time emergencies and not to do that anymore. I am thinking that I need to get her some kind of mattress pad and sheet cover and just put her in panties. I know it's possibly going to be lots of cleanup, but I think she might wake better if she can feel the wet. Any advice? Should I wake her up around midnight or just let nature do it's thing? My oldest never wet the bed so this is all new to me.
And please no lecture about making her feel badly or that it's normal up until age 7. I know that already. I just want to take the diapers out of the equation and make it as easy as possible.
@ Gamma: dumbest response ever. Sorry, but nothing you said made an ounce of sense. I pee before bed EVERY night and wake up with a full bladder. So, yes, your bladder doesn't sleep just because you do. Everyone else, thank you!! Going tomorrow to get some supplies and praying for the best. She's welcome to change, so I'm hoping for the best!! Ready to be diaper-free!
Took Nikki G's advice and after 4 days, she had her first dry morning!!! I'm so happy for her!
We just went ahead and did it for my son when he was 3 (he had been daytime trained since 2)....took a few accidents at night but he got the hang of it and hasn't had another pee-nighttime accident since the original few.
I would go for it. We kept our daughter in night-time pull-ups until she was almost 5. As soon as we stopped putting them on her she stopped peeing at night (mostly). She knew if she had the diaper on she could "let it all hang out." Without the diaper your daughter will probably try to control herself. For us, we could have stopped the pull-ups much sooner! Give it a shot. Good luck!
To Yolanda, you just gave one of my favorite responses ever. The fact that you can use a noogie as a reward is hilarious (and genius!). Kudos.
This is a good idea.
Also check out bed wetting alarms on Amazon. They're awesome and really help wake kids up to go/learn to hold it.
She can do it. We are having great success with my 3.5 year old, by just rewarding her with a noogie (she loves getting noogies, for some reason) each time she wakes up with a dry pull-up. We had switched to panties and everything was going great, but then I went out of town for three weeks and she regressed a little. But we're almost ready to go back to the panties now.
Just think of a small non-food reward that she will enjoy. A cool stamp on her hand would work well also, or a sticker, or just a quick round of applause.
Kids are not supposed to wake up to pee. Their body is supposed to stop making urine just like a grown up body does when it goes to sleep. She has no biological power over peeing in her sleep.
I think it comes down to this. You need to set her on the toilet last thing before she puts her pull up on then into bed. That way when she puts it on her bladder is empty.
My granddaughter likes to do that too. She is 8. She thinks it's funny. So she got grounded for a whole day from going outside and doesn't do that anymore.
If she was 4 it would be a problem with me, not her. It is the parents job to teach a child to go in the toilet so sorry momma, I think this is something that is on you too.
Sit her on the potty and if she doesn't go she can't have a pull up. If she does go she gets the pull up and a reward for going. Maybe a couple of skittles or M&M's. It is so much more fun to get something for making the right choice than it is to get punishment.
My mom used to wake my little brother at night to give him "Dry walks" to the bathroom. Helped immensely to get to nighttime dryness with limited wet beds.
____@____.com's response. OMG, I'm almost 30 years old, and I still wake up to pee twice most nights. That's ridiculous!!
OMG... anyway, B., when Cheyenne had this problem (it took me FOREVER to night-time potty train that girl), and when she was 5, I suspected the same thing-- that she was deliberately peeing in the diaper. So I decided to go cold-turkey and take the diapers out of the equation (plus they were giving her rashes on her girly-bits). I went to Babies 'R Us and bought two of the water-proof mattress pads. They don't cover the whole mattress, they are about the size of a large blankie. They are soft on the outside but they are water-proof. I laid one down over her sheet, put a sheet on top of it, laid another one down, and put another sheet on top of it. That way, if she wet through one in the middle of the night, I could just take one layer off and still have another and not have to worry about doing complete bed changes in the middle of the night. For the first week of using the mattress pads, I would wake her up around 2am and put her on the potty. I wouldn't fully wake her, she was half-conscious, and I would have to help her to the potty (she is such a ridiculously deep sleeper even now). I did that for a full seven days and then let her go. She peed in the bed for about three nights, but after that, we've never had an accident since.
I say definitely give it a try, but do layer the mattress pads so that in case of emergency, you don't have to do full bed changes.
I would go to a mattress store and invest in 2 good matress protectors and I've seen on tv these pads that go under sheets for accidents. Maybe those too? Some kids you just have to take the crutch of diapers away. She most likely likes the warm feeling of peeing in diapers but she's plenty old enough to know not to do it on just because. Good luck :)
We tried this exact same thing with my four year old (now five) and sadly, it didn't work. She was peeing as soon as we gave her the Pull up, so I figured the morning wetness was coming from the before bed peeing, or peeing right when she woke up. For two weeks I would have her go to the bathroom right before bed, load up on the mattress pads, and then wake her up rather than letting her hang out in bed and pee. But even with all that... she was still peeing in the middle of the night. So, we're back to Pull ups.
I hope it goes better for you! And yes... I think you're totally reasonable to try this if you think she's using the Pull up as a crutch.
Your instincts sound right on target--she's not going to drag herself out of bed at night to pee when it is more appealing to her to use the diaper. We had a mattress cover (plastic sheath which zipped around the whole mattress for our son, who wasn't reliably getting up at night until he was 6 or so). Since it is summer, you don't have to worry about blankets or quilts getting wet while she transitions. The idea of giving her a non-food reward for dry sheets in the morning could work well too. Oh, and if the sheets aren't dry, you could require that she help you change them before she gets to play with toys in the morning! It's not about making her feel bad, it's about helping care for the home you share. Good luck.
I say it can't hurt to try. However, my daughter is in the same boat. We tried. Had about 3 dry nights out of 20. Lots of laudry. Back in pull ups and we'll try again in a bit. Here BODY isn't ready - not something you can train or teach. Don't wake her during the night as you can't train it - you'll just be messing up her sleep. Best of luck!
My twin boys took forever to day train. I just kept them in pull-ups at night until they were 4 1/2 because I just figured they were not ready. Well, I got those waterproof matress pads that go on top of the sheets (not under) for easy cleanup and decided to just try. I woke my heavier sleeper up at midnight the first few nights. Within a week or two they were dry at night. So give it a try, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I would get rid of the diapers, keep her in panties and use a "just in case" Pull-Up at night. If she pees in her Pull-Up on purpose, when awake, let her know that's not ok and hand her a clean pair of panties and a clean Pull-Up and let her change them herself. She will stop thinking it's fun pretty quickly. As for night, if she's regularly wet at night, I wouldn't set her up to pee her bed by putting her in just panties right now. It will only result in a grouchy kid and grouchy parents when there are several middle of the night bedding changes. Make sure she's not drinking excessively at dinner, nothing to drink except a sip after dinner and pottying is the absolute last thing before bed, even after stories (we read books on the potty-2 birds, one stone). By taking her out of her panties and putting a diaper on her at night, you're sending the message that peeing in her pants is ok at night, because that's what a diaper is for. If you keep her in her panties, which she already knows she's not supposed to pee in, you'll be sending the right message and making it really uncomfortable if she does pee. A "just in case" Pull-Up keeps the mess contained until she learns to either hold it all night or wake to go potty. Good luck!
