Hello all. I am looking for advice on two related topics: night time potty training and daytime accidents.
First, I am looking for tips on how to night time train. Do we just go cold turkey, with no pull up on at night? If so, should I wake her up to go to the bathroom in the night at first? I really don't know how to go about doing this effectively.
Topic number 2: Sophia is totally potty trained during the day and has been for awhile. She rarely has an accident at school, but as soon as she gets home at night it's nothing but accidents all night long, even when I bring her to the bathroom often. What I think is happening is she's lately become obsessed with changing outfits 10 times a day for fun, and when I don't let her change, she wets her pants so I have to let her change. How do I stop this? I'm doing her laundry constantly!
Well, I decided to get brave and just try the night time training last night. I had extra sheets and matress pads ready. She did great! She woke up once to go potty in the night amazingly at the exact time I was going to check on her after 5 hours of sleep. She went right back to bed and stayed dry all night! We're so proud!
As for the clothes changing, that has decreased a little, but she still does it from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedwetting
Antidiuretic hormone is the importany one on this page. IF it is not bieng produced in your child yet there is nothing you can do. IF this is a factor your child once a little older could take a pill or nasal spray that mimics this horomone if so decided at that time. If this is a factor it does not matter if you cut off liquids at such and such a time.
Don't rush it!
Children's bladders sometimes don't catch up to the rest of their body in growth. So their bladder can't hold as much. My daughther had two bladder surgeries so she potty trained kind of late. For awhile I kept her in pull ups over nite just-in-case. (They also sell rubber sheets for potty training) I limited liquids at nite and make sure she goes potty before bed time. She eventually outgrew the accidents. If your daughter has pull ups on she will learn she doesnt like the wet feeling and will eventually figure out its not a game. You might have to sit down and have a talk with her about how she's a big girl now and shouldn't be making pee in her pants.
I would keep her in a pull-up until she wakes up dry for at least a couple of weeks, unless you want more laundry! Some children physically are unable to hold their bladders all night until the age of 5 or 6 so it would not be unusual if she was totally potty trained during the day but still woke up with a wet pull-up (I have a 4.5 year old neice who still has "accidents" at night, but never a problem during the day-it's totally normal). Anyway, I wouldn't take the chance of going cold-turkey and waking her up to go. The night-time training really isn't so much training as it is bladder control.
As far as wetting herself to get a change of clothes, perhaps letting her sit in the wet pants for a bit would help? She's getting to change her clothes when she wets them so it's not so much a training issue as it is a control issue.
Good luck, it all comes with time.
I agree with Angela. My daughter is 3 years old and actually to be quite honest she was night trained before she was day trained and that was just her! Totally not normal! When I took her in for her 3 year check and she was day and night trained he was AMAZED!!! It is all about bladder control!!
As far as the other issue it is definately a control issue in my opinion and I would try to start with setting a limit. Maybe try saying okay she can change 1-2 times a night or something. The other thing she might like is "dressup" clothes and maybe over the clothes she is already wearing, I don't know maybe, my daughter will sometimes do that but usually wants to take the clothes off, but maybe it will cut down on the amount of times she wants to do it??? Not sure just a thought!
Hope all goes well! Take care!
Shelly
I agree with those who say wait until she wakes up dry. My son hated waking up wet (if he had a nighttime accident) but he really just couldn't physically help it. I went back to putting diapers on him at night, and a month later he continually woke up dry, and now he sleeps with no diapers. He was day trained for almost 9 months before I stopped putting diapers on him at night. Most of them can't physically hold their bladders while sleeping when they are that age. Good luck!
My son did the same thing! He peed his pants during the day, because he loved to change his clothes! So, after he peed his pants the first time he got new clothes. After that, if he had an accident I just gave him a pair of underwear and no pants. I gave him one outfit a day and it worked. Eventually he stopped having accidents, because he didn't like just wearing his t-shirt and underwear around the house! Hopefully, this will help with your daughter as well!
I would say that everyone else has good idea's i really like the "accident pants" just make sure that it is something that she wont want to wear
I don't allow my kids anything to drink after dinner and then I make them wear pull ups until a good month of being dry.
As far as the wetting during the day I would make her clean herself up and scrub the floor where her mess is. Then I'd put a pull up on her and no clothes until bedtime when she gets pajamas. If she gets cold she'll learn not to do it anymore. Sometimes they have to learn the hard way that it's not quite so much fun to be a trouble maker :o)
Good luck,
J.
With nighttime potty training. I make sure we limit liquids after dinner time, and I always make sure she goes potty right before she gets into bed if she falls asleep on the couch I wake her up and make her go potty and go get in her bed. I've done this since my daughter was 3 and she has had ONE accident in bed and that was partly my fault for not enforcing her to go before bed that particular night. After my daughter was daytime trained I put her in a pullup at bedtime for a good 6mos. (paranoid on my part) and she NEVER had one accident. If she's having accidents on a regular basis at bedtime she may not be physically ready to be trained. Some kids bladder or they're muscles or something aren't fully mature til later on.
The general rule for potty training is they should be waking up from naps or in the morning dry that's the number one sign they're bodies are physcially able to be potty trained.
With daytime accidents make your daughter be in full control of cleaning up and taking care of the mess. After awhile she will see it's not fun and it's easier to just go potty in the bathroom. When she has a accident and wants to change her clothes only change her undies and donot let her change into something fun or different.Let her be in her undies or some really boring sweatpants or something.Maybe buy some cheap ugly pants and call them the accident pants she won't want to wear those.
I've made my daughter be in control of her accidents since age 3. She has to remove the clothing, rinse in the sink, put soiled items in the laundry area, go in her room and find new clothing to wear. Trust me it doesn't happen that often because it's not fun. I don't get upset with accidents either becuase it's no extra work for me and it's not my problem. Sounds harsh but it teaches independance and responsibility. My daughter is 5 right now and is very very independant. She also loves to change her clothes a million times a day ugggh... and it drives me insane. Just tonight she's had one 3 different sets of pajamas. If she didn't leave the house or get her clothes dirty that she briefly wore I make her put them back in the dresser by herself. I also started making her do laundry with me and fold and put clothes away she now see's the effect on changing so much she get's frustrated that it takes twice as long to put her clothes away as it does me and I remind her I don't change my clothes multiple times a day. Sometimes I just get irritated and tell her to go back to her room and put her clothes that she just took off back on. Or I'll say you can put your clothes back on or pick out pajamas but were not changing clothes. Aren't girls fun? LOL Well good luck!
