Night time potty training.

Forums: Parenting, Questions, Potty Training, Bean, 4 Year Old
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Im pretty sure I know what to do at this point and frankly , until her bladder is big enough to hold pee for 12 hours, she will need a pull up.

No problemo.. ! really.

But Im on the fence about DOING things to help prevent her peeing at night and ... back to the bladder size..... Im not sure it is worth it. Not that I dont think she can handle actions.. I just know that physically she is incapable of not going to the bathroom for so long.

Im wondering if it is worth my sanity, and possibly disturbing her sleep , to wake her up in the middle of the night and remind her to pee?

My idea on this is that she will get used to not feeling wet at night and wake to pee....
Or that she will just get into the habit of feeling like she needs to pee at night and instead of ignoring it, get up and go to the bathroom.

There are a few downsides to this...mostly on a sanity level.. nothing catastrophic..

She is very secure in her rhythm.. her schedule.. and not being bothered at night. Changing that, going into her room, could cause an upset that will take work to correct. Again..nothing major.. but it may be a hit to my hard earned night time sanity.

She goes to bed.......7:30 .... period.
She gets her clothes off, puts them into the dirty basket, gets her nightgown on, pull up on, gives hugs/kisses, and we take turns reading her 2 books at night.
We leave. Shut the door. End of story. She can play in her room if she likes, light on or off.. doesnt matter.. but she does not come out again until she is awake in the morning. Very no fuss.. no muss kinda gal.
When her routine gets disrupted, as with all children, she gets uncomfortable and I dont know that I want to subject her or myself to that.. Or do i?

As Noddy told me during potty training.. " There are no teenagers in diapers because their parents failed to train them"

I know she wont need pull ups forever. Im just wondering if action will simply help her recognize the need to pee ....or if Im just over-thinking like usual..

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@shewolfnm,

Some of us are just sound sleepers. Turns out to be a blessing later in life...after the bladder gets big enough to accomodate all the liquid that can build up at night.

Noddy's point is well taken.

Unless the child is paying a price (that does happen)...might wanna just sit back for a while more.

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@Frank Apisa,

Jillian has always been an extremely sound sleeper.
I count my self very lucky there and remind myself of that often.
We have never had night time issues. Melt downs? yes. But never has it ever been an issue to go to bed, stay in bed , or go to sleep.
I didnt 'hover' parent when it came to sleeping..we all wake up at some point at night.. I did not get her used to having me around when she woke up by running to her side.. I didnt interrupt her at night at all.... I just let her put herself to sleep and that has paid off tremendously.

Im feeling like waking her in the night to pee may be a step to the hovering I dont want to do..
but she is really big on the 'Im going to be a big kid soon' and this is something she asks about and thinks of.

At 5, we are having a milestone type of birthday. She will be an official big kid...ceremony and all. With that will come a few new responsibilities..
She is looking forward to it and asks me if big kids need diapers at night.
Thats where this thinking of mine is coming from.

There are no downsides, no bad issues, nothing at all wrong with her using pull ups. So.. im riding that fence.. but thinking I may just leave it alone..
Dunno.

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@shewolfnm,

I forget how old she is now...?

I remember that the problem with pull-ups is that they're comfortable. The technology is so good now that the kid still feels warm/ dry even after they pee in 'em. This reduces motivation to pee in the potty.

We used -- gack what was it -- either cloth diapers or just cheap, uncomfortable diapers at this stage of potty training, and she got the message pretty quick. It was way more comfortable to just get up and pee if she had to than to wake up in that stuff.

This was when she was maybe three? Two? I don't remember. The adjustment period was pretty short. The main thing was to make sure she peed (in the potty) last thing before bed.

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@sozobe,

I do take her to the potty before bed. She cant lay down with out doing that.

And I remember you saying that about diapers before and I made that switch to super cheap-o diapers.. She hated it! It was wonderful. HA

She went naked to avoid those things and in being naked had to go to the bathroom because there was nothing to pee in.

We already use super cheap-o diapers for night time anyway. She generally only pees once and sometimes it still feels warm when she gets up.. like she is actually making it trough most of the night with out going..

hmmmm

I wonder about removing the diapers all together.

Her bedroom is right next to the bathroom. She could make it in a toddler 'emergency' ...

Hmmm!

She will be five in a few weeks Smile

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@shewolfnm,

Five already! Time so flies.

Yeah, sounds like you might be ready for the next step then. That'd be just cotton undies and a good plastic (waterproof!) cover for the bed!

I'm trying to remember the main reasons why we wanted to get her out of pull-ups. It's not necessarily URGENT, you're right. But a) I wanted to just not have to deal with diapers anymore (disposal, etc.), b) they're not good environmentally-speaking, c) I seem to remember that it's just not the healthier option -- cotton is better in terms of "breathing" and health, and there are chemicals in any kind of disposable diaper. Cloth diapers are environmentally and chemically better but just a hassle to deal with.

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@sozobe,

Oh and expense! Diapers add up, even cheap ones.

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@sozobe,

Yup, yup, and yup.

And.. .. the major thing for me..... -she- is asking about it.
Most of the major decisions lately , waiting for HER to bring it up, has proven to be the best way to approach things.

Shes talking Smile

Time to listen...

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@sozobe,

oh yeah.

we get cheap-o 7.99 for 14 diapers.
Thats , with tax, about 20 a month. 20 a month for something that really isnt mandatory and gives nothing to show.

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@shewolfnm,

Fer sure!

Maybe actually start out with some sort of award system for dry diapers in the morning. Ya know, make a big production of it -- is the diaper dry? Hooray! Great job! Such a big girl! Etc.

Then once they've been dry for a while, go ahead to the undies/ waterproof cover on bed stage.

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@shewolfnm,

I finished my nighttime potty training at age four, when my mother left it to my father to prepare me for bed, and he got fed up diapering me. After one very uncomfortable night of sleeping in my own pee, I learned to wake up and use the bathroom exclusively.

No idea if this would work for The Bean.

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It's possible that she's staying dry through the night and then filling the pull up when she wakes in the morning. It's also possible that she's not holding her pee at all and is wetting throughout the night. You don't know and there's only one way to find out. Let her go without the pull up (YES to the plastic liner under the sheet) and see what time she calls you in because she's a mess.

No, I wouldn't suggest waking her up in the middle of the night. The only change to her schedule I might suggest is to minimize (not eliminate) the amount of liquid she drinks before bedtime.

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@shewolfnm,

My twins are tiny - the smaller of the two of them has a tiny bladder. He still has problems. It is not that he is lazy, or doesn't think about going to the bathroom...it is obvious that he sleeps hard - they play hard and they sleep hard. He does not even wake up when we take him to the bathroom. We do it - but it is because he is getting older and we don't want the stigma of "diaper" which is what he thinks of Pull Ups as, attached. We have a sheet that you use for incontinent adults that we put under him and take him every night around midnight. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.

He is older though. I think Bean is young enough that it still doesn't matter. We didn't start worrying about what he drank how late until he started fretting over the Pull Up. Now we do whatever we can to help him.

I think you are right shewolf - but I would just follow Beans comfort level with it. If she is uncomfortable do what you can to get her out of them. Otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it. It is training yourself ultimately. Because quite honestly - waking them up to take them to the bathroom when they really aren't awake - is not that helpful to them. It keeps you from having to wash sheets again.

But every child is different. My third child was a single birth and he quit using Pull Ups at 20 months. He was sleeping through the night without an accident. The other twin is fine now...but we were taking him to the bathroom at midnight every night up until just a few months ago.

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@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

At 5, we are having a milestone type of birthday. She will be an official big kid...ceremony and all. With that will come a few new responsibilities..
She is looking forward to it and asks me if big kids need diapers at night.

If she's talking to you about it, it's time for you to step up to helping her with this.

1 Reply

@JPB,

JPB wrote:

No, I wouldn't suggest waking her up in the middle of the night. The only change to her schedule I might suggest is to minimize (not eliminate) the amount of liquid she drinks before bedtime.

Wow.
You gave me a 'duh' moment there. Talk about one big answer with out having to wake her..

Sheesh.. I lost an IQ point somewhere.. Laughing

why didnt I think of that! haha See.. this is why I post here. Smile

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@mismi,

mismi wrote:

- is not that helpful to them. It keeps you from having to wash sheets again.

thats one thing i worry about. I dont want to do something for her but have it really be all about me.

She wont be a CEO of some major company secretly still wearing diapers because mommy failed at something ...

1 Reply

for what it's worth....I predict that shortly after she turns 5 you won't be having this problem.

5 is a big girl, she's already talking about it.

she knows big girls don't wear pull ups, and in those few weeks her bladder will be that much stronger.

as an aside, and half joking, what's wrong with pullups for all of us? I aways wake up at night to pee, but sometimes I'm in such a comfortable position I don't want to.

Pull ups to the rescue.

2 Replies

@shewolfnm,

shewolfnm wrote:

She wont be a CEO of some major company secretly still wearing diapers because mommy failed at something ...

Are you sure?

Have you ever checked out under a CEO's pants or skirt?

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@chai2,

Depends to the rescue!

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

If she's talking to you about it, it's time for you to step up to helping her with this.

Yeah.
this is the driving force behind my decision.

I think.. what I am going to do is keep talking to her about it and maybe working on something that Soz suggested..

Try to talk her into attempting to pee by herself at night if she needs to and maybe say things like " Lets see how close you are to being a big kid. Wanna try peeing at night in the potty ?"
then setting up something for her to help her at night.. For example following that above statement with " if you want to try I will leave the night light on in the bathroom and your door propped open so you can get there quickly"
give her something concrete like that to look forward to, and if she wakes in the night.. SEEING it , might help remind her of what we talked about.

If she can pull that off then I can do the " the store does not have any more pull ups" trick and stop buying them. Though... Laughing

that may not work

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Night time potty training.

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