My daughter is 4 years old and is still wearing a pullup at night. I've been thinking about having her wear underwear to bed just to see what happens. She doesn't seem to care if she wets in her pullup. I know this because she's wet in it while I'm reading her a story before she goes to sleep. So, what I'm wondering is if anyone has any advice on how to go about this. Or has anyone else had a similar experience? She's been very difficult to potty train all along, so I'm a little nervous about this.
J.-
My son does the same thing and he will be 5 in December. I already asked my ped about it and he said not to worry about it until he reaches 5 and is still wetting the bed. All of the advice is good and will help. My son is such a hard sleeper that my next step is to start waking him up in the middle of the night and make him go. And hopefully it will become a habit for him.
Good luck!
We just went with underwear and never used a pull-up. We just layered the mattress (still in toddler bed) with several crib sheets and mattress pads in between. that way if there was an accident at two in the morning, all we had to do was change the little guy, yank the top layer off and the bed was fresh and ready to go. After a few nights he realized he did not like being wet at night and started getting up to go.
Good luck!
Limit liquids to a couple of hours before bed, have her go to the bathroom before she goes to bed. Try waking her 1-2hrs after she is in bed, to get her up to go potty. Its something you will have to do until she gets in the habit of getting up on her own to go use the toilet.
Definitely let her wet the bed.... you can get a mattress protector to put under the sheets/mattress pad - so you won't ruin your mattress.... and then, yep - my guess is that after wetting the bed - she won't want to do that anymore. The pull-ups give her permission to continue the behavior. My daughter (also 4 - but has been potty trained for a long time now) has wet the bed just a couple of times - and hated it. She become very aware of needing to go potty before bed everynight - and watches her fluid intake before bed as well. Good luck!
Have her go potty before she puts on the pull-up. First thing when she wakes up in the morning have her take the pull-up off. My son was the same way. If I left it on him too long he would go in it instead of going to the toilet. If you start to notice that she is staying dry a few nights then have her go without and see what happens. She may still have accidents on occasion. My daughter is four also and will go several nights dry and then have an accident here and there. Usually when she is very tired. Accidents are normal until they are past five. If you want to try it without the pull-ups, go ahead. What's the worst that can happen? I wouldn't worry if she has an accident the first couple of nights. She will have to get used to the idea that she doesn't have her pull-up to pee in at night. Once she knows that she doesn't have that protection she will probably be more willing to get up and go to the bathroom. But her body may not be ready to go all through the night. Personally, I felt it was better to let my daughter keep her pull-ups when she was having frequent accidents because waking up wet was so traumatic for her. She would wake up crying. I never got mad at her for wetting herself but she just hated it. I tried waking her up to go to the bathroom a few times but that just made her upset too. It doesn't make much sense anyway. I don't know when she needs to pee. So I was waking her up to go to the bathroom whether she needed to go or not. That isn't training her to go when she needs to go. So we kept the pull-ups until she was staying dry on more of a regular basis. Now that she goes most nights without wetting the bed I let her sleep in panties and I have a waterproof mattress pad on her bed. So try it and see what happens. But if she doesn't seem ready don't push it too much, especially if she has been difficult before. And be ready to do lots of laundry for a while. But whatever you do make sure you talk to her about what you plan on doing and your expectations for her. The same you would have for day training/nap times. Good Luck!
My daughter was 5 1/2 before she finally night trained! Our ped told us that the bladder works best when emptied 8-10 times per day. That seems like a lot, but I gave my daughter the bulk of her liquids during the earlier part of the day, and limited her fluids to sips after dinner. Also, I made sure she used the bathroom several times during the late afternoon/evening, and of course right before she went to bed. Good luck, I know this can be frustrating!
We had good luck switching from pull-ups to the old fashioned training pants from Gerber (that are padded) for nighttime- they still feel like underwear and wash up instead of wasting all of the money on pullups to throw away every night- they allow her to realize when she is wetting, but are absorbant enough to keep her from soaking the bed before she wakes up fully. You may have to check the internet for larger sizes. My four year old can still wear the 3T size, but just barely, and I think that is about the largest sold at Walmart or Target. Good luck!
My suggestion is this: Get a mattress protection (or a few of them), I had a large mattress pad that just set across the mattress from her crib. It didn't make that crinkly plastic sheet noise. It was from Target and I think made by circo. It is fairly heavy duty and I already had a few of them.
Get several sheets if you don't already have very many for her bed size. Even used would work for this. Doesn't have to be anything special or very expensive. At some point you will want to get her a sheet set that she picks out and is excited about and tell her that after the bed stays dry each night for (a time you deem appropriate, i.e. 2 weeks, a month) she can put the new sheet set on her bed.
Make sure she uses the bathroom before she goes to bed. Leave her in her "big girl undies" and see what happens. Maybe let her know if she stays dry all night, you will do something special with her the next day. And then do it. That first time she makes it through the night and then again after she does that for 7 nights straight. Always praise her for awhile after that. They need the praise and reassurance for awhile.
If she has an accident, have her help you change the bed each morning. Don't scold her, just tell her "Okay, I know that you tried your best, but you had an accident in your bed so know you need to clean up the mess." She will get tired of cleaning up the mess every morning, and it will click in her head. After she fulfills the amount of time you specified with a dry bed, you can put on a new set of bedding that she has picked out. Make a Huge production of it. So she continues!
There is a pretty good chance, this may be a way for her to act out because of that new baby brother. She may love him dearly, but be missing the attention that she got as an only child. Something to think about and possibly address.
Good Luck!
Do not give your child liquids up to 2 hours before bed time. Make sure she goes to potty just before bed and reinforce her if she uses it.
Another thing I did that truly worked, was I hung a clear plastic cup with colorful M&M's in it (Skittles work too), on the back of the bathroom door. Whenever the kids used the potty, I gave them one M&M. They looked forward to the candy.
You might also try using the cloth training panties. Tell your child, you get to wear big girl panties. Make sure you put plastic mattress covers on. Maybe the child needs to feel wetness. The pull up will not allow them to feel to much wet.
One more try....Either have them wear big girl panties throughout the day or pull ups...no switching. But make sure you do not give liquids at night.
Good luck!
We had the same problem with our oldest son. He was wearing Pull ups at night until he was 6! We started thinking there was something physically wrong with him and started researching that on the internet. What we found out was that some things can aggravate the bladder in little ones who are potty training. We told our son that until he was out of Pull ups sugar, soda and anything carbonated was off limits and he couldn't drink anything after a certain time (a couple of hours before bedtime). We also made sure he went potty a few times after the last drink. Within that week he was waking up dry. We aren't sure if it was successful because of the measures we took or if he just wanted to start having soda and sugar again but it worked!
Good luck!
Good Morning J., Our 3 12 yr old grandson gets up and changes into big boys underwear if he wets at night in his pull up. He was getting up dry for about a 3 wks so they started him with the big boys stuff at night. It went well for about a month then he started wetting again. Back to Pull ups. He goes pp before nap time and never has an accident here with me during the day. Good Thing, it's our bed he sleeps on and its one of those Tempurpedic mattress's lol Holds liquid pretty good. Hubby found that out finding a sippy under the blankets. :))
Anyway don't be disappointed in her wetting her pull up, you might wait to put it on her as you tuck her in at night.
Good Luck to you J., remember all children are different and each one will give you a different type of Headache ;) We all survive though.
God Bless
K. Nana of 5
I would have her go the bathroom before bed, limit liquids, try putting her in underwear and put a plastic sheet on the mattress. Also, since she is going in her pullup while you are reading a story that says she has some control over the situation. She may just not want to get out of bed to go to the bathroom or she may be a very deep sleeper. You may want to try a reward chart to see if you can figure out the difference. Have stickers when she uses the bathroom at night and of course never punish for wetting, but the chart may let you know if she is able to wake up at night when she needs to go.
Hi J.,
My son is 4 1/2 and just started wearing underwear to bed in June. I thought that he'd be a little more inclined to stay dry if he had on underwear, but he still wets the bed EVERY night. I've noticed that he does it right before he gets up. I hate washing his bedding every night, but I refuse to have him in pull-ups anymore. I can't stand the odor! Let me know if you have success. (My older son went through a period of frequent bedwetting around 5-6 years old and I asked the pediatrician about it because I never had that problem with my daughter and he said it just takes time and that some kids are such heavy sleepers that they don't know they are wetting.) I've tried withholding liquids after 6:30 pm and that helped my older son. Also, waking your child up at midnight or right before you go to bed to try and potty one more time. My kids didn't like this much---neither did I because they are sooo hard to wake up. When I was a working mom, I would wake my son up at 6:00 am everyday and that routine was helpful. My youngest son has no routine, so I'm hoping when he starts Kindergarten next fall, this will pass. Good luck! D.
my daughter was 4 and wearing a pullup at night. She would go on the toilet during the day but at night would pee in her pullup. We would make her go before she went to bed and would cut her off anything to drink about 2-3 hours before bed. It took awhile but it finally worked. We would also praise and reward her for waking up with a dry pullup. Now she gets up during the night to go and has only had 2 accidents and she will be 6 in April. Hang in there is will happen.
J.,
I have a 3-1/2 year old and we just limit her drinks a few hours before bed time. Then right before we read her books and put her to bed I make her go potty. She has been staying dry for quite some time. It seems to work well for us. In fact the other night she actually woke up in the night because she had to go potty.
Good Luck I know each kid is so different.
If you aren't already you really need to limit the amount that your child drinks about 1.5-2 hours before bedtime and then make sure she potties before bed. I know all children are different but it only took my daughter a couple of times waking up wet to figure it out.
My twins started truly potty training at 2.5. I think nights were easiest. Thankfully, my son was easier to night train than my daughter. He had basically stopped wetting at night even before we started training. I spent about a month with my daughter in pull ups. Almost as soon as I put her in "big girl underwear" at night, also, she stopped wetting the bed. They are 3.5 and have an accident once in a while, but they are few and far between. I echo the pp comments....limit water intake about 2 hours before bed and we always get them up to use the bathroom before we go to bed, that's 2-3 hours after they go to bed. Hope this helps.
What is your daughter's bedtime? Try not giving her anything to drink about two hours before bedtime and make sure she uses the potty before hopping into bed :) Good luck and God Bless :)
i was just about to post the same question! want to read your responses.
My daughter is 4 1/2 years old and she still wears a pull up at night. I also had concerns about it as well, but our pediatrician assures us that it is normal for some children to continue to wet the bed until they are 6 years old. I also noticed my daughter wetting her pull up before going to bed, so now, after bath time, we put her nightgown on with underwear and don't have her change into a pull up until she is about to get in bed. I think that was her just being lazy and knowing it was OK to wet the pull up. It has helped with her not waking up too wet. Also, try not letting her drink anything after dinner time. I hope this helps you feel a little better.
