[Mary-Beth]

My 3.5+ yo has been completely potty trained for a long, long time--when she's awake. She has continues to pee overnight. I know she's still young. She's able to go long stretches by day without peeing if she wants to and never has accidents. I'm wondering if others have any gentle suggestions to help encourage her to stay dry.

I just put her to bed with her regular undies under her diaper so she feels wet when she goes...and she got up 10 minutes later wet. I didn't realize she was going before she even fell asleep. I always assumed she was just wetting while asleep. Seems like she thinks if she's wearing a diaper no need to use the toilet!
She went potty just before bed...

: She knows she'd never be in trouble for getting out of bed so that's not an issue either.

I don't want to limit her fluid intake because I want her hydrating herself properly. So I'm not sure what I can do.
It may be that just putting her to bed without a diaper on and dealing with a few nights of changing sheets in the night is what it's going to take.

Anyone have ideas on this???

 

[Neth Naneth]

I would let her know that if she needs to pee that she can get out of bed (I am sure she knows it, you'll be reminding her and putting the idea into her head). I think you are right in doing the whole, no diaper change sheets. She won't want to be wet as much as you don't to change the sheets. Good luck.

 

[urmysunshyn]

i gave my dd the choice of pullup or undies. she chose undies and i reminded her to get out of bed when she has to go.

does she need help with the light or going?

 

[wfuteach]

We have had this problem with my DD...if she is in a pull up or a diaper, she uses it. My husband always wanted to use a pull up (which we had around for nighttime/naptime) when we ran errands or would be running around because he worried...but we had to stop this because it was just confusing her. If she was in it, she used it. And then she regressed when she WAS in underpants, you know?

Anyway, as for nighttime, this has just started to come together for us. DD is only 32 months, but it is something that she has just started doing on her own. My neighbor says her son was still in a pull up at night until he started Reception (Kindergarten, but at 4). He just grew out of it on his own.

I wish I had some advice, but I just wanted to say that I think this is normal and that your DD will figure out nighttime dryness when she is developmentally ready.

Good luck!

 

[ewe+lamb]

We had this problem with dd, we've been dry for quite a while now! Anyway we put a flashlight under her pillow so that she could see where to turn the light on - she was scared of the dark but can't sleep with a light on!!! Oh the joys, anyway, she puts on the flashlight so that she can put on the light and then gets up and goes by herself - we have a childs toilet seat with steps up which we left on the toilet overnight so that she didn't have the problem of falling down the toilet if she was still a little sleepy

We did have a few nights of changing the sheets and I actually got a really good matress protector for her bed, if the matress gets wet with pee for a while it's not great for the matress, some folk don't worry but I thought it better to have the protector, I also found that the visual thing of drying the matress out and washing the sheets etc was a lot for dd to take in and she got upset - so the matress protector took away all that stress - washing the sheets is an every day occurance drying the matress - not so much! Anyway good luck it all works out in the end!

 

[ewe+lamb]

double post - sorry!!

 

[RomanGoddess]

Children who are very deep sleepers often are not dry at night until 6 years of age or later and there is not much you can do about it. It is genetic. I think that putting underwear on under her diaper is a good idea. This worked well for us. I wouldn't do anything else.

 

[Mary-Beth]

This morning she took off her wet undies and diaper on her own before waking me up which is progress because usually she plays leaves it on until I take it off for her. I think this is a good sign anyway.

I feel like she can do this...She's mastered being dry by day and using the potty since 1.5yo. She's been getting on, going, wiping, and washing her hands independently for a while now. She can reach the light and turn it on and does that no problem. With my dd1, about 3 mos. after being dry by day she started keeping her diaper dry overnight. She mastered day time potty stuff at 1.5 as well. So with dd1 I just stopped using diapers when she woke dry- no problem. I kept thinking that dd2 would do the same...stay dry like that. I know every child is different so I've not really done anything to encourage her to stay dry...but I think I'm realizing that she is just going to use the diaper if it's there.

I think first we'll do the undies under the diaper and see how this develops...then my next step may be to just stop using diapers and just deal with washing sheets. We have a nice mattress protector.

Thanks for the ideas.
If anyone has any more ideas keep them coming!