Critique my nighttime potty learning plan? UPDATE!

[ledzepplon]

*Update in post #8!*

I have a 5.5 year old who has NEVER been dry at night. Not once. We use Goodnites, but I think at this point she's just in the habit of using them and her mind/body don't try to wake up to go to the bathroom/hold it till morning because she's been "trained" to just use the Goodnites. She says she wants to stop using the Goodnites, so I think she's self-motivated to try being dry at night.

I thought we might try going cold turkey this last week of winter vacation. I'm planning on this layering strategy for the bed: waterproof mattress cover, sheet, waterproof pad, then another sheet. That way when she has an accident, we can just strip off a layer instead of remaking the bed in the middle of the night.

Should I also wake her before I go to bed to use the bathroom? Anyone BTDT and have any good tips? I still have little boys waking me up at night, so I'm honestly kind of dreading having to get up another time or two at night, but I'm not sure how else to break the cycle.

[AugustineM]

It probably isn't really that she's used to peeing in the diapers at night... you probably have a very heavy sleeper on your hands. The reason I say that is that both of my kids eventually stopped peeing in the diaper at night on their own. They just kept being dry -- and I think that's how it happens. They just gradually get better bladder control at night, or they recognize the sensation and get up to pee. Or, unless, does she tell you that she does wake up at night and know she has to pee and pees in the diaper? You could ask her about it in very detailed terms, and then tell her that instead of peeing in the diaper she needs to go to the potty. Because I guess that's possible.

So here's a few suggestions I thought of. My DD is 3.5 and we are just now going diaper free at night. But she HAS to go pee in the middle of the night or else she pees the bed. The good thing is that she wakes up at night and comes into our room around 1am. So I tell her every time to go pee in the potty. And she does. And then comes and lays with me and goes back to sleep, and is dry in the morning. If she doesn't go pee at that time she almost always wets the bed. So, you may need to get your DD up to go pee, or else take her right before you go to sleep and see if that helps. My friend with a 4 year old takes her DD to the bathroom at about midnight when she goes to sleep. She says it works like a charm.

Also, I don't know if your DD drinks water or milk before bed, but I cut that out of my DSs nighttime routine when he started going diaper free at night. He was having a cup of milk before bed every night, but I realized that he peed on those nights. So once we quit that it was better.

Good luck!

[ledzepplon]

Hmm, I do think she's a deep sleeper, and I am as well. So I know there may be more of a challenge for her than for some kids. But I suspect that part of this for her is conditioning, since she knows she's wearing a diaper and therefore "plans" to use this instead of the bathroom. I suppose we'll see how hard it is to rouse her tonight to use the potty!

We don't do many fluids before bed, but we eat at about 5:30 and go to bed around 8, so there's not a lot of time between.

I guess we will give it a go this week and see how it goes!

[ProtoLawyer]

Going "cold turkey" with the Pull-Ups actually helped a lot, too. A few weeks of accidents (she's not with us full-time, so it was more like maybe 8 nights) and that was it. You will find out quickly if you have a deep sleeper (who may just not be ready to be dry at night) or someone who has formed a habit.

We never woke my stepdaughter up, but we did absolutely insist she use the bathroom if she was going to come into our room/bed at any time. Otherwise, she'd end up wetting our bed.

We also didn't restrict liquids--we discovered it didn't work, and she spent disproportionate time at night searching for liquids. (I mean, she'd try to suck water out of her washcloth.) If we didn't restrict liquids, she still didn't drink too much before bed, but she also didn't feel like she had to scramble.

[travlr]

I have a 5.5YO DD and we switched over to no pull ups soon after she started Kindergarten in the Fall, so for about 3 months now. I had similar feelings to the OP that my DD was aware of the pull up and just wouldn't get up to go use the toilet. I can see how my DD would make that decision: warm bed, tired, not willing to make the effort to go down the hall to the bathroom. She never really minded wet pull ups.

I take my DD to the bathroom when I go to bed around 11pm. She doesn't even fully wake up. She's now dry about 1/2 the time in the morning. My DH and I stay positive with DD about the laundry and the added morning showers. At first I made her a rewards chart- 10 dry nights for a milkshake and 20 for a trip to go bowling, etc. We do a ton of laundry but we went from daily wet to 1/2 time wet and my DD is feeling proud of staying dry. It feels like progress.

[lnitti]

my dd will be 6 in March.

We still use pull-ups for her (although her 2 year old sister is diaper free at night, which causes some contention with the 2 year old wanting bigger sister's pull ups!). Her pull up is soaked every night. She is also a deep sleeper, and would sleep through peeing. However, she is ALSO willing to pee in the pull up just because she has one on and doesn't want to get out of bed. She even does this while wide awake when she is in bed before she falls asleep, so I know it is sometimes a conscious decision.

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE for her to night time train. Those pull ups are so nasty in the morning, and it is EVERY morning.

[LynnS6]

If she's really just using the pull-ups for convenience, she'll be peeing in them before she goes to sleep and right when she wakes up. That's what ds was doing. Going cold turkey worked for him, but only after he began spontaneously waking in the middle of the night. When he was still sleeping heavily all night, he needed the Goodnights.

I would give it a week, if she's still wetting, try again in 6 months. Bedwetting is mostly biologically driven, and if her body is not ready, it's not ready. Dd was 2 1/2 when she was dry at night, ds was 8. My niece was 13.

[ledzepplon]

Success!

We did the cold turkey thing, and have been waking her up once at night before we go to bed. She's only had two nights where she wet the bed, and the rest of the time she's been dry!

I'm really thrilled for her because she's very proud of herself for staying dry at night. I don't think she knew she could do it.

I think the biggest factor is her heavy sleeping. She is VERY difficult to rouse when we take her to the bathroom at night, and she is barely conscious enough to use the potty. Hopefully after she gets used to "holding" it for a while we can skip waking her altogether.

Probably the best thing we did was to have the bed "ready"--with double fitted sheets and waterproof pad in between. It made it so easy and quick to handle a soiled bed in the middle of the night.

[Autumn Breeze]

awesome! Congrats!! My 4 yr old is still in pull ups at night, where my son was night learned FIRST. So it's very backward to me. For my dd though it's related to drinking at night.

[lnitti]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

If she's really just using the pull-ups for convenience, she'll be peeing in them before she goes to sleep

umm, my dd does this sometimes!