Weaning Out of Sleep-pants?

I would just wait it out and keep using pull-ups. Night time is a different animal if he is a heavy sleeper. His body will tell you when he is ready to take the pull-ups off at night. It will be sooo much less stressful for all. It will happen eventually.

Every bit of medical research done says that you simply can't train a child to be dry at night. It's not behavioral, it's physical. There is a hormone that develops in young children that allows their bodies to concentrate the urine during the night. Until that hormone is present, a child isn't physically able to wake him/herself to pee at night.

You could get the alarms for your son's pull up or bed so that it wakes him (and you) when he's pee'd, or you could wake him at certain intervals and get him out of bed to pee in the toilet. Whatever you chose… it's going to cause YOU to get less sleep. Why not just let him stick with pull ups until his body is ready?

In case it helps, I have identical twin girls. Both neuro-typical. They day time trained at just over two years old. One started waking up dry at about two and a half, and hasn't had a pee accident since she turned three. The other was wet every single morning until after she was six. We tried a few times to get her up at night to pee, and she would, but then she'd pee again later in the night. So I finally gave up and just dealt with pull ups. About two weeks after her sixth birthday she woke up dry one morning. Within a month, she was dry every morning. We didn't do anything to cause this - she was just ready.

Save yourself the hassle of changing sheets, waking at night, and struggling… and leave your son in pull ups until he's ready. You'll know he's ready because his pull ups will be dry in the morning!

How much do you learn when you are unconscious?
This is just a matter of his bladder being mature enough - and you can't train for that.
Our son was in pullups at night till he was 7 1/2 yrs old (he was day trained at 3 1/2).
Some of his friends had trouble with wetting the bed till they were 11 or 12 yrs old.
It's so common and autism has nothing to do with it.
Until his body is ready there's nothing you can do to make it ready any sooner.
Waking him up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom accomplishes nothing.
When our son woke up dry for a solid 2 weeks in a row then we were done with pullups.
There were still a very few accidents but we knew he could do it.

There really isn't any kind of training that can be done. His bladder hasn't grown to the point where it can hold urine through the night. Night "training" isn't about waking up to pee, it's about the bladder not having to empty at night anymore. Waking up because he's just peed himself won't make him wake up before that happens. Waking up while you're already peeing, when you're groggy and it's dark, won't make him get to the bathroom in time - there will be some wet in the bed, some on your carpet, he'll fall down trying to get to the bathroom. I don't believe in pull-ups for daytime use, for training, but for a bedwetter, I think they are fine.

It isn't a matter of training but a matter of time. It will take as long as it takes for his body and brain to mature. If he isn't waking up and his bladder isn't holding off then the sleep pants are about all you got to work with. Neither you nor he can train for something that is happening when neither of you are conscious.

I can't imagine anything so horrible as an alarm in your pants or your bed. That would almost seem like a punishment to a sleeping child. You don't have to train it. Relax. I have 2 late bloomers. It will right itself in time.

What you can do is eliminate drinks, except a sip of water before bed, two hours before bedtime. That will help him not to have a full bladder. You can make him go to the bathroom right before bed. That will also help him to not have a full bladder. But keep the pull ups on and allow both of you a stress free night of sleep until his body is ready to do this on its own.

Please stop. His body will be ready when he's ready. Don't spend money on an alarm either, you'll only lose more sleep and it WILL cost you a lot more money if you change him several times through the night when that alarm goes off. I need my rest so I don't worry about them wetting. I care about them taking a shower in the morning so they don't smell like pee all day.

Obviously if you're having to wake him up to change him and his bed then hubby doesn't know what he's talking about. Seriously? He thinks he just needs to be wet to stop it? He's wet and it's not stopping him so how is hubby's comment even connected to what's actually going on?

IF you have a LOT of free time and a LOT of extra money to do laundry load after load every day then by all means, put him in underwear. BUT don't wake him up. That does nothing but make everyone lose sleep.

Keep him in pull ups until he's dry several weeks in a row. Then you can go to underwear but he's still going to have accidents. So keep a waterproof pad on his bed so his mattress won't stink.

The cost of pull ups is about $20 per month. That's one pull up per night and a couple more out of a new box. We pay about $15 for each box of overnight pulls ups at Walmart. We use that whole bag plus a few more from a new one. So 3 bags covers well over 2 months.

Adding 2-3 loads of bedding to your already full laundry chore is frustrating and it costs a lot more than that box/bag of pull ups.

You increase your electric bill for the water, the power to run the washer and dryer, the natural gas to run the dryer, the laundry supplies can double and that's a huge increase in cost. I add bleach to my loads to help sanitize them. Only about 1/4 of a cup though. It doesn't take much and that's only in a top loader machine. I use vinegar in my front loader.

So to keep costs down and your time freer you need to keep him in one pull up every night for the time being.

Also, have the doc do an x-ray of the kiddo's abdomen. I bet you're surprised at how much stuff is in there. In a lot of cases where the kids just don't stay dry at night they have a LOT of feces in their body. Taking one dose of that powder that stays clear in liquid really keeps the kids from getting blocked up.

When they are having issues we give it to them twice per day for 4 days then back it down to 1 time per day. They have to take it every day for now.

I have IBS with chronic diarrhea. The kids appear to have IBS but with chronic constipation. The weight of the feces push the pee out when kiddo relaxes and goes to sleep.

Make sure they are drinking enough, even in the evening. This will allow their bladder to completely fill and might start waking them up. It seems odd I know. BUT a dehydrated kid wets more than a kid who has plenty to drink.

Simple, you can not night train, it is physical.

There are a few aids that will help wake him up in the middle of the night, but even those don't train him to hold his bladder when he's asleep. They are a tool, and nothing else.

I don't feel that you can teach a child to do/not do something when they are unconscious. my son will be 8 in a couple months, he still wears a pull-up every night, and it is soaked every morning. my other two children were day/night trained 100% at 3 years old. I don't make an issue of it, I would never dream of waking him up during the night or disturbing my sleep to wake/change him... we do an older kid pull-up, throw it away every morning. when he's dry for 4 or 5 weeks in a row, we'll stop. it's really not even on my radar(or his).

Just talked to our ped again about this last week. Its a matter of brain and body maturing; physical readiness is not something you can train. For some kids it happens at two, some at nine.

Let it be, layer sheets and waterproof pads on the bed and let him keep something absorbant on at night til he is dry consistently for two weeks.

I just had this discussion with DH about our 5 yr old. She's a heavy sleeper - I can move her from the car to the bed and get her changed into PJs and she won't wake up. But that translates into she needs a pull up or she'll wake up and get very upset. I would rather she not start the day crying (even though I tell her it was just an accident) so we keep the pull ups. We've tried without a few times and it's just not time yet. As a note, she does sometimes get up and go potty, but still often has a wet pull up, even though she doesn't drink an excessive amount and potties before bed, too.

Buy the underjams or do laundry, but try not to stress.

My pediatrician said the alarms that go in the kids undies are effective.

You could get the alarm.. they are about $50.

My daughter is almost 8 wears a pull up every night.. and is wet most nights.. I do not worry.. I do not care.. I do not praise her for being dry.. I do not scold her for being wet..

we are waiting for her brain to mature and wake her up when she has to pee. It is not bad behavior... My daughter has no stress over being wet... It is not a big deal. kids will grow out of this if you do nothing..

For some kids it is a matter of training-- they wake up, but don't want to get up and go to the bathroom for various reasons. It could be as simple as needing a nightlight in the hall and bathroom or something like that. For other children, however, they just sleep so hard that they do not wake from the sensation of the urge to pee. For those kids, there is little in the way of "training" you can do. You just have let their bodies catch up and start sending strong enough signals that override their deep sleep.
My son was an on again/off again guy like that until around age 8 or 9. It came in waves, kinda like growth spurts do. He'd have a long series of complete dryness, and then wham... 2 or 3 nights in one week, he'd wet the bed.

In my opinion, the more important thing to do is to teach your son what to do when it happens. Show him (and explain without judgment) what to do with his wet things, what he should use to clean himself up and where to get what he needs to get back to bed/sleep (fresh sheets, a dry blanket, etc). I had my son put his wet things in the bathtub, and to tell me in the morning. Most times, he didn't tell me, but I'd find the wet things in the tub midway through the day.

Good luck, hope for the best, and don't feel like you've failed at anything. You haven't. And neither has your son. It's just a growth thing for some kids. My son is 15 now, and it's been so long since he's had an issue that I almost (*almost*) long for the days of him needing me a little more. They grow up so fast. sigh.

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For the record, we didn't try any alarms. Son is such a deep sleeper that he would have never heard them anyway. His room as at the other end of our house from ours, and even setting an alarm clock right next to his bed, he doesn't hear it (loud enough that it wakes us up in OUR room). He just sleeps really deeply. It is better now that he is older.

For a time, I would take a moment just before "I" went to bed at night, and wake him enough to walk to the bathroom and have him go. Once he went, he'd flush, wash and practically run back to bed and was completely back to sleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Such a deep sleeper he didn't even remember it the next day. He doubted me when I told him I woke him up at night like that.
It might help save some $ on pull ups if he can empty his bladder near midnight. Might, might not. Up to you if you think it is worth trying.

I am sure others have pointed this out, but you can not "night train". The body must mature to a point where it holds the urine all night or wakes the child up, and that can not be taught. For most children this will happen by 7, but some are older. My nephew was 9, my cousin was 14. At age 7 they will sometimes give medication to try to speed up the process, but it is still about the body, it has nothing to do with behavior unless the child is waking up and then, while awake, wetting.

I have trained 3 and have 1 to go. As of yet, I haven't had a late bloomer. However, I was nervous about taking away the pull up at night with my oldest and so I bought a plastic sheet (at Target but I think they are available in many places). I would put a regular fitted sheet down, then the plastic one and finally another fitted sheet. It doesn't change the amount of laundry you do but does minimize the awake time for you and your son in the case of an accident. If you decide to try out your husband's theory that the discomfort would help him night train, I would suggest investing in a plastic sheet.

I read a couple of responses - answering your question. But, what I didn't really see is - why don't you ask him what he wants to do? At 6.5, he is plenty old enough to know if he wants to try to wear only underwear at night. Be easy/casual about it and don't get angry if he has an accident. Just ask him if he wants to try. My understanding is that PLENTY of boys have night sleep issues until they are quite old.

Both of my kids TOLD me when they wanted to stop wearing pull ups at night. My son had a few accidents, but my daughter was DONE with pullups and had no accidents. Interestingly enough, she does get up at night and go potty whereas my son does not. He just holds it all night.

Good luck!
L.