Whendoyou ditch night time pull-ups?

[Hilltopmom]

Dd,4 next month has been wearing pull-ups over night.

It's beenatleast a month since she peed In one while sleeping,& before that for maybe 6 months was only wet 1-2 a week.

 

I'm still afraid to just put her in undies at night though..maybe Ijust hate changing bedding.

 

But- it's summer,& she does NOT drink enough during the day.

We're working on that, & she's more likely to be wiling to drink in the evenings, so I encourage fluids before bed,not limit.

 

Maybe I should buy a couple pairs of washable training pants for her,pull-ups are kinda a waste.

Should've saved a few of my bigger cloth diapers I guess. Oh well.

 

Any suggestions?

[EKS]

For both kids it was when the pull up would leak (rather impressively) every single night.  I simply told them that they were too big to wear pull ups in bed and they would have to go to the bathroom if they needed to pee in the middle of the night.  And that was that.  I think they were both around 5.

[SKL]

I would switch to regular undies and have something waterproof between her and the mattress.

 

When kids are wearing regular undies, they are programmed to not pee in them, even while asleep.

 

[ETA: insert obvious disclaimers for the minority of kids who have physical reasons why they will pee the bed regardless, which does not apply to the OP.]

 

I switched my kids to regular undies overnight when they were 1.5, and other than a couple accidents in the first weeks, none since then, ever.

Edited June 22, 2017 by SKL

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Varied by kid.  One of mine needed them to 4.5, two others were out of them within a year of day training.  Of those two, one was still soaking them when I took them away.  I figured he was using it because it was there... and I was right.  1-2 accidents, then never again.  The other was dry at night, so I didn't see the point in continuing to use them.  For the kid who went to 4.5, she just wasn't capable.  She's had all sorts of sleep weirdness- sleep terrors, sleep walking, and occasionally week-long period of wetting again even though she had not been in pull-ups for years.  

 

For the last kid, we will see.  He's just started being dry 2 out of every 3 nights or so, so we're getting closer...

 

It shouldn't matter how much she drinks before bed, as night-wetting is not so much about bladder being over full but about whether or not the child can rouse from deep sleep from her body's signals.  She either can or can't, and restricting water won't make a difference.  

[MommyLiberty5013]

We switched when the kids were dry for a month or more.

[alisoncooks]

Mine did not potty-train until 3 or 3.5, but they were night-dry almost immediately.  We never did pull-ups.

 

Edited June 22, 2017 by alisoncooks

[maize]

When kids are wearing regular undies, they are programmed to not pee in them, even while asleep.

 

I switched my kids to regular undies overnight when they were 1.5, and other than a couple accidents in the first weeks, none since then, ever.

You do realize that night wetting is much more complicated than this, yes? Some kids will be dry at night early on, even while in diapers. Others face bed wetting trouble into the teen years, regardless of what they are wearing. It is a neurological thing.

 

OP, I've never put a child in night time pull-ups unless they were wetting on a regular basis. Some of mine have been dry at night before they were potty trained, so when we made the switch to undies it went for day and night. Others got the bed wetting genes that run in the family; I had one in pull ups until age 9.

Edited June 22, 2017 by maize

[lovinmyboys]

I think she sounds ready. Two of mine never wet the bed once they were day potty trained. For the others I switched them to undies once they were waking up dry 6 out of 7 nights. My mom always washed our sheets once a week growing up, so I figured if I had to wash them once a week that was pretty normal.

[AmandaVT]

DS didn't want to give them up, so we used them much longer than we needed to. He was almost 5, but he'd been dry since he was 3. I finally told him that they didn't make pull ups for 5 year olds so he needed to switch to undies then. He decided he was ready at that point. 

[SKL]

You do realize that night wetting is much more complicated than this, yes? Some kids will be dry at night early on, even while in diapers. Others face bed wetting trouble into the teen years, regardless of what they are wearing. It is a neurological thing.

 

OP, I've never put a child in night time pull-ups unless they were wetting on a regular basis. Some of mine have been dry at night before they were potty trained, so when we made the switch to undies it went for day and night. Others got the bed wetting genes that run in the family; I had one in pull ups until age 9.

 

Sigh, I was responding regarding the OP whose kid has been dry at night for a month.

 

I know there are some kids who will pee the bed every night regardless, but those kids have a specific issue going on that most kids don't have.  A person whose child has been dry overnight for a month does not need to worry about physical reasons for chronic bedwetting.

 

I could have gone on about disclaimers that have nothing to do with the OP, but I didn't think that would be helpful.  Guess I was wrong.

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I bought a washable chuck/bedpad.  It wasn't expensive and cut down on laundry.

 

 

[nixpix5]

Now is the time to remove them. There may be an occasional accident (put a protection between mattress and sheet), but you are in a good place now. Pull ups can make a sleeping brain train to pee the bed if kept in them too long. As others have said, subliminally, brains "know" not to wet in underwear. You have a better chance of maintaining nighttime dryness if you switch over now and embrace a few accidents. ;) When the accidents do happen, they actually cement the dry sleeping pattern becasue it feels uncomfortable. As opposed to pull ups that protect the sleeper from that grossness.

Edited June 22, 2017 by nixpix5

[SparklyUnicorn]

Yeah I didn't have much luck with the pull ups.  I felt like they hindered progress.

 

 

[Hilltopmom]

I bought a washable chuck/bedpad. It wasn't expensive and cut down on laundry.

I have some I will get back out for her.she is such a wiggly sleeper she may not stay on it though.

I'll put a mattress protector on too.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I have some I will get back out for her.she is such a wiggly sleeper she may not stay on it though.

I'll put a mattress protector on too.

 

They make extra large ones too that can be tucked into the mattress on the sides. 

[Hilltopmom]

Embrace a few accidents..ILove that :)

 

Thanks all!

[rose]

In our house the policy is that if you go 2 weeks straight without an accident then I'll consider your track record and consider trying undies. Usually they can't make it 2 weeks unless they're really close to being accident free.

 

If you do have an accident in the middle of the night you can do what my mama did. Just throw a towel on the bed, change the jammies and deal with everything else in the morning.

[73349]

DS had never been dry at night despite having been day-trained for like 2 years, and pull-ups or cloth diapers were leaking at least once a week, so I started putting him in underwear at night and bought a bedwetting alarm. It was a bit expensive, but not compared to buying more pull-ups for months or even years. We followed the directions & it worked. We had two or three unpleasant nights, as nobody enjoyed waking to the alarm, but the change was impressive and within a few weeks, he was 100% dry.

 

I agree with PPs that a couple of washable mattress covers are worthwhile in the mean time.

[Carrie12345]

You do realize that night wetting is much more complicated than this, yes? Some kids will be dry at night early on, even while in diapers. Others face bed wetting trouble into the teen years, regardless of what they are wearing. It is a neurological thing.

 

OP, I've never put a child in night time pull-ups unless they were wetting on a regular basis. Some of mine have been dry at night before they were potty trained, so when we made the switch to undies it went for day and night. Others got the bed wetting genes that run in the family; I had one in pull ups until age 9.

 

Thank you!  I still have a 6.5 year old in Good Nights.  He has zero issues during the day.  His body doesn't care what kind of parent I am!

[underthebridge]

OP, I get it about the sheet changing. Have you tried putting her in underpants with pull-ups over them? She will have underpants next to her skin and the pull-up will be like insurance. If she's dry for a couple of weeks, you can lose the pull-up.

[pink&bluemommy]

I would do undies under the pull-up for a bit. It's what I did. The kid feels wet and the sheets don't get wet. Win win.

[Starr]

I just went with underpants and washed the occasional sheets.

[Loowit]

I never used pull-ups at night.  All of them were dry at night when we started potty training, so we just went to full time underwear when they were trained.  Our only problem was middle DS started having bed wetting problems when he was around 8 or 9, but that was do to a medical issue (tethered spinal cord) that was corrected with surgery.

 

I would think after a couple weeks of dry nights, they are probably ready to go with just regular underwear.  Putting down a pad or something might be nice if you are worried about a mess.

[SKL]

 

If you do have an accident in the middle of the night you can do what my mama did. Just throw a towel on the bed, change the jammies and deal with everything else in the morning.

 

I have heard of a strategy where the mom makes the bed with a waterproof sheet, fitted sheet, waterproof sheet, fitted sheet, blankets.  Then if someone wets the bed in the middle of the night, out go the top sheet and waterproof sheet, but the bed is still ready to sleep on.

 

I had a flannel covered waterproof pad on top of the sheet.  While my kids were still using their plastic-covered crib mattresses (covered with cotton mattress pads) at the time, I didn't fancy having to change and wash the whole setup in the morning rush.