getting 3yo to use potty at night - UPDATE

[anomaly13]

my ds is totally diaper free during the day and has been for a little over a year. nighttime is another story. he wares a pocket diaper to bed and always wakes up wet, sometimes it even leakes onto his sheets. and it stinks, never poop always pee. i think the stink has something to do with the inserts being synthetic, micofiber, because his pee during the day does not stink. i have striped them but it doesn't help. anyway i want to get him out of diapers at night but am unsure how to do this. i try to limit food/drink at night and stop about an hour before bed, but he always wants his water bottle in bed with him which i only fill with a couple ounces of water. i guess that would be the first thing to change, get the water bottle out of bed. but then what? i have heard of people getting up at night and waking their lo to use the potty. is that the only way? i would like him to get up one his own, when he naturally wakes, is that even possible?

[Masel]

With my DD at 3 years old we just had to give up on any sort of diaper at night. Anything thick on her bottom was a signal to pee. It took two weeks with lots of sheet changes but eventually she got it. I expected that she'd have dry night time diapers and then we'd just stop using them but that wasn't how her little mind worked.

I should have guessed because I'd put a cloth diaper on her when getting ready before be and sometimes she'd pee in it before she even got settled down.

Good luck

[anomaly13]

DS does that too sometimes, wetting his diaper right after I put it on even though he just used the potty. Never thought to just take the diaper out of the equation from the start. Sometimes he will wake up in the morning and when I ask him to use the potty first thing he'll say " but I'm going already in my diaper." Guess that is a sign to get rid of it. As it is I seem to change sheets every other day or more so that's no big deal.

Did you ever get up at night to see if she was sleeping on wet sheets and change them then or did you just wait till morning?
Did she ever wake you b/c her sheets were wet?
Does she get up to pee at night or is she holding it till morning?

Thanks so much for responding!

[pixiepunk]

i agree, try getting rid of the diaper. maybe you can put a couple of towels or something under him that you can pull out if you notice they're wet in the night.

a lot of people i know who did conventional potty learning had success with pottying their child a few hours after the child was asleep - basically when they went to bed for the night. most of the time the child barely woke up. if you've done EC this might be even easier because he'll hear you signal and can probably relax enough to pee even if he's mostly asleep.

[theboysmama]

In our house getting rid of the diaper has been what ultimately made them dry at night.
I put a waterproof mattress pad cover on the bed and then a fitted sheet and then a wateroroof pad. If you are just starting out then you could put another fitted sheet and waterproof pad over the original that way you can just remove what got wet w/out having to do everything. Sometimes they wake and go pee (i keep a potty by the bed for the little one), sometimes they wet the bed and wake (they might ask me to come get them dry or they may just move somewhere else that is dry and that is where I find them naked in the morning) or sometimes they sleep right through it and we just take care of it in the morning.
Good luck.

[WiseBirdsMom]

I also agree about getting rid of the diaper at night. My DS1 was dry during the day for many months before it occurred to me that I was sending him mixed signals by putting a diaper on him at night. So I went out and bought several sets of sheets, a wool blanket to put down under the sheets, and hoped for the best! It took just 3 days of wet sheets, and then he finally got it. It might take more time for you, but I think you'll find more success this way. Good luck!

[anomaly13]

ok i am convinced, i will go buy a few more fitted sheets and mattress pads, maybe a second waterproof pad and just go for it. thanks for the advice and i will let you know what happens in a few days, hopfully not weeks!

[anomaly13]

Update

So we have been putting ds to bed with no bottoms on and keep his potty right nex to his bed. It's been 18 nights, of those 6 he has been dry in the morning. I have put matress pad, water proof pad, fitted sheet, water proof pad, fitted sheet on his bed so I'm not washing sheets or changing sheets everyday. Some night if I get up to use the bathroom or whatever I put him on the potty and he goes, but may still wake up wet in the morning. I don't give him a water bottle in bed anymore. Is this taking really long? I don't plan on giving up but am a little worried about him being wet at night especially since it is getting colder at night here. I want to start putting him in pj pants but think I should wait till he stops wetting the bed. Anyway just thought I would let you know whats happening with our night potty experience.

[jenneology]

Some of your techniques are the same thing we've done with our 2 1/2 year old. I especially found it true that he cannot be wearing anything on his bottom half, even underwear at night or he will pee in his sleep.

Another thing we've done is wake him up right before we go to sleep at night and take him to the bathroom. He's upset to wake up but he will usually use the toilet and then go back to sleep pretty easily. Sometimes we'll do that if we wake up in the night (usually around 4 am) too. That's one strategy we took from my husband's parents which they did with my husband. I think that at some point, he'll learn to wake up more consistently and go to the toilet at nighttime.

[Aletheia]

I'd love to hear how this is going now, OP, if you want to give us an update.