My son will be four years old next month. He still wears Pull-Ups at night. He has been potty-trained since he was two
and a half but we cannot seem to get him to wake up at night to go to the
bathroom. Every time I go to the store
and drop $13.00 on a pack of Pull-Ups, I think to myself, “Maybe this will be
the last pack I buy.” With the money
we spend on Pull-Ups we could afford to get some cool service like Netflix or
take my son on a date to see a movie each month. Will we ever reach that point? Will he be eight years old and still wearing some type of protection at
night? Or will we have to invest in one
of those devices that you install in little boy’s underwear that lets out a
loud beeping sound when it starts to get wet? Yes, these exist. I know because
I used to wake up when my brother’s would beep in the middle of the night.
I know that part of the problem is that my son is a milk
junkie. Milk is part of his bedtime
routine and, while we have reduced the amount he is given, he still gets about
a half a cup to drink while we read him stories. I am very determined to keep his nighttime drinking to a
minimum. My husband, on the other hand,
sometimes caves when my son begs him for some additional milk. On the nights that he sticks to the
half-a-cup plan though, my son wakes up with dry Pull-Ups 80 percent of the
time. This gives me hope.
I'm sure my friends would tell me to stop buying them and
force him to get up and go at night. I feel certain that this advice would backfire. He would wake up too late with a wet bed and
I would have to get up in the middle of the night to change his sheets. Would he learn? I’m not sure. It’s not
exactly a punishment to have your sheets changed in the middle of the
night. There are no consequences, just
sleep interruptions for both of us. What kind of a solution is that? I think my current plan is to gradually reduce his nightly milk
consumption until it is completely removed from his bedtime routine. Then, I will wean him off of the
Pull-Ups. If this doesn’t work I will
be looking into an underwear buzzer. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
My sister actually had the buzzer thing you lie on and it worked so there is hope! We had a horrible time getting Garrett night time trained. They say to take them to the bathroom when you go to bed. Leave him in the pull up, but take him and he will get used to it. Good luck and if not then they do make them for big kids!
ReplyDeleteWell, I am an avid reader of your blog and haven't posted yet but when you so eloquently described the EXACT same scenario that I am going thru w/ Joe on the "nighttime potty training", I HAD to respond! I've done the same methods - cut back on the milk, etc. and still wet pullups! And sometimes they are so soaked through that he wets the bed anyway! Grrrrr...I have even resorted back to diapers some nights if he hasn't gone to the potty just before bedtime. Will our $$$ keep going towards pullups forever? I sure hope not!
ReplyDeleteMelinda-
ReplyDeleteYour sister had one too? The fact that you had success with Garrett gives me hope!
Kathleen-
ReplyDeleteI guess you and I will just help build the retirement fund for all of the Huggies employees :)
J- I agree with your solution. Austin was the hardest to get bed trained, due to the fact, he's like his Daddy, and always had to have something to drink. I finally stopped letting him have a drink at night before bed, and if he did get one, and still to this day, he gets little cup from the bathroom (ones he uses to rinse his mouth after brushing his teeth) with water, and that is it. When he was younger I would let him do that, and then make him try to pee before he got back in bed. I never had any issues w/Cody, he was potty trained, and we never had to do the pull up thing with him. Good Luck on this journey! Keep us posted about his progress!
ReplyDeleteCandice-
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that Cody never had to do the Pull Up thing. I'm jealous. Maybe I'll be lucky with my daughter. I like the idea of using the small, bathroom cups for drinks at night. Clever. I might have to steal that one.
Julianne-It's Carni's girlfriend. Every morning around 3am my daughter, Hailey, wakes up. She is soaked along with 5 feet around her crib. One of these nights I'LL get smart and put on two diapers. Or Own the Huggies name. I'll share the pullups with you untill the kids are 21!
ReplyDeleteLinda-
ReplyDeleteIt's a deal! We'll start a Pull-Ups co-op and order them directly from the company at a discount price. What do you say?
Can't wait to meet you!