Occassional night wetting: Pullup or waking?

[cheeselady]

My 3+ has been potty trained for over six months, but suddenly has been wetting the bed at night every 7-9 days. The rest of the nights he's fine. I think he's beginning to sleep deeper and so he's not waking when he needs to.

The question is whether or not to use a Pullup all the nights. He said no when I mentioned it and was really upset about it. But when I wake him (we still co-sleep), both of us are up for a while before we fall back to sleep. What would you do??

[mommajb]

it depends. My 4.5 yo wets about as frequently as you describe and she is in pullups.
My reasons:
We have other bed wetters so more than enough laundry.
She is willing to wear them.
She is also extremely upset when she does wet the bed waking her brother and sister that she shares a room with (and me and dh).
So not worth it right now.

If she would change her clothes, grab the spare blanket and sleep on the floor leaving the mess to be dealt with at some reasonable hour like 5AM then panties would be fine. She tends to be dry for a week or more, then wet for three nights and then go back to dry. The laundry build up of more than 1 bed wetter, cloth diapers, 4 adult size people and 3 little people, several sports that generate laundry, well, pullups work for her and me.

[mumkimum]

Well, our situation here is semi-reversed (as in since sleeping-deeper changes we go 7-9 days with wetting and then 1 or 2 dry nights) so we do use nighttime undies, and being pregnant I haven't been down with changing sheets and bedding every morning to do something differently.

That said, you could probably use a fleece or wool blanket underneath, or a fleece 'sleeping bag' for more occasional wetting like you're having that would provide at least a little more comfort. I'm not sure I'd push a pull up or something else unless you couldn't handle the inconvenience or your ds was really bothered by it. You could also consider wool undies for nighttime, which might be less of a dramatic change than what you're doing now if you feel like this might be lasting awhile?

[cheeselady]

I have no idea how long this will last, since it's new to us. Ds#2 just started this since he started preschool. I think it's more associated with being incredibly tired from the day's events, rather than stress, since he seems to love school (ds#1 is in kindergarten in the next room). But, who knows?

I did pull out some thicker, early potty learner underwear for nights. They do absorb more, but he still left the bed and his pants pretty wet the other night. I think I will try the wool unnies, are they more absorbant?

Caroline
mom to August (12/14/03) and Ronan (9/13/06)