The nighttime routine

[eggsandpancakes]

Okay, so the issue is not that he is still wetting the bed. I'm totally okay with that. The prolem is that I cannot get the darn thing on his bottom without a fight. our bedtime routine is supper at 5, bath at 5.30, some chill time and visit with the uncle and maybe a little bit of tv until 7, them a cup of choclate milk, a story, (glowstick & pullup), snuggles, and goodnight. Lately it's been taking anywhere from 30 mintes to over an hour to get his pull up on.

It doesn't seem to matter if I do it after the bath or after the story. I've offered 2 different brands of diapers and pull ups as an option. We have a sticker chart for awsesome bedtimes, and he doesn't seem to make the connection between being rewarded for his behavior and his behavior. In his head they are two seperate events, if that makes any sense. (I do suspect there might be special needs going on, and will crosspost this).

He insists he doesn't need it on, that he doesn't wet the bed, that the dog peed in it and that's why it is wet in the mornings. He screams that he hates me, that he doesn't need anybody, that he is going to run away. If I fold his arms in and just hold him he bites, or SCREAMS that I'm breaking his bones. He'll bounce on the bed, or crawl underneath it. If i let him go to bed without it and wake him up every two hours and put him on the potty he won't ever go in the potty, but invariably ends up peeing in his bed.

We've always had to take things slow and give him time to get used to ideas, but this is something I don't know how to deal with.

[RiverTam]

I'd put a plastic sheet on the bed and skip the pull-up. Can he strip his own bed and put it in the laundry?  I'd have him do that and let it go.

Some fights are just not worth having. 

Alternatively, I'd try him on plastic pants over underwear, like my mom used for training pants in the 70's.

[LynnS6]

How old is he and what's his diagnosis? I think that will make a lot of difference in terms of what might or might not work. He's clearly not making the connection between the diaper/pull up and the rewards, so those are out. If he's at a younger stage of development, what about an immediate bribe right after putting them on? 4 m&ms after you get the pull-up on might be a real motivator.

What would happen if you put the pull-up on right after the bath? That's when my kids get their pjs on, and since he wouldn't be so tired, it might not be as much of a struggle. They also sell some brands of night-time underwear that are cloth and wouldn't stand out as being a pull-up. (Drymids is one, I think. It's been awhile since I searched for these.)

Could he be reacting to something in the chocolate milk? Some kids react badly to chocolate in the evening, and some kids don't do well with dairy. There is a link between dairy and bedwetting.

A last ditch idea: How deeply does he sleep? Could you just put something on  him after he's asleep?

[eggsandpancakes]

He'll be 4 in the middle of february. We've tried doing the pull-up/diaper when he first gets out of the bath and it doesn't seem to make a difference. He's got sensory issues, which is why I've tried as many different brands of diaper and pullup I can get my hands on, thinking that it might be a feel thing. He can't wear any undies ever, because it breaks him out in a bleeding ras after two days. I've tried all sorts of those, too, and finally gave up. He can go commando. He was totally, completely out of diapers until major emotional upheaval, so I'm thinking the bed wetting isn't realted to a physical cause like diary intolerance, but I will try watered down juice for a few weeks and see if it helps.

[Emmeline II]

My ds (now 7.5) used to be in complete denial that he wet the bed (sometimes he still is) -- he insisted that he was just sweating. I told him that sweating a lot in bed made him and the bedding smelly so if his underwear was damp in the morning he needed to rinse off in the shower and tell me so I could wash his sheets for him. He was fine with wearing pull-ups at night and did so up until Kindergarten so this wasn't an issue until then.

Even when he'd start to have a nighttime dry streak, a significant event, like starting/ending school or a school vacation would result in nightly wetting for at least a week (now the duration is shorter).

Maybe your ds could manage cloth at night if he is commando during the day--with a little corn starch sprinkled on to help prevent skin irritation (I applied corn starch with a peri-bottle when 5yo dd stopped wiping for a week and got "diaper rash."

Gerber cloth training pants only go up to 35lbs, but I found another brand that goes up to 49lbs.

http://www.pottytrainingconcepts.com/Potty-Training-Pant-B.html

Carters -- up to 38lbs w/inner plastic liner

http://www.amazon.com/Carters-Boys-Training-Pants-Dinos/dp/B004MMFWDW/ref=pd_sim_ba_6

Though I would still use a plastic sheet, you could also use this to make clean up easier.

One Step Ahead Mattress Protector

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=6773&cmSource=CrossSell&relatedProductId=536599

[beachcomber]

My DD is 6 and still wears a pull up at night.We use the special night time ones. She just can't tell when she has to go and has a hard enough time realizing it when she's awake. I think that developmentally she's just not there yet. If your little one can't deal with the feeling of something on him, I'd suggest you go with a padded plastic sheet and put that right next to him so that the bed can be easily stripped.