Nite Time Potty Training

Hi C.,
It sounds to me that she isn't ready to be potty trained through the night. Some kids don't have the bladdar capacity to stay dry through the night. My neighbor in Missouri had two boys that were older and had been potty trained for a long time but for some reason through the night couldn't stay dry. They tried waking them both up in the night to go potty I think they even had some kind of alarm that goes in special underwear that once they start to go it wakes them up. I'm not sure where to find this. Try One Step Ahed Magazine on line.
Anyway, they took them to their doctor and the doctor said some kids just don't have the bladdar capacity to stay dry at night but they will eventually get it as they grow. I wouldn't rush things.
The worst that could happen is she needs pull-ups a little while longer.
My daughter turned 4 in January and is still wearing pull-ups to bed. Somedays, she will wake up wet and others dry. She has been potty trained since 2 1/2 the doctor said it may just take some kids longer.

For the smell on your couch. Try Natures Miracle. You can get it at a Pet store it's for pet urine. We had a cat that had a bladder infection and had an accident and we got this it comes in a spray bottle as a liquid or I think as a powder too. You may have to use it a couple of times and let it dry between applications. It worked for cat pee and should work for your problem. Just test a small spot first :)
Good luck!!!
T.

Some children have small bladders and are incapable of staying dry through the night. Have you tried waking her to go potty before you go to bed?

Has a doctor verified her bladder capacity? If it is a small bladder, try plastic/rubber sheets under the regular sheet on her bed instead of the pull-ups. Eventually, she will outgrow it or learn to use the potty during the night.

She may not be ready for night-time training. Kids develop at many different ages. My pediatrician said that if they can't stay dry during the night don't sweat it. Soon she will be ready. There was a time after each of my girls were night-time trained that they would have accidents. We did the things you are doing about not giving drinks etc. We would then pick them up and take them potty before we would go to bed. It was so cute to see them with their head on their daddy's shoulder and their little bottoms on the potty. We would tell them "Go potty" and they would. We would crack up every time! They never knew it happened!

In regards to the pull-up disaster. Have you tried rewarding her for keeping her pullup on through the night? It was amazing what an orange tic-tac would motivate my girls to do. What ever it is that motivates your daughter, use it to get her to leave the pull-up on. Make it a matter of celebration that she kept it on. You will also need to keep this up when she wakes up dry in the pull-ups! Maybe and extra incentive will be needed for that.

Don't worry. She is still a little young to be night-time trained. We have had many kids spend the night with my girls and they were wearing pull-ups at 5 at night. Be patient and when she messes don't get upset. You may want to think about putting a shower curtain on your couch at night before you go to sleep to protect it.

Good luck!

I know this sounds exhausting for both mom and kids but it worked for me.....we did the same things, limit drinks after a certain time and going potty before bed. I would always get my potty trainees up at least once in the middle of the night and have them go potty. Sometimes I would have to carry a half asleep child to the potty, but after a week, they got tired of me getting them up in the middle of the night and something just clicked with them!! We also constantly talked about incentives for being dry for one week....ie they got to go to Build A Bear and create a new pal!! Hope this helps! Good luck!

As far as keeping her in bed I amin the same struggle with my 5 year old. He sleep walks every night to the couch or the floor. We have to make sure we are very careful where we step in the am b/c we never know where he will be. As far as night time potty training goes we have been for the last several months setting our alarm clock for about midnight and 3 am to walk hi to the restroom turn on the water at the sink and wait for him to go. Most of the time he goes very quickly and we are back in bed in just a few minutes. And as far as the urine in the couch all I can say is a good wash down with the hose and letting the cousion air dry out side on a nice day the febrezz it to death.

Hello, my son just turned 4 in Feb. and he has been potty trained since last November and decided that he was going to wet to bed again. I am a nurse so I was concerned with uti's so I took him to the doctor, got his urine checked and everything on that aspect came out ok. So we came to the conclusion it was more a behavior issue. It sounds like you are doing the right things with stop the liquids after supper and going to the bathroom before bed. What my husband and I have been doing different now is that one of us get up around 12am (give or take) and wake him up and make him go to the bathroom and then my husband wakes him up before he leaves for work in the morning. Since we have been doing this he has not had an accident since. Now getting them to stay in bed, not sure on that one. Good luck.

Maybe I'm not the one to answer this, my son was in Pull-ups until he was 10. His problem was just that he was a very deep sleeper. (Also a redhead, BTW.) But I sure did some research! The best advice I read was to set an alarm clock for an hour before your daughter usually wets (assuming she wakes up when she wets--if not, you'll have to guess) Get her up, have her go potty (keeping things quiet and lights dim so she doesn't get too awake to go back to sleep easily) and put her right back to bed. Then keep setting the alarm just a little later every night until she can make it through.

Good Luck!

For one thing using white vingar will take the urine smell out of things and it is also a disinfectant. As far as the problem with your daughter, I am a grandmother, who believes in spankings. She is old enough to know better. I would get a baby gate and confind her to her room at night. Then at least the wet is in there.
Put a potty chair in her room , so if she need to pee, she can. If she is taking the pull up off because it is wet, show her how to put on another one. all of this is done in her own room. Not on the living room sofa. You probably dont like my answer to your problem, but at least I am honest about it. Kids were and are my life. I enjoy them so much, but I want them to mind and to grow up.

dish soap & water in a spray bottle will help a little for the couch. bedtime training, for us, fell behind total daytime potty trained. she slept in pullups for awhile and especially if we went on a trip. she didn't find it confusing. bedtime training was really about training myself to set the alarm at 2:30am for a potty run & jump out of bed at 7am, right before she woke up and put her on the potty. and yes, she was asleep most of the time but her body still did its thing. and we talked about it every night. we had a deadline to meet since was starting daycare in 6 months and she couldn't take naps in pullups. she was very excited about starting "high school" in the summer. big motivator. good luck!

i have a 4 year old in pull ups at night too. it may tke time. some nights she is dry others she is not. i also have a 8 year old in pull ups- again most nights he is good- others not so good. i have heard it can be heireditary(spelling???)
my husband family has cousins who still wet into their teens occasionaly. when my oldest was in 2nd grade she had a sleep over and two of the girls wore pulls up to bed- one even wet.
we do all that stuff you do too- no drinks after 7:30 only sips- going to bathroom before bed and still have accidents. i put those plastic cover ups on their beds and my couches have been wet on too so i feel yuor pain there. just give it time. if you are still frsutrated with it later i know the doctor can prescribe a pill that will help then thru the night- that is if you want to go the medicine route. i feel we( as a society) overmedicate our kids already but it might just be your answer here. hope that helps

Hello. We were having a similar issue with our twin boys. We did the no drinks after dinner and it only works a little bit. We now have a timer in the potty, they know they have to sit on the potty until it's off. This is a great time for us to sit together and talk or work on our flash cards or do our bedtime stories. By sitting there for a little while, they aren't in such a hurry to get changed into jammies, find their sleeping paraphanalia (teddy bears, blankies, etc) and gives them to time to really "drain their tank". We also get them up and have them go potty just as WE go upstairs to get ready for bed. It gives their bladders some extra time to drain a little before morning. It took about 3 months of this but now they are getting use to the feeling of needing to go while they are sleeping and just get up and go all by themselves now. what a sanity saver. Just a thought to try.

Concerning your daughter, I would try and get her some type of alarm. I don't know where to get them locally but if you go to www.bedwettingstore.com there is an entire list of alarms you can get. The site is great. There is a specific link for the most successful types of alarms on the market depending on your child's age. There are alarms that go on your child's underwear or there are mats. Some vibrate. some make noise. Some do both. You can order them there too. I just googled the site so I didn't take the time to see how much they were but it is a start at least. As far as the urine on the couch. I would try "Urine gone". You can find it at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. My husband works there and we used it for a pet accident and it worked great. Took out the smell and the stain.

Your daughter is only 4. Alot of 4 year old just aren't ready to be night time trained. That being said, first you need to rule out any physiological problem with a doctor. We went through this with my 8 year old. He had tests to make sure everything was in working order. We were told that most 4 year olds just don't have the bladder capacity to be dry through the night. As far as keeping her in her bed, try just talking to her about it. There is a great enzyme product for urine on upholstery. You can find it on www.bedwettingstore.com. Good luck! This too shall pass.

I would keep her in the pullups at night until she is more mature.
You are expecting a lot from a 3 yr.-old.
You need to sleep where you can hear her get up at night and put her back in bed and make sure the pullup is still on.
You might try putting her in one-piece pajamas over the pullup or something that would make it difficult for her to get it off.
Make it clear that the sofa is off-limits.
" " " that the pullup MUST stay on all night.
You can make a "star/sticker chart" to encourage her to comply.
(With a reward or special privilege if she completes a certain number of compliant nights.)
You can also take away a toy or privilege if she does not comply.
She knows what she is doing, and how much it is frustrating you!

Nite-time bed wetting can continue all the way through teenage years. My 16 year old son still does if he does not control his liquid intake close to bed-time. I did have to ask him to make sure he sleeps in his bed because I worried it would ruin my sofa, too. Teenagers love to watch TV on the weekend late enough to just fall asleep on the sofa. In my conversations with him I did not say anything that would have hurt his feelings or make him feel ashamed. It's not like he went to bed at night with the intention of wetting, so I would never want to make him feel bad. We did not have an issue when he was young with him getting out of bed to sleep somewhere else. He chose to wear the pull ups and continued until just a few years ago. Maybe she's worried that she'll be in trouble if she wets her bed. Has she told you why she gets up in the night and moves to the couch? If my son does not drink anything 2 hours before bed-time, he more than likely will not wet.

I like the suggestions everyone has given so far - especially making sure it isn't a medical problem - and the only thing I can think to add is a couple of ideas about keeping her in her bedroom at night. Have you thought about hooking up a baby monitor in her room so she can call out to you in the night if she has to go to the bathroom or get up? Sometimes my little boys would get scared in their rooms and be afraid to wake me up. I would wake up in the morning and find them in all kinds of strange places. We talked about it after a few weeks of this happening and I bought a monitor for them to call out to me so they felt safer. It only took once or twice for them to stop wandering around at night and they only called out to me three or four times after we bought the monitor. They just wanted to know they were safe. She might be scared and once she gets in a safer place after being wide awake she then wets herself. (I would really try talking to her about why she isn't sleeping in her room to rule out all possibilities.) Or another idea is to hook up one of those door alarms on her door to let you know when she is leaving the bedroom. You know the cheap ones that beep when the two parts are separated when someone opens the door? They stick on the door with sticky tape (easily removable later and included) and you can even buy them at the Dollar Trees Stores now for a buck. You could buy one and put it at the top of the door and turn it on at night to let you know her roaming hours. I have one on my "dangerous" doors (laundry/furnace room and garage door) when we have small children over for company.

First make sure it is not medical. Then raise the foot of her bed so it puts more pressure on her bladder.She may not get the signal until it is too late since she is so young.You could also get her up a few hours after she goes to bed and put her on the potty.Then take her back to bed. Repeat if needed.Eventually it will stop.Kids sleep so soundly.

I agree that she just may not be ready for night-time training. My son just turned 5 & he just started staying dry all night a couple of weeks ago. I believe that this may be the result of a more strict bedtime routine. When he started preschool, we started with bath, teeth, pee, book, & bed. At first, he would cry that he didn't have to go. We had him at least try. Sometimes he would be crying that he didn't have to go & all the while he was peeing. Then, he started racing to the potty in the morning. So for so good. I've never had trouble keeping pull-ups on him. But, I believe that kids work great with rewards. It just means that we as the parent have to find the one reward they really want. Maybe, that's what will help your daughter at least stay in hers. The night time dryness should just come when it comes. We plan on finding something really special for our son when he stays dry for a whole month. For now, he wears pull-ups. As for your couch, I'm sorry I don't know. Our cushion covers come off & are washable.

When I potty trained my now 4 1/2 year old at age 3, she did well during the day but had accidents during the night. We did the pull-ups routine and didn't switch to underwear at night until she went about 2 months dry at night. Try rewards (my daughter loved getting a sticker).

As for your couch go to the pet store and find a bottle of "Simple Solution" it does a great job with the smell (we figured if it worked for the dog accidents it should work for the human variety too and it did). Remind your daughter that she is to stay in bed for the night if night there should be a consequence but also a positive for doing what she's suppose to (something small, a sticker or a new set of crayons after a week or one-on-one time with you).