3 Year Old Doesn't Want to Wear Diapers at Night

We use pullups at night. My daughter does really good staying dry at night and getting up to go potty at night when she needs too....BUT every now and then she will wet the bed at night...so we still put a pullup on her. They are like underwear so she's ok with it.

Hello E.,
You might just try waking up throught the night taking her to the potty and making her go then tuck her back in. After a while she will get up all the time and do what you do with out you having to be there. It will become habit when she needs to go. I found that it worked for me and no more washing bed sheets after a night sleep.
Just a thought. Good luck.

Romy

Both my boys went through this when they were old enough not to want diapers but too young to make it all night consistently. Here is what we do...

- Last drink of the night is with dinner, and it is one cup.
- Always go potty right before bed.
- I remind them before bed that if they wake up in the middle of the night, they need to go use the potty whether or not they feel like they need to.
- I wake them up before I go to bed to use the bathroom one more time.

This isn't perfect, they still have accidents occasionally. But it takes care of the majority of them. Your daughter isn't too little to make it through the night because she has done it. My oldest stayed dry all night from 30 months old and I know kids who have managed even younger.

I have a 3yr old (Sept. birthday) that did the same thing, just before her 3rd birthday. Because she requested it, we went ahead let her experience the self triumphs of having dry nights and self lows when she had an accident at night. I would say after the first week, we had no more accidents and only two nights with an accident in that first week. Sure she gets me up at night to go, but that's okay, it has become less and less as time goes by. We have gone as far as moved her up to a twin bed (yet we make sure it has a waterproof mattress pad to be safe) as a reward to her for making such a big girl decision and be so successful. One thing that I have to remember is to limit how much she drinks right before bed and what it is. So an hour before bed is the time frame I've established and then its no more then 1/2 glass of milk or water. The other thing that I found is that, she tells me during her bedtime routine that if she has to go, she is going to use the "big" toilet or the potty chair its like it is her way of reminder herself what to do, as well as making sure I know that she knows what to do.
Your daughter is ready, she has told you as much. I imagine that in no time she'll have accident free night every night. I'm smiling for you, because what an exciting time for her and you.

Hi E.,

When my son had this same desire, we made a chart for him. I told him that part of my job as his mommy was to be sure he got good sleep to stay healthy and happy, and when we wake up with wet sheets, its not good for us. So, when he stays dry for 7 nights in a row, then we can get rid of the night-night diaper. We made a list together of things we thought might help him stay dry ; going pee-pee before bed, drinking only little bits after supper, listening to his body when it said it had to go, etc. Good luck!

First off, cover the mattress with plastic. Then go to the pet store and get two products. The first are puppy training pads, which have the same chemical in them as diapers, but they're flat. You can put these under your child (either under the sheet, or over it if you think it will stay in place - ie. she's not a big mover). The other product is something called Nature's Miracle, which is an enzyme that cleans up urine. There are lots of other products on the market, but that's the one that works best for me. Then, let her sleep in underwear! Clean-up will be easy with the training pads, but if for some reason she misses, clean-up isn't bad, then, either!

My three-year old slept in underwear, so I don't think she is too young. Then again, children have accidents until they are much older, so you have to be prepared to do some cleaning. She'll probably learn much more quickly while wearing underwear than diapers, so this is a great step.

Good luck!

Hi E.
My son wanted to be diaper free at night at two and I did not think he could do it at two so I would put a diaper on him and in the middle of the night he would take it off and he would wake up dry but if he left his diaper on he would wake up wet. so we just let him sleep with nothing on his bottom for a few weeks until he got the hang of it. Good Luck T.

have her wear those diaper panties, that she can pull down by herself, tell her if she can wear those until she doesn't wet the bed for 2 or 3 weeks then she can go with our a diaper, it is good she wants to do that so encourage her.

She is not physically to young to be night trained. Put a plastic sheet on the mattress to protect it. You may have to have lots of sheets to wash but other then that let her try. She will get it.

I just posted a request just opposite of yours...my daughter can't wait to put the diaper on! I am sure she will eventually get to this point, so I will be interested to see what people put!

You can help her by waking her at the same time every night to go to the bathroom. We used to get our son up every night before we went to bed. If there's a time you wake up at approximately every night to go to the bathroom, take her too. It will give her that extra span to help her make it through the night. My son is 3 and now gets up and goes at night by himself. Throw a pad over the bed to make it easier to get her back to bed after a wet night. Hang in there, she's on her way!

You've gotten some great advice (Especially the puppy pads! I'll have to remember that!). One thing I'd like to add is put her in training underwear at night; that will help with the mess if she does have an accident. I don't know how readily available they are at Target and Wal-Mart, but Gerber makes them, and I've seen them online and at speciality stores. They are basically padded underwear, and they do come in girlie prints. You might be able to get away with just having her wear with them, without pointing out that they are "different" underpants.

And going with the puppy pads, you can double sheet the bed, so if she has an accident in the middle of the night, clean up is a breeze. Put a plastic mattress cover on, then a pad, then a sheet, then another pad, and another sheet.

Her body just might not be physically ready to make it thru the night full time. You could try cutting her liquids off a couple hrs before bed, then have her go potty the VERY LAST thing she does before climbing into bed. You could also ditch the diaper and put her in a Pull Up, but she may think that's too close to a diaper.

first, my "kids" are 23 & 26 now. We didn't have an option like pull-ups, which IMO really aren't the wonderful thing parents think they are for potty training. It seems that there are more people with issues of "partly" trained kids now. Moving past that... we had been told by an "experienced potty training parent" that once you go start potty training, it is underwear, no diapers, period, day or night. Pull-ups are really glorified diapers. Underwear let's them feel the wet & they learn from it. So, we did have an option of plastic pants over the underwear. I'd suggest putting these on her (if you can find them) so she can have some sense of success that the bed isn't wetting but yet she is getting wet. Does that make sense? Also, when she does wet the bed, don't make a production out of it. No lights, no everyone up, no remaking the bed etc. Keep things quiet (everyone is sleeping right?) and give her a large bath towel to put over the wet spot. I'm assuming you have a mattress protector too. Then help her change the bed in the morning. Having her take some ownership of the changing means that she isn't getting extra attention either. It's a very fine balanced line at this point.

Working this way, I can honestly say my boy had 2 nighttime accidents and my daughter 1. Key is of course waiting until they are physically "mature" (having the muscles to hold it) which comes some time between 28 months & 36th months, which your daughter may very well be at almost 3YO.

Good luck!

My rule of thumb is once you quit the diapers don't get back into them, especially if she's asking to wear undies.

What's the worst thing you have put sheets in the wash the morning that she wets...

Trust me she'll learn a lot quicker if she's out of diapers, she'll sense the urgency much sooner than if in pull-ups or diapers at night. Three is definately not too early to physically feel the urgency of pee at night time. Some it takes awhile longer and others not. My oldest took an entire year from when she was potty trained at night and that was probably me switching from undies and diapers at night. Now, at five she has no accidents at all ever. My middle child, just 3 years old was daytime and night time potty trained at the same time at 2 years old, but will wet her bed every once and a while because she has stopped her afternoon nap in the last 6 months and sleeps so hard at night that sometimes she can't wake up in time to go, waking up screaming from being wet and not wanting to have to deal with it.

So everyone is different, but I would get rid of diapers once you make a switch otherwise it'll be too confusing. Also, limit drinking in the evening. We do no drinks (not even a sip) after 6m (dinner). That has seemed to help her too. She hasn't had an accident in about 2-3 weeks.

Hope that helps.

Happy Holidays!
L.

My son did the same thing after awhile of being trained during the day. We had gone on Amazon and found some Gerber vinyl covers that are used for cloth diapers and such. We put those on over his underwear... That way he could still use the potty in the night if he needed to but, if he had an accident, we didn't need to wash sheets and pajamas... Most everything was protected! They're pretty cheap and worth it!

If she is ready to be diaper free, I would definatly incourage her to do so. My daughter did the exact same thing. For awhile what I would do is get her up before I went to bed, around 11ish and sit her on the potty and she would still be sleeping, lol, but she would go potty then wake up dry. Hope this helps.

Get her some waterproof trainers. Target sells some made by Gerber. Or there is a brand called Potty Patty that you can get on ebay and some other online store. There are also lots of WAHM brands out there. I have some made by Cuddlebug Cloth, they are the trimmest and most underwear-like of the three. My daughter is the same way, but our problem is that she takes off the trainer after she pees in it, and then doesn't put on another one, so we still have wet sheets later on. Your other option is to get up in the middle of the night and escort her to the bathroom before she has an accident. This would be less traumatic for her than having an accident, but is obviously going to disturb your sleep. Of course, if she's waking you up after an accident, your sleep is already disturbed.

Hi E.,
I say "go for it!" If she wants to do it and has some success- I say keep at it. I was surprised when our 2nd boy wanted to go diaper-free at night before his 3rd birthday (even though he had been daytime trained for a good amount of time before that) but my husband encouraged me to just let him try it. He had 2-3 accidents total over a 2 week time period but after that had hasn't had an accident since. My oldest boy didn't go diaper free until his 4th birthday so I was surprised at the 2nd one's willingness and ability to keep dry, but he did. Sounds like your daughter is on the right track and you capitalizing on "her wanting to do it" is definitely the way to go.
Good luck and good for her!!

She isn't too young to go all night with out a diaper. Maybe she can't have anything to drink an hour or two before bed, and then she should try to go potty right before she lays down for the night. I haven't dealt with this myself, but I know friends that have used this and it helped them. They said with in a week or two they were done with diapers and pull ups at night.
Good luck!