Night time potty training.

I would be first in line for pull ups for adults.
I hate cold floors
I hate cold toilets
I hate being bothered.

My butt will stay war, I can sleep all night long..



sheesh

Definitely cut back on the afternoon/evening liquids. You don't want her to dehydrate, but you want her to experience success with getting through the night dry.

It's also better for her teeth if there are no liquids/anything after her last toothbrushing of the day.

I dont have to worry about that.
She only drinks water. Maybe rice milk at breakfast..

If she does have 'juice' it is less then one dinner table spoon of frozen concentrate to a large glass of water. Essentially just flavored water. But that does not happen often.

Im thinking.. no fluids for 3 hours before bed.. then wake up and have something to drink pretty quickly..

I think some kids are just biologically ready to be dry earlier. Some kids are sleeping dry through the night by 1 or 2 years old. My in-laws family - five kids - said all five were bed wetters until puberty. It was accepted as a genetic thing rather than any discipline problem because what kid WANTS to wet the bed especially when you get old enough for sleep overs and to have overnight company, etc.?

So pull ups for comfort? Or go without to see what happens? Either way is okay and nature will generally run its course. Happiness once the dry nights begin to happen for all parties concerned is appropriate. Noddy is right. Unless there is something medically wrong, he or she will manage the issue in time.

I think I was eight before I stopped wetting the bed. It was the torture of my life...and I probably still have scars from it. My brother use to torture me with threats of telling my friends.

My parents were not the most intelligent people ever to walk the earth; their way of dealing with it was to take the strap to me often. To their minds, it was something bad I was doing...something willful. The thought that I had no control over it and would have sold my soul for that control...never even occurred to them.

I cannot tell you how difficult it is for me to hear this being discussed…or the incredible amount of empathy I am feeling for a little girl I don’t even know.

I can't remember when I stopped wetting the bed. But what I do remember was dreaming that I had to go and having vivid dreams that I was sitting on the toilet.
My Mom went with the strong disapproval method. And the putting away of the special quilt.
Course I also fell out of bed and slept walked.

But I think limiting the fluid intake, and no diaper comfort, will move her along.

that's awful frank.

they were not just punishing you for wetting the bed, but calling you a liar.

going off the subject a bit, but did you ever talk to them about that once you were an adult? Like "you thought I was doing it on purpose, but I wasn't. Why didn't you believe me?"

Not that you'd get a good answer, but for me it would be cathartic.

Nope, never discussed it.

We are most impressionable when we are kids. This was a defining kind of thing in my life...something that was pure torture for my formative years.

I am 72 right now...and I can remember the horror of it like it happened yesterday. (No, I did not pee the bed yesterday!)

They are both gone...and no conversation will ever take place...not that either of them would have understood what I was trying to communicate. Mom quit school after third grade...and Pop after 5th. Just the way things were in those days among recent, poor immigrants.

I think it was that generation Chai. My Mom said her dad used to rub their nose in their pee when they wet the bed. I cannot even imagine. Papaw was so sweet, but apparently felt that peeing in the bed was a willful act. So strange they couldn't see what I see.

I know my child does not want to wet the bed. I can see how unhappy he is when it happens - we aren't going to make it any worse for him. We try to help him make good choices - remind him that drinking too much too late will result in a wet bed...he does pretty well I think. It is just wet sheets...and we can wash them. The doc says his bladder will get bigger by the time he is 10 probably and he will start doing better.

Fortunately Frank his brothers are very sensitive to his discomfort. They are pretty sweet about keeping his secret. I can't imagine if he felt like he was going to get ratted out every day. That is quite a burden to carry.

Well, if it means anything to you, I know exactly what you mean (not about the bed wetting, but whatever).

but, that a subject for another thread.


sorry for the derailing everyone.

I don't think it is derailing because it is important to know that traumatizing a kid or making him/her feel ashamed or inadequate or unloved because of something over which s/he has no control can scar somebody for life. There are far better ways to deal with it. It is my impression that Shewolf is looking for that better way here.

Kids are like camels. As long as she doesn't have a big drink right at bedtime, she can make it until morning.

I'm with Soz. Cotton panties and a plastic sheet. She'll get wet for a little bit, and you'll change sheets at night for a little bit, and then it will all settle down.

Alternately, you can put some cloth inside the pullups.

I had a bed-wetting problem well into my elementary school years too. I remember an electrical device my parents bought that sat by my bed with sensors under me. It was supposed to set off an alarm as soon as the sensors detected wetness. The idea was that it would wake me up in time to run to the bathroom before it became a flood. It never worked. Either I slept right through it or I didn't have the muscle control to stop long enough to run to the bathroom.

Controlling the amount of and timing of liquids before bedtime helped. That includes bowls of cereal and milk and soups, as well as beverages. For most of my life I've rarely been able to sleep through the night without having to get up to pee. I can control the number of times I have to do so by the timing and amount of fluid intake, but still have to do so at least once.

I get up at least once or twice during the night, always have.

I thought everyone did.

I can count on one hand the number of times I never woke up. When I did, I thought it was really odd.

Wow

I hope , hope , hope.. no one here is reading into this that I am pressuring her in anyway.

I absolutely know that this is not a willfull thing.. just a product of a little bladder and I know that this could go on for years and I am ok with that.

When I say I am ok with that, I dont mean it selfishly...because this is not about ME .... I mean it as in.. It is no big deal. It never will be.
Tiny bodies are incapable of adult tasks. An adult body can hold urine for hours because the bladder is bigger. Tiny bodies can not.

I put no pressure on her. She said something to me that made me think, that is why I started this thread. i will never belittle her, never judge her and never punish her for something her body can not do.

I wanted to see if maybe doing something different would give her a feeling of independence and give her another hurdle to look forward to and conquer.. not control.. not insult.. and never hurt.

Franks parents make me embarassed to be a mother.
There are parents out there all over the place and they are destroying these wonderful little people with behaviors just like that.
It isnt fair, it isnt right and it isnt called for. As a mother I can not fathom spanking Jillian for something like this.
Never........ever........ever. The idea that it is willfull is just beyond me.

Willful pissing is her standing in a corner, pants around her ankles pissing in my plants... THATS willful... and a totally different ballpark.

A childs bladder is a little less then 1/2 the size of their fist. They can drink 4 times that in one glass.. How could a parent come to a different conclusion? I dont get it. And I dont want to get it.
That kind of parenting is just... horrid.

Im sorry you had to , and STILL have to deal with that Frank. No one, at any age deserves to be punished for something they can not physically do.

And for the record, I get up to pee once every night like clock work between 1:30 and 2:00am.

The odd thing is I used to be able to go a whole day after leaving home for work and not ever needing to go to the bathroom again until I arrived back home 9 or 10 hours later (I worked with a bunch of slobs and the company bathrooms were nasty); and then you best not be in the path between me and the bathroom!

Yet I cannot go for more than 3 to 4 hours while sleeping without the need to get up and pee.

For me it was the opposite - never woke having to pee in the night. Now that I'm older, however, it's a different story. Once a night, regular as clockwork.

Frank, that's such a sad thing to read. I got similar treatment but about something else.

Shewolfnm, early in my kids' lives I decided to not give them drinks after dinner, or earlier, depending on when dinner was. 2 - 3 hours before bed was the cutoff time. But my kids never wet the bed once, so I don't know if that would have worked if they had. I think the advice you got was good, if a bit conflicting - panties and wet sheet, leave her alone to get through it, cloth diapers, cloth in the pull-ups - they all sound like feasible ideas. Like Chai, I think the 5th birthday may see some new behaviours.

One thing I did think is maybe putting a portable potty in her bedroom - then she wouldn't have to go all the way to the bathroom. What do you think?

That IS odd, BFN

I dont really want to do anything TOO drastic for her at this point. And I think if I put a potty into her room that would make her feel as though I expect her to stop this and I dont.

We tried last night after asking her what she thought.

I asked her yesterday if she remembered asking me about diapers and if big kids wear them. She said yes and I said ' do you want to try no diaper tonight?' I explained to her what her bladder is, and I told her next time that she really had to pee that she should take a minute and jump up and down. That would let her feel where her bladder is and know her body. She laughed and said that would make her pee really fast. HA
But I explained , as easily as I could, why 'big kids' dont need diapers. And it is because big kids have bigger bodies with bigger bladders.

She wanted to try no diaper, I propped her door, left on a hall light and about an hour after she went to her room ( Not yet asleep) she came out, went potty, and went back to her room.

She woke up a few minutes ago..
I walked into her room and asked if she was able to make it?
She said no. I m wet.
I said " Oh well. Lets give it a try some other time. Hurry and grow some more before we do"

Shes in a warm bath now.

No biggie