Staying dry at night

[MoonStarFalling]

For those who don't offer the potty at night, do you find that your EC'd baby stays dry at a young age? This is my third EC'd child and I've never been into pottying at night. DS is 11 weeks and seems to sleep pretty deeply all night (about 10 hours). He's also starting to stay dry at night. I found this interesting because my DD also started staying dry about this age. Is that common among EC'd babies?

[PatioGardener]

I wish! My little guy needs to pee 3-4 times a night. Yawn. Anyone got good night time ECing tips?

[ocelotmom]

DS (EC'd) stayed dry through the night on a regular basis by 4 months. Possibly earlier - 4mo is when I tried cloth diapers at night and discovered he was usually peeing first thing in the morning, not during the night.

DD1 (not EC'd) didn't stay dry through the night on a regular basis until at least 3 years.

DD2 (EC'd) sometimes stays dry through the night now. We don't focus on nighttime EC at all, and I still have her in sposies for nighttime.

I can't say whether it's EC that is helping them stay dry at night, or if something related to staying dry at night made the two EC'd ones more receptive to EC than the middle kid (I tried with her, but never managed to make a catch).

Staying dry at night is largely physiological - older kids and adults have less need to pee at night because of Anti-Diuretic Hormone is secreted, which causes the kidneys to retain more water. But this system matures at different ages with different kids, and kids for whom it develops earlier have an easier time staying dry at night since their bladder doesn't get as full, while kids who develop it later have to learn to either hold it while asleep or wake up and potty.

[midnightwriter]

I didn't EC the first two, and partially ec-d the third one--they all were dry through the night from very early on. I don't think it is EC related in any way. Most babies do not pee when they sleep, at least this is what I read.

[MoonStarFalling]

It's true they don't pee while in a deep sleep but I'm doubtful babies sleep deeply for the whole 10-13 hours. Most people stir pretty often. Before my DD I had never heard of a two month old not peeing for that long. I'm glad to hear it does happen to other babies. Thanks for chiming in.

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

DD was not ECd and was dry almost every night from about 10 months onwards (and she's still a camel at 5 years). Even when she was night-nursing.

DS is partially ECd and is sopping every morning. As much as I see the value in EC and agree that it makes sense to do it at night, I am not at this point - once I'm horizontal that's it for the night!

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by MoonStarFalling 

It's true they don't pee while in a deep sleep but I'm doubtful babies sleep deeply for the whole 10-13 hours. Most people stir pretty often. Before my DD I had never heard of a two month old not peeing for that long. I'm glad to hear it does happen to other babies. Thanks for chiming in.

Yes, my two dry ones were definitely not sleeping the whole time they stayed dry :) Generally no big midnight wakey-playtime, but they were certainly waking to nurse during that time.
 

[MoonStarFalling]

Originally Posted by Perdita_in_Ontario 

DD was not ECd and was dry almost every night from about 10 months onwards (and she's still a camel at 5 years). Even when she was night-nursing.

DS is partially ECd and is sopping every morning. As much as I see the value in EC and agree that it makes sense to do it at night, I am not at this point - once I'm horizontal that's it for the night!

I too have a really hard time functioning at all at night. Years of cosleeping/nursing have made me pretty spoiled. I've gone back and forth on trying to potty my kids at night. They sleep so deeply I hate to wake them up at all. I'm going to make a new swaddle blanket for DS so just his arms are wrapped and maybe I can do a quick potty about 6 am when DH wakes up. My first wet the bed for 7 years and I'd really not like to repeat that so perhaps I should teach him to wake up a bit and potty.