Pull-ups

dbrigham
dbrigham's picture
Posts: 277
Joined: 2007-09-20
Dad Points: 372

Much to my chagrin, my son, who will turn 6 in about six weeks, has been wearing a pull-up to bed up until about 10 days ago. My wife and I were not proactive enough on potty training, and it took a while to get him to poop on the toilet before bed. He's mastered that, but we've let him wear the pull-ups to bed for too long simply because when we tried to "break" him of the habit before, he just never got it and I ended up washing his sheets and mattress pad every day.

Well, now I'm doing that again for the past 10 days or so. We don't let him have anything to drink too close to bed time, and we talk to him about really concentrating on not peeing in his bed. But he doesn't have the greatest connection b/w mind and body, and I'm getting sick of changing his sheets every morning -- he doesn't even wake up during the night when he wets himself.

Any suggestions how to 'break' him and get him out of Pull-Ups?




mywifes_houseb..ch
mywifes_houseb..ch's picture
Posts: 27
Joined: 2008-04-02
Dad Points: 63
we had to get our 3 year old

we had to get our 3 year old up around mid night every night and put him on the potty after about 2 weeks he hated getting up in the midle of the night and he started lasting the night with out wetting the bed
~Daniel~
In Maine
Keeper of Erin & Adam and my wife keeps me.
The honey do list never ends!!!



Bellyman_7
Posts: 136
Joined: 2008-03-20
Dad Points: 237
Not his fault

It's not his fault.
This is fairly common.
My daughter was fine until a few years ago and she started to wet the bed. We talked to her Ped and started on meds. Worked for a couple of months. Her Ped wanted to up the dose and we opt not to. They will grow out of this but it takes time.
So we are cont. to do the same as you. Middle of the night wake ups, no drinking after a certain hour, pull-ups.
It's not her fault, she is a deep sleeper and her brain can't wake her up to tell her to go. she has weak bladder musles that when sleeping relax and let go.
We had to put a kabash on the teasing from her older siblings.
It's not their fault. Talk to your Ped.



dbrigham
dbrigham's picture
Posts: 277
Joined: 2007-09-20
Dad Points: 372
Thanks

Thanks, Bellyman. I know it's not his fault -- he's a heavy sleeper, and we dropped the ball a bit when the time for this was right. I think I'll take Daniel's advice and wake him up before I go to bed, which is something my wife and I discussed. My son isn't bothered by it, and there are no older siblings, so it's just my wife and I who stress about it a little.

www.davebrigham.com



ZigZaggin
Posts: 16
Joined: 2008-02-14
Dad Points: 16
Same boat

We're in the same boat around here with our 6 year old. I wouldn't think of it as dropping the ball though. Yes it would be great if our son didn't need a pull-up, but I wet the bed myself until I was 8 or 9, and I've grown up just fine. I wish my Mom had put pull-ups on me!

I do worry the pull up gives him less incentive to even try, but then again, back to myself, having no pull-up didn't help either. I almost never woke up during the night, so it took a much more mature determination for me to flip that switch, as it were, and actually wake up when I needed to.

As my mom tells me now, it would be much more convenient for me if he did what I wanted, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is right to expect it of him. So we just make sure he goes before bed, and send him when he does wake up in the night. He's probably about 50/50 on waking up with a dry pull-up. I guess we've just decided to wait a while longer before forcing a change. (We also had a heck of a time with getting him potty-trained period. After an awful period of him resisting pooping at all costs which led to severe recurring constipation and trips to the ped, prescription medicine, and many nights of comforting a very pained child, we now consider ourselves lucky he only needs the pull-up at night.)



Mr. Dad
Posts: 205
Joined: 2008-03-07
Dad Points: 294
What about Morning Potty?

Our 3 YO is pretty good about going potty before bed. Our problem is she when she wakes up she just goes in her pull-up. We only put a pull-up on for bedtime. She goes on the potty throughout the day on her own, and without reminder. For some reason in the morning she wakes up, and just goes in her pull-up instead of going to the bathroom. Part of this may be that she is afraid to leave her room (she has NEVER left her room once we put her to bed). We have told her it is OK to get up and go to the potty. I really don't want to put the potty in her room, because I fear she will get quite "creative" with the contents once she goes.

I am getting frustrated, because she goes so much in the morning that the pull-up leaks quite a bit. Bed changes last two mornings. She tells me she just went, and the evidence is still warm.

We check her before we go to bed and she is usually dry at that point. Is getting her up our only option? We go to bed around 10pm, and she falls asleep between 8 - 9pm usually. I just don't see the point in waking her that soon, if she just went.



taylorjm
Posts: 30
Joined: 2008-05-26
Dad Points: 42
We had to

We had the same problem, she never leaves her room until after 7:30am for some reason, so we ended up getting her up in the night a couple times with the pull ups on and get her to go to the bathroom, even if she says she doesn't need to go, getting her up and sitting her down and trying. We found she doesn't have to go until after midnight, so we did about a 3am potty and that did the trick, but she still never gets up to go in the night. Now, she will just hold it until morning and go. No idea why.



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