Anyone have suggestions to transition a 4-year old boy from night time pullups to underwear for bed?
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limeaide (
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September 24th, 2009
Once we got him potty trained we put him in pull ups for bed time. We tell him if he keeps his pull ups dry three nights in a row he can wear his big boy underwear to bed. But he ends up peeing in them during the night or in morning instead of going to the potty. Anyone have any suggestions or is this something that naturally just takes care of itself? Thanks!
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I’ve always gone by the “three dry nights” rule as well. Boys, in general, take a bit longer to stay dry at night. There are other things you can do to help him stay dry. Limit fluid intake in the hour or two before bedtime, wake him up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night (or, wake him up to go potty right before you go to bed), have him help clean up if he has an accident, etc.
My son just turned six and has only once managed to stay dry all night. He wears pull-ups to bed. We’ve tried all of the things I listed above, but it hasn’t worked. His pediatrician said to give him another year to physically mature and then look into other options. When he was 4, I wasn’t the least bit worried about it. Now, I’m not worried, but I am hoping he’ll grow out of it soon. Limiting fluids didn’t do anything, and even if we woke him up only two or three hours after he went to bed, he’d already be wet. He is certainly capable of holding it longer than that during the day, but I think he sleeps so deeply that his brain just isn’t getting any signals at all from his bladder. Back when he was still napping, he could nap for three hours or more and wake up dry. It’s only at night that he isn’t able to stay dry.
As for cleaning up, if our son wakes up with wet pajamas and wet sheets, he is responsible for changing his own clothes. He then helps me strip the bed and put the sheets in the washer. He doesn’t really enjoy it, but I hope that by making him partly responsible for these chores, he won’t fall into a “I’m just feeling too sleepy and lazy to get out of bed” rut. We even tried having him sleep in underwear for a week, but waking up wet (sometimes twice in a night) upset him so much that we went back to pull-ups.
How long has your son been potty-trained? If it’s fairly recent, it may take a bit longer for him to stay dry. My youngest is 4 now, but he started staying dry all night only a few weeks after being potty trained. All kids are different. Just be patient, remember that it isn’t his fault or anything he can control, and give him time to mature a bit more. If you do have concerns about it, talk to the pediatrician. Good luck!
If he’s peeing in them in the night, maybe his bladder just isn’t big enough yet to hold it all till he gets up in the morning. If he’s good at falling asleep you could wake him right as you’re going to bed for a nighttime pee sesh. This might enable him to make it the rest of the night.
The morning peeing is just convenience for him. Takes less time than going to the bathroom. He probably needs a bigger incentive than getting to wear big boy underwear to bed to stop doing that. Whatever you know will motivate him in particular. I know I was bribed with toys, and my little brother was bribed with getting to go shopping and choose which big boy underwear he wanted! My little sister trained herself, no incentives needed. She just didn’t like waking up wet. My other little brother didn’t stay dry all night till he was about 7 and a half no matter what we tried. Then he suddenly became able to! He was very excited. Clearly it varies from kid to kid.
Ahh. I appear to mainly concur with @MissAusten‘s comment which just appeared. We must be right!
Daytime training is different from peeing at night in bed.
Night time will just naturally take care of itself. Do not make him feel bad about peeing at night, just let him keep wearing the pull ups. And let him tell you if he’s dry—don’t even ask him. Just underplay the whole thing. It will happen nicely and with no problem in its own time.
He may be getting “chilled” down there which is causing him to urinate.
My son was in training underwear (the cotton kind, made by Gerber & Hanna Anderson) up until a few months ago.
He just turned four and has been potty trained and dry through the night from before age two. However, when I stopped putting the pull-ups on him at night (around 20mos) he had an accident, then another , then another. He’d never peed during the night except for during early infancy, so I was perplexed.
I bought the cotton trainers, and zero accidents since then.
Pullups are a rip-off. It’s just a way Pampers and Huggies, etc. can hold on to your money a little longer. So first off i’d get rid of the pullups altogether. All they really are are diapers. If you have something on him that doesn’t absorb he’s going to feel wet and uncomfortable. This will result in a few clean ups but it won’t last forever as he’s going to hate being wet. Invest in a plastic liner for your kids mattress and it won’t be so bad.
@AstroChuck I totally agree about pull-ups being a waste of money, but not for nighttime use. When you have a child who is incapable of staying dry at night, even after several uncomfortable nights sleeping in underwear, pull-ups are the only option. Of my three kids, two never needed pull-ups. One does. I know him well enough to know that he cannot control it. Making him sleep in underwear is torture for us both, so the cost of the pull-ups is worth it. It’s not a case of “a few clean ups,” it’s a case of waiting for the child to physically be capable of staying dry all night.
My two oldest girls are now grown and never used pullups as they weren’t around back when they were growing up. My youngest, however, came along 16½ years after daughter number two. She used them briefly but we noticed right away it wasn’t helping her. We might as well have just put her back in diapers. Only after we got rid of the pullups and put her in padded panties did we notice any improvement. Before, with the pullups, she’d just sleep through the night with them wet. After we went to the panties she would get up to tell us she had pee-peed. This was more work for us at first. Who wants to be awoken with that at 2 am? But it got better and better. She would still have accidents but they started to become the exception instead of the rule.
I still stand by getting rid of the pullups. That, and a lot of patience, and things will come around for you and your son’s bed wetting.
I think for most kids, that’s how it would work. My daughter was similar, in that she was staying dry all day but still wetting a diaper at night. When we switched to underwear at night, she had a couple of accidents but soon was consistently dry. Same with my other son. This middle kid of mine is different. Sometimes I think he stores up his pee all day, and lets it go at night. He is that wet by morning. When we did try having him sleep in underwear, there were nights were he woke up wet twice. He was so upset and embarrassed, no matter how reassuring and calm my husband and I tried to be.
In general, I completely agree with you. In my son’s particular case, not so much. :) As for the OP, only time and experience will tell. Sometimes when a child knows they are sleeping in underwear, they keep it dry almost right from the start. Sometimes they need a bit more practice, and sometimes they need time to grow up a bit more.
yes I do the ‘nighttime pee’ thing for my 3 year old who wears underwear to bed
I just found another great reason why not having kids was a great choice for me.
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