When do you know that your child is ready to wear underwear to bed & how do you start the process? My four year old son still wears a diaper to bed & it is often full when he wakes up in the morning. I have tried not to let him drink anything after dinner & make him use the potty before he goes to bed but it hasn't helped much. Should I take this as a sign that he still needs a diaper or pull up for night time? Do I need to wake him up in the middle of the night to use the potty? I just hate the thought of having to change his sheets every night. Any suggestions?
I have a 5 year old daughter with kidney disease and she still wears a diaper at night. I recommend getting a sheet protector. It is a big fabric pad that tucks under the mattress. Keeps me from washing the sheets all the time. I don't think they are "ready" until they wake up dry for at least a week.
K.
My 5 year old still wets the bed from time to time. To help keep him in underwear (because that is what he wants) we wake him before we go to bed (around 9 or so) and take him to the bathroom. If he goes, he keeps the undies on. If he doesn't go, we put him in a pull up. Sometimes he wakes up with a full pull up, sometimes he doesn't. But taking him at night helps.
I've found that if they are wearing a pull-up, there is a tendency to just go in it. One thing I found helpful for changing the sheets at night, make the bed with a fitted sheet put a disposable puppy training pad(available at any pet store), then another fitted sheet. When he wets the bed, all you have to do is take the second fitted sheet and wet pad off and his first sheet is dry to be able to go back to sleep on. Good luck.
As others have said, each kid is different. I have three and one was well past her 4th bday before being dry at night. She was also a wonderful sleeper! My others were dry at night as soon as they were dry during the day. They were all done with dipes during the day at 27 months. Night was just a different story.
If you don't want to spend money on night time diapers or pull ups, get reusable ones! First, they save you money. Second, they feel wet so your child will start to feel wet and wake himself up. Third, it saves you all the sheet changes. For my daughter, she would finally start to feel wet and wake herself up to take off the diaper. Eventually it happened more and more until she was staying dry at night. Look into Overnight Undies by Mother of Eden. For my daughter's full pees, they worked great.
Some people feel getting a child up to pee in the middle of the night just teaches them to pee during their sleep, since they're not really waking up to do it.
Don't push it or worry. This is totally normal.
You didn't mention whether he still naps and is able to get thru a nap w/o wetting the bed. That's how I gauged it. Once my kids could nap w/o a pull-up or diaper, then I tried it at night. One thing I had to do was make sure that I got them to the potty IMMEDIATELY when they woke up. If they lied in bed to long after waking, they would have an accident. Good luck.
The readiness is different with each child. One of my children was dry at night as soon as he was dry in the day. Another wore a diaper at night for 2 or 3 more years - I can't remember for sure, but he's 10 now and is dry at night. :)
I remember when my oldest was little and was occasionally wetting the bed at night. One night at bedtime, my husband told her to wake up if she needed to go to the bathroom. I thought that was so silly of him to say, but it worked! She started to wake up to use the bathroom instead of peeing in her bed.
Good luck, mama! My advice is, this too shall pass. :)
We knew our daughter was ready when she peed in her nite diap at story time. My son was easier, her was dry for 13 nights out of 14 and the diaps just ran out.
Is your son a very heavy sleeper, if so, don't push it. I would not get him in the habit of being awakened in the middle of the night. aka, "never wake a sleeping baby"
Also, have you heard about the double making the bed trick? Make the bed with the waterproof mattress cover and a sheet, then put another cover and sheet on. Then when he wets the bed you just pull off one set and reveal clean sheets underneath.
First I would check with your pediatrician. Ask at what age they are supposed to be making it through the night. A lot of times it's a matter of development. When I did it with my kids, it was a learning process. They had to be able to recognize that they were uncomfortable and why and be able to wake themselves enough to get up, or in a lot of cases, call for me to help them make it to the potty. Even though we have lots of night lights for that sort of thing, they were still afraid of getting out of their beds alone. It might just be that the diaper has stopped him from ever being uncomfortable and he has never had to learn that there will be a consequence for ignoring the "feeling". With my son it only took a couple wet nights before he realized that it was yucky to pee the bed.
Buy a mattress cover and just be prepared. Let him go a week without the diaper and see how it goes. Or get him those potty training diapers that he will feel uncomfortable in when he goes. The only thing really to do is give it a shot.
I had a friend that when her son was a baby she would layer the sheets on his mattress so that a fresh sheet was under a mattress cover. That way if there was a problem in the middle of the night, she just had to take the top sheet and cover off and there was already a new one on.
Just for reference sake, my cousin had both her kids in a "bed-time" until after their sixth birthdays. They were such heavy sleepers that they couldn't wake up, even if they layed in wet sheets all night. Where as my kids are lighter sleepers and were out of the "bed-times" by two and a half and three and a half. Good luck. It's not easy. And don't listen to anyone but your pediatrician who tell you he is too old for a night time diaper. Every kid is different. And you have to trust yourself to know what works for you family.
All kids are different, so don't worry. My oldest son (now 7) potty trained by age 3, but still wears a Goodnight pull up at night. He is a very solid sleeper. We have found that if we wake him at night when we wake to go to the bathroom, usually around 4 or 5am and have him go too, then he stays dry. Or if he wakes and wants to cuddle with us in bed, we say ok, but go potty first. On the other hand, my other son who is 3 years, 8 mo. is very inconsistent during the day and dry 1/2 of his nights. They are so different. Our pediatrician said not to worry about night time until he reached 5 and then work harder at waking them at night, giving medication, or wearing a sensor watch. We just decided to wake him when we wake and give him praise for dry nights. He does know that if he leaks, he pulls all the sheets off, changes his pj's and then can climb in with us. I don't have to do anything until morning. Another trick I learned is to put an extra pee pad across the top of his bed sheets bed with a triple folded top sheet on that mid section of the bed. If he leaks, then you/he can strip the one sheet and pad and he still has a dry bed to sleep in! Good Luck! I'm right there with you!
