Encouragement for starting to EC at night?

[JessieBird]

Hi everyone – We part time EC with great success and love it. DS is now 1 yr old and we started at around 6 months. Initially I had no intention of peeing DS at night. I sleep deeply and am slow to wake up. Even though we bedshare and DS wakes to nurse 2-3 times a night, I am too dopey to try to take him to the potty. However, for the past few weeks, he has been soaking through his diaper every single night. I think it is because he started daycare and is drinking water all day long. He is never without a sippy hanging out of his mouth, probably because of eating more solids and being more active. Friends have suggested that I restrict his water intake but that seems absolutely wrong to me. From a totally selfish point of view, I think that offering the potty at night will be much easier on me than changing diaper, pjs, sheets, etc. And if he is more comfortable then of course I want to do this for him. So for the past few nights I have put a potty beside the bed and have started offering at night when he wakes up whenever I can manage to be alert enough to get his pants down. He pees every time and is so happy! He stops fussing and relaxes right back to sleep. I’m starting to think that his night waking has more to do with needing to pee than needing to nurse so this might even help with night weaning, which I would like to do gradually in order to boost my fertility as we try for #2.

Anyway, here we are on our way to officially ECing at night. I’m really excited and would love to hear any tips or advice you have to offer. Thanks!

[JessieBird]

Update - I just got off the phone with a woman here who runs a natural baby shop with cds and EC supplies, etc. I was inquiring about the best diaper for my son at night time, one that would be easy to get on and off for pottying in the middle of the night. Anyway, she told me that I shouldn't be offering him the potty at night because it will slow down the development of his ability to hold it all night. She said that eventually he will become dry at night on his own. Her advice for in the mean time is to either find a diaper that can go all night without leaks or to use a prefold and change it often so that he is always dry. What do you think about all this? I have some books on EC but must admit that I skipped the night time parts. I guess I better go back to them before I go to far down the wrong route.

I have read here about using a prefold and a wool bed pad but I don't feel confident for that. My guy moves around a lot in bed and I'd end up with wet diaper on my pillow, I just know it.

[hrsmom]

If your son happily potties at night and contentedly goes back to sleep afterwards, then I wouldn't stop doing it! I haven't heard that it slows down their ability to learn to hold it at night. Hmmmm....!!!!! I think that happens when it happens, just like anything else. My two cents'!

For night time up when my dd was resisting the potty, I just used diapers with covers. Trust your instincts on the wet pillow! My dd currently will hold it (she's coming up on 20 months) if she's wearing something on her bottom, but if she's not, she'll scoot off her little blanket and pee directly onto the bed!

[Sheryl1678]

My philosophy is that I am not really trying to "retrain" my daughter to do anything. I am just offering her a receptacle to go in when she needs to go. She prefers it to diapers and so do I.

I had heard the same thing about holding it longer and I have no idea if its true or not but my baby is just like yours. She will potty and go back to sleep blissfully. I totally used to mistake her fussiness for needing to nurse.

She actually stays 100% dry now at night but I potty her 2 or 3 times. We have much better success at night than during the day. Go figure.

[hipumpkins]

When I had my son I had no intention of nightitme ECing b/c I wanted some sleep however he woke on his own needing to potty so I let him and he went back to sleep easier than when I was trying to ignore it (lesson learned) He was waking b/c he uncomfortable and needing to pee..initially I tried to shush him or nurse back to sleep so I wouldn't have to wake up. It just didn't work. He needed to pee.
At 4 he still wakes up once a night and uses the bathroom.

[Shannie77]

When my DD started being able to wear underwear during the day I felt like I should start ECing her at night. It did NOT work for us. 1./ I was too tired to make an effort and 2./ DD did NOT like being pottied at night.

At 19 months DD was "potty trained" 100% but still peed at night, and we also went through months were she was soaking through her diaper. Just after her second birthday she started having dry nights, and at around 28 months it had been a month since she had a nighttime accident and we haven't looked back since then. Now she will wake up at night and tell me she has to go, if she has to. This probably happens twice a week.

I remember feeling like I wasn't being a good EC parent by not ECing at night, but I think in the end it worked out for us. With my next baby I plan on offering at night if I wake up and baby is waking to nurse etc., but I don't plan on waking him/ her up to potty.

I really think you should go with your instincts. It sounds like ECing at night is working for you. And if I were you I would keep doing what you are doing, but also not worrying if you are just too tired to do it.

[JessieBird]

Thank you for all of your responses and sorry it has taken me so long to get back here. I have decided to follow my instincts and potty at night. For the last ten days, I have pottied and changed DS when he wakes to nurse at 4 am. On his own he has stopped waking at 1 am and his diaper is much drier now, no more leaks. I think that 1 am wake was to pee and not nurse. Now he is sleeping through from his dream feed at 10 pm to 4 am and his AIO diaper is so dry that, if it keeps up, I will switch to a cotton prefold or training pant. Although now that I have gotten better at doing up snaps while half asleep at 4 am, maybe I'll just stick with the AIO. I tried pottying at the 10 pm dream feed (when I go to bed) but for some reason it caused him distress so we'll leave that for a while and try again in a few weeks. For the time being, I am happy with our 4 am success and no more leaks!

Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[JMJ]

My nighttime experience is that when DD woke because she has to go, she happily goes and then usually goes back to sleep pretty quickly. When she doesn't have to go, she cries as soon as I get her diaper off. Sometimes she'll go a bit, but I think that if I had just nursed her to sleep in the first place, she would have happily held it.

I don't see how making your son be wet and uncomfortable all night is going to get him to learn how to hold it. I think it's just going to teach him to learn that being wet at night is normal. I could see him not learning to hold it if you're waking him up with an alarm clock every couple of hours to get him to go in the middle of the night and never give him the chance to go any longer. Helping him go when he's already awake and obviously happy to go is a totally different deal.