when to cut out nite diapers

[debc]

i'm wondering when i should cut out night diapers. my son, who turned 3 on thursday, has been without diapers (while awake) since last july. he's gone a few naps without diapers, but i'm not sure how or where to start with night time diapering. he sleeps in bed with us. he does still wake in the morning with urine in his diaper, but we also don't put him on the toilet before we go to bed or anything like that. he goes pee right when he wakes in the morning. but, he does still pee his pants if we don't ask him if he has to pee...any advice on when or how?
thanks,
deb

[Kokopelli-mana]

You can remove the diaper completely. He may have overnight misses now and then. Just have him try to pee before bed. Sometimes he will and sometimes he won't. He will definately be able to pee on the potty in the morning. Give him time to figure out that if he goes pee right before bed he can stay dry all night. Don't let wet nights bother you. Let him succeed at his own rate. He will be so proud of himself when he does.

[pixiepunk]

i think peeing before bed is a good habit to get into, regardless. do you think he pees during the night, or is it just upon waking? i've let DS sleep w/out a diaper at night on occasion, though we don't do it every night, and if he stirs and doesn't seem like he needs to nurse, i keep a potty next to the bed and put him on it. he also sleeps on a lambskin, so if he does pee in the bed it usually doesn't soak everything. and every morning as soon as he wakes, i put him on the potty next to the bed. if i am lazy about getting up, he usually pees in the diaper. and i do find that when he's not wearing one, i'm a lot more motivated

[CalBearMama]

Since you're co-sleeping, you are in a great position to cut out the diapers immediately. I would focus on really communicating with your son about the fact that he won't be wearing a diaper, so if he needs to go potty, he will need to get out of bed and do it. Keep a potty right next to the bed to make this easy for him, and also make it part of his routine to pee in the potty right before going to sleep at night.

If you're pretty sure that he doesn't pee during the night, but only upon waking up in the morning, then you're pretty much home free. You just have to work on getting that first morning pee in the potty, rather than a diaper. Again, it's all about communication, and if he does happen to forget to get out of bed before peeing, it's something he will probably remember after that. I wouldn't get mad at such an "accident," but just calmly state that since he didn't get out of bed to go pee, all of the sheets will have to be changed, and that's a lot of work for mommy! So in the future, please remember to get out of bed to go pee.

If you think your son might be peeing at some point during the night, you will need to be a little more proactive and pay close attention to his patterns and signals. My son wakes up "to nurse" about four hours after he nurses to sleep, but he's actually waking up because he needs to pee. So I help him pee at that one time during the night (sometimes he insists on nursing first and then peeing - you may need to play with different ways of doing it), and then I know that he won't need to pee again until after he wakes up for the day. My son gets very restless in his sleep before that first wake-up, and if I notice this, I can sometimes put him on the potty while he's still asleep, and he will pee without ever waking up and without needing to nurse. But usually, I'm sleeping too deeply myself to notice the early signs that he needs to pee, so it takes having him sit up in bed or ask to nurse before I wake up.

Ideas for protecting your bed during the early diaper-free days can be found here:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=621853