Any tips on getting my almost 5 year old out of diapers at night?

Question

My son has been potty trained fully since right b/f he turned 3 years old. However he still wears diapers to bed and to take a nap. We don't give him any water b/f bed and have him go pee and he still wakes up with a full diaper Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

For the past year we have attempted to get him off the diaper but evebn after getting him up 4-5 times during the night he still wets the bed and thats even after having nothing to drink after 6 ( he goes to bed at 8) after a few nights he was soo tired and cranky I felt bad so I let him put the diapers back on (he wears goodnights). During the day he has no problems going pee or poop on his own and when goes to bed he puts the diaper on himself and when he wakes up he takes the diapers off himself and wipes himself. So it doesn't really bother me. However I am concerned b/c hes starting preschool fulltime in aug and I am sure they will have naptime. . .

Answer 1

Interesting answers.....
I have had children with real issues, and others whove toilet trained themselves, so really each child is very different.

Firstly, 2 out of every 10 children still wet their beds at night at 5 years of age. much more than people want to admit. heck 2% of adults still wet their beds!! most children will outgrow it by age 12.

Another words, its very common for children to still need a nappy at 5... you can do things to try and help, and star charts, heck theres even electro shock treatment, but chances are he will just do it himself when he is ready.

Im sorry if its not the answer you were wanting, but I have had real issues in the past, and at the end of the day, it was much easier just to wait until theyre ready.

FOR THE RECORD - DO NOT force them to stop drinking after tea, it actually makes their urine more concentrated and makes it even harder for them! (was also told that by a specalist!)

Goodluck!

Answer 2

Many, if not most children are still in diapesr at 'almost 3'. Sounds like you may have introduced it too early, and she's bored with the process of trying to master something she may not yet be capable of doing. I'd honestly forget about it for now. Wait for her to show more active interest and readiness. When a child IS ready for potty training, the whole process (not including night dryness) usually takes a week or two at most, NOT a year. Put her back in diapers -- they are much easier to change, and cheaper, than pull-ups. She may be ready in a month, or 6 months.

Answer 3

No drinks 1 to 1 1/2 hours before bed. If you stay up later than he does, get him up to go before you go to bed. Kids often grow faster than their bladders. Don't stress about it, but check with your pediatrician.

I would also say to invest in some plastic bed liners to go under the sheets, and take off the diaper. Diapers are made to keep kids relatively comfortable, so he's less likely to realize it's happening while it's happening.
He should be able to get through a nap--he goes that long while he's awake, right?

If you haven't already, check with your doc. to make sure there aren't any serious problems, but my guess is that he's just used to it. Good luck.

Answer 4

Have you tried putting a training potty in his room for use at night? That is what we have done with our daughter and it works really well. You may want to stop using the diaper and try putting a waterproof pad on the bed. We use the flat pad (not the fitted mattress cover) so if it does get wet at night it is easier to take it off and replace it with a dry one.

Answer 5

My son will be three in less than a week and I got him to stop wetting the bed by putting him in underwear at bedtime. After a couple of nights of wetting himself he learned to get up and go to the toilet. However the bathroom is all the way downstairs and his bedroom is upstairs and it was hard for him to make it to the toilet in the middle of the night so I put a potty chair in his bedroom that he uses ONLY at nighttime. You might want to put some plastic sheets over the mattress or what I did was put one of those training pads for puppies under him while he slept that way if he wets the bed he's not going to destroy his mattress. Good luck!

Answer 6

I put underwear under my kids diapers at night, that way they felt like they had underwear on, but if they had an accident it was no big deal. They were both nighttime potty-trained in under 2 months and have had very few accidents. I think they just get attached to the diapers, and having the real underwear on made them uncomfortable if they wet in them.

Worked for me!! Good luck with whatever you try!

Answer 7

Nighttime dryness takes time. if you or your husband or any of your siblings wet the bed, he will probably do what you did -outgrow it on their own.
They get into a deep sleep stage and their nervous system isn't mature enough to wake them up.
If you limit the length of his nap, that may help in the daytime.
I had some siblings that wet the bed, and we each had one bedwetter - all boys - and they all stopped on their own, between 8 and 14. When he gets older, if he still does it, make him help clean it up, and buy pull-ups to wear under PJs for sleepovers [ you would be surprised how many kids wet the bed! ]

Answer 8

You are going to hate this answer, but...
get up and take him to the bathroom a couple of times at night, and take him out of diapers. He won't learn if he does not feel wet. Is he starting k-5 this year. If so the diapers at nap time will be a disaster. I suggest cold turkey. Stop using them all the time. There will be significant clean up required, but it will be worth it.

Answer 9

Does he have any bladder problems that might be bringing on this problem? I had a cousin who had to wear pull-ups until she was like 10 because she had bladder problems. I would talk to a doctor about what could be causing this. You seem to be doing what you should, ie nothing to drink before bed, going potty before bed, so I can't think of what else you could do. I would consult with a dr.

Answer 10

get him up every 2 hours until he is used to doing it by himself. and don't scold or punish or make him ashamed some kids are just sound sleepers and have small bladders. My daughter is 7 and still has accidents in bed. We stopped using pull-ups and I lined her mattress w/ a plastic liner. When she has an accident she wakes up and changes then goes back to sleep feeling the wetness helps her to learn to wake up. Since I started doing this she went from every night to now about 2 night a month