potty-training/ bedwetting

[lisadam]

Help - we're finally at the potty training stage with my 3.5 year old son - and we're doing fine during the day- but since he's learning how to hold his pee - when he finally does go at night while he sleeps its a flood that his diaper just can't seem to handle.

I just don't know how to handle it in a hotel. At home we've been trying to change him when we go to bed around 11 - midnight - and he's still soaked at about 4:30 - as are the sheets, blankets, mattress cover and even the mattress!

Is there a way to protect the bed in the hotel - should I ask for an extra set of sheets so we can change everything during the night (sigh.....) do you think some extra towels could help - (I've tried that at home - he just ends up tangled up in them)

I'm just all out of ideas....

Thanks,
Lisa (whose house just smells like pee these days)

 

[LKS]

My youngest who has been trained for some time still goes a lot in his sleep, but never floods out of the pull-ups. The pull-ups are sodden in the morning, but they never leak. He sleeps so hard he just doesn't wake up.

I imagine you are already trying to enforce no drinks after supper (we do), but that's the only suggestion I can come up with. Not sure what kind of diapers you are using, but they do make "overnights" which are supposed to be more absorbent.

If you can't resolve this before the trip, you should bring a waterproof mattress cover for the bed and put it on at night. I have never seen one in a hotel and I know you wouldn't want him to soak the mattress. Rather than a towel underneath, you could get some of those pads they make for infants. I can't remember what they are called, but they are really heavy, like felt, and keep the sheets from getting wet.

Good luck.

 

[TigerLilly's Mom]

I totally empathize with you. My son didn't hold his pee all night until he was in kindergarten. It seems like it will never end, but it will. Some kids just don't have a big enough bladder until a certain age. I would wake him when you go to bed, then set the alarm at a certain time and wake him again. If you have enough time before your trip you could try to wean him down to one waking. It may be a pain, but it will be much better than having a soaked mattress at a hotel. Even if you have a waterproof sheet, where will you wash it everyday? You could also try the more absorbant pull ups that they make especially for much bigger kids, but they may be too big for him. Good luck.

 

[ChiTownZee]

They also make an extra "pad" that you can place inside the diaper for extra absorption/protection. I've seen them at baby stores.

 

[AKASnowWhite]

Oh - is this ever an issue that I have WAY too much experience with!!!! My DS is 11 1/2 and due to medical issues has been wet nearly EVERY night of his life! Frustrating? You bet it is! But we have learned to deal with it....I'll share some of the things that have worked for us!

First, try using Huggies Goodnights instead of diapers or Pull-ups at night. The Goodnights are specially made for night-time use, and therefore more absorbant. Sometimes it's not the VOLUME of pee that the diaper can't handle, it's the speed at which the pee comes out! If he's peeing too fast (like a garden hose!) the diaper can't absorb it quickly enough - and sure enough, it leaks.

This may seem obvious, but liquids after 6:30 pm are practically forbidden for my DS...it gives him a chance to process what he has in him before bedtime.

Although it may seem inconvenient, take him to the bathroom every night before you go to bed. It took my DS a while to get into the *routine* of actually waking up enough to pee, but it certainly helps.

Now, if he is STILL wetting thru (been there, done that for YEARS), you may want to consider disposible bed pads. I get mine thru a medical supply place, but your local pharmacy most likely will carry them - I know Depends brand makes bed pads. We place them on the bed and (because he's a kid and he wiggles) we use GOOD safety pins to pin down the corners....diaper pins work great - really no chance they'll come un-clipped and poke him! Then, if the pad is wet in the a.m., simply toss it in the garbage!

When we go on vacation, we always bring one of those plastic-like waterproof sheet/mattress cover to place UNDER the sheets at the hotel. If the sheets get wet, we strip the bed, and use Lysol wipes to sanitze the plastic sheet. Those bed protectors can be a bit *crinkly*, so you may want to put it UNDER the mattress pad - in which case it may hardly get wet at all. Oh - and we leave the housekeepers a nice tip for having to change the sheets!

The most important thing, IMO, is not to get too worked up about it. It really is more common than you might think - and the less of a deal you as a parent make out of it, the less self-concious your child will be about it. Have fun - enjoy your vacation - and pack plenty of extra pj's!

 

[Spoisal]

I'm going to offer some advice. Ditch the diaper and don't use pull ups!!! I have potty trained 2 little ones at the age of 2 1/2. My oldest was not trained at night until she was almost 5 years old - she was not trained at night until we ditched the pull ups that I let her wear at night. I honestly think she would have been trained at night YEARS earlier if we had not put her in pull ups at night. When we stopped the pull ups it took about 2 weeks bedwetting & then BOOM - problem solved.

So.....when it came time to train my youngest a couple of months ago (who is 2 3/4 now) - I swore I would not use pull ups ....and you know what? She is completely trained at night - I just saved myself years of aggrivation!!

So, it might take several weeks, but ditch that diaper & you might be amazed at the results!! What do you have to lose ....he is wetting the bed anyway.... and most of all GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

[Karel]

AKASW, my eleven year old is in the same boat. He'll be fine for awhile and then have accidents every night for a week. Nobody has pinpoint a medical cause for it yet. He's on medicine right now because he had a two night overnight with his school class but I don't want to rely on that on a daily basis.

The Good nights work really well for him. We also have a waterproof plastic pad for under the sheet and a small covering for on top of the sheet. The small covering is plastic on one side, and soft fabric on the other - if he's wet when I get him up, we just strip that off and the sheet is dry. I know that others have put on two sheets with plastic in the middle so you can just strip the top sheet off.

The trick is to wake him up early enough at night before he wets and then his body will start getting used to waking up then.

Watch liquids at dinner too - no soda, caffeine, etc. I heard milk also causes problems but I haven't seen that. It good to encourage him to use the bathroom every hour on the hour after dinner.

 

[disney funseeker]

Lisa,

I tried a few different things with my daughter.

The first thing I tried was a fitted vinyl mattress cover . I would put it directly over the mattress, then I put her regular cotton mattress cover over that and then her bed sheets. It was good to protect the mattress because if she wet the bed I just had to wash the sheets and cotton mattress cover and then wiped the vinyl sheet. The down side was my daughter sweats a lot at night and vinyl sheet made it worse, even though it was under the cotton mattress pad.

The next thing I tried was placing a diaper change pad under her for sleeping. Cotton on one side/waterproof on the other. This worked fine if she had a nice restful sleep. But it sounds like your son might just get tangled up in it. Perhaps you could place one or 2 under the sheets.

The last thing I tried was to set the alarm and wake her up once during the night. This worked best and now she wakes up by herself at night and I help her.

Because you won't want to be doing laundry possibly every day, waking up during the night might be the best option. You'll be tired but I know for me its worth it.

Good Luck, I hope you find a solution.

 

[AKASnowWhite]

Originally posted by Karel
AKASW, my eleven year old is in the same boat.

Watch liquids at dinner too - no soda, caffeine, etc. I heard milk also causes problems but I haven't seen that.

It's a WHOLE different ball game when there are medical issues vs. readiness or laziness (in some cases). And I'll admit that when my DS was 3 1/2 I chalked it all up to him not being ready....but we have round-the-clock *issues*, not simply night time.

Anyway my DS most definitely *reacts* negatively to caffeine (diuretic), artifical colorings, dairy products, chocolate and citrus. Bummer, eh? We too have no medical pin-point....much to the frustration of his pediatric urologist!

Hang in there! It just HAS to get better!

 

[Sonya in Boise]

We had luck with not letting my daughter wear diapers/pull ups to bed also. I got tired of buying them since she was day trained for over a year and now she wets the bed 1-3 times a month. When we put her in a diaper/pullup it would be SOAKED. I also stopped letting her take a cup of ice water to bed, instead she gets a small drink before.

Now, I can relate to the medical problems that cause bed wetting also. My husband has had the problem his entire life. Seems to get worse with stress. The medication makes his entire day "hazzy" so more often than not he doesn't take it. I don't blame him. Who would want to have the feeling of a head cold for weeks/months at a time.

We use plastic sheets, then the mattress cover, then the sheets and I do lots of laundry.

Just be patient and either it will work it's way out or you will become a pro at efficent laundry.

Sonya

 

[SueM in MN]

Request a waterproof mattress pad and sheets from Housekeeping when you get there. WDW resorts all have them available, but you do need to ask (most hotels have them available on request, they don't want a wet bed any more than you do). They can even leave a second set so that if the bed gets wet during the night, you can change it.

 

[JesNJakesMom]

My DD use to do the same thing!

What I did was say nothing to drink after 7:30 (she went to bed at 8:30). Made sure she went pee right before we tucked her in. Still, most nights she'd pee through her pull-up.

I tried waking her up to go before I went to bed at about 11:00 or Mid. But either I couldn't actually wake her up enough for her to "go" or if I did she'd either not want to go back to bed or she'd be such a crab the next day! We quickly moved on from that!

I got a big, absorbent beach towel, folded it in half and then in half again (so it was still as wide as the bed but only about 2' long), I put this under the fitted sheet where her butt was so she couldn't move it around or get tangled in it (she is they type that never moves during the night, thank god!). I still had to change the fitted sheet but between the towel and the pull-up it usually never made it through to the mattress.

It took her a while but she is 4 now and hasn't had any problems for quite some time. Now we are starting all over with my DS who is 2yo.

 

[lisadam]

wow - what a response! By the way - dh changed the sheets TWICE last night

LKS-yup - we're in the overnights - but thanks for reminding me about the infant pads - I tossed a bunch of them recently - but I think I held on to one of them.

TigerLilly's Mom - yes - we're in the big kid pull ups - he's about 40 pounds so they fit and have a lot more padding... the unpadded sides are a bit bigger than the younger kids pull-ups and I think thats where the leaks are happening.

ChiTownZee - hmmmm and insert in the diaper - I wonder if they have disposable ones for the trip... I'll have to head over to Babys R Us

AKA SnowWhite - I haven't been able to find the Huggies Goodnites any more - and you're absolutely correct - it seems that its coming out way to fast for the diaper to be able to catch it all. The no drinking at nite is difficult - I get him home from daycare and he's always really thirsty -so I feel like I have to let him drink a bit.... but since he's in bed at 9ish I can probably let him drink til about 7:30

Spoisal - you're the 2nd person to suggest no diapers or pull-ups at night - LOL - I'm not brave enough to try it.... I suppose I should since the diapers aren't helping all that much

Karal, Disney Fun Seeker, Sonya in Boise (I'm getting to lazy to type an individual response!) Thank you so much for your ideas! I guess I'll just print out this thread, show it to dh and start trying things.... DH is the laundry doer in the house - so I am sure he's willing to experiment!

JesNJakes Mom - my ds is a Jake also! - but he's such a wiggler at night I can't just cover a part of the bed - sometimes his head is at the foot of the bed and his middle is right over a clump of blankets - thoroughly soaking them all.... sigh....

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

... try not to get too worked up over it. DS (4) had been completely trained before our last trip, but the excitement must have been too much for him, and he had accidents three of the nights we were there. I felt terrible after the first instance, and asked about it at the front desk. The CM assured me that it happens often and that Mousekeeping takes it all in stride. He did not tell me about the pads but I did ask for an extra sheet and kept it folded under DS. I also shared his bed and got him up during the night. Poor kid wasn't even conscious and I'd be holding him up against the toilet! At any rate, I left a bigger tip after he'd had an accident and concentrated on enjoying our vacation. In the end, if it happens you'll know you did all you could to avoid it - so don't let it cloud your family's fun.

Lori

 

[honeymom]

While my daughter didn't need pullups at night by 3 1/2, my son does (almost 4). I have read that from a development standpoint, kids cannot go through the night without wetting until age 5 in most cases. While I can see not using pullups during the day and training by just using underwear during the day (which is what I had to do with my son as he never became interested on his own) - it could be cruel to do that at night. Do try to cut back on the nighttime drinks and when you see that your child sleeps through the night with a dry pullup for a bit, then stop using htem.

I think that the pullups hold up better than the diapers at night. They seem to hold more pee.

 

[4our4kids]

You may want to consider using "depends for men" as a liner as oppose to a toddler liner. I realize your dilema is with a child, not a man, but the depends are cupped for that crucial area and offer alot of absorbtion protection. Just slip them in the night time brief. Perhaps they will help to keep him and his bedding dry. I know from experience that is a JOY! to be able to dispose of the night time protection as opposed to washing everything!

Medical supply stores also offer "chux". These are absorbant cotton pads with a waterproof backing. These are used throught hospitals (any one who ever had a baby has had these on thier beds). I place 2 overlapping on the bed. It catches any "overflow" that might happen and keeps the sheets dry. So all you have to wash are the pads. I understand you would be more inclined to use disposable ones on vacation, but when your home, they are more economical than the disposable ones.

Good luck!