3 year old was dry at night but now wetting

[fluffyanimal]

DS who is 3 (turning 4 in August) has been dry during the day for a few months now and has had dry pull-ups in the morning for a few weeks. Well, I should clarify: when he wakes up, he goes to the toilet and takes his own pull-up off and puts it in the bin - I don't always check it but certainly most of the times I had checked over the last month or so, the pull-up had been dry.

So a few days ago I decided to try him without a pull-up at night. He had 3 dry nights, including nights when he woke up after a bad dream. Then he wet, 2 nights in a row, so I put him back in a pull-up last night. He was upset at this and cried, even though when he wet the bed I comforted him, said it was OK and not his fault, and when I put him in the pull-up again said it was OK and not to worry etc and we would try again another time. The pull-up was wet this morning.

DH on the other hand thinks we should persevere (he's not the one that ends up changing beds at 1am) and that we have to try to get him dry at night some time. I don't think he really believes that it is a physical development, not behavioural at this age.

What I'd like to know is firstly whether people think I should have tried for a bit longer without the pull-ups before going back to them, and secondly whether people have had experiences of a period of dry nights followed by wetting again before a child became properly dry at night.

TIA!

[lemontwist]

Not really any advice I'm afraid but this is similar to my DS. He has been dry through the day for a few months now but has kept on wearing nappies in bed and I left it up to him to decide when he wanted to stop wearing them. His night time nappies have also been consistently dry. He told us the other day that he did not want a nappy on in bed and has been really pleased to be without. He has now wet a couple of times though. I plan to just grit my teeth and get on with it for now and I reckon he'll sort himself out pretty quickly. He was upset when DH suggested nappies again so we just left it.
Luckily DH is quite good with the night time get ups as I more often have to see to DS2.
I have heard people say they can get confused if swapping from one to the other. I'd maybe suggest a mattress protector and a spare bedding set so you can do a quick switch in the night and then just see how it goes.

[fluffyanimal]

Thanks Lemontwist. He has a waterproof mattress anyway, but it's the duvet that's the problem - however, I have found duvet protectors online so I may invest in one of those.

DH says I have dinted DS's confidence, which naturally made me feel terrible. I don't want to confuse him. I wonder if I'm just being selfish as I found all the disruption in the night quite hard. But also DS ended up sleeping in our bed to get him settled again more quickly and this has been an issue with us recently: after a long period of him refusing to sleep in his own bed we had cracked that problem. I partly went back to the pull-ups because I didn't want to encourage "I've wet the bed so I get to sleep in Mummy and Daddy's bed."

[lemontwist]

Just had a look at duvet protectors. Could be a good idea. My DS wet again last. He'd climbed in with me before I realised. He sleeps on his tummy most of the time so his duvet wasn't damp in the slightest so was just a quick change of sheets and pjs.
He's quite a good sleeper so wondered about quietly lifting him out of bed and sitting him on the potty before I go to bed. Might give it a try. Wouldn't work though if it'd then take ages to get him back off.
How were things last night?

[fluffyanimal]

Well last night DS was up and down like a fiddler's elbow, but his pull-up was dry this morning. I'll give it a few more nights and maybe try again when I've got the duvet protector (they are quite pricey though).

[wifenumber4]

I'm having same issue. DS was dry (without nappies) for a few weeks but then wet again.

DH said the same thing until I told him to get up and change the beds.

We've got a duvet protector but they're stiff & noisy .

Have you tried double making the bed?

Waterproof, sheet, waterproof, sheet.

Then we they wet you just whip off the wet sheets & voila, freshly made bed underneath

[fluffyanimal]

wifenumber4 that's interesting about the duvet protector, what brand is it? I wonder if I could even get just a waterproof sheet and put it on the underside of the duvet. There are lots of different products on the ERIC website, not sure which might be the best. DS also sweats a lot in bed...

It really is only the duvet I'm bothered about. His mattress is a waterproof Mothercare one, with a removable soft top cover but still waterproof underneath. I've got lots of sheets and duvet covers; what I haven't got is lots of duvets and can't afford to keep taking them to the dry cleaners.

I was thinking that next time we try without pull-ups I'd be more organised and have a spare duvet in a cover ready in his room. Double-making the base also sounds cunning. Sigh, never had this problem with DS1, once he was dry he was dry for good. So this is all new territory.

[lemontwist]

Oh no, another 3am get up again with a wet bed. I'm going to take that tip on double sheets, thanks wifenumber4. I'm definitely gonna try getting him up for a wee before I go to bed. Forgot that last night. He's such a heavy sleeper so I'm fairly sure he'll settle down again easily.

[brettgirl2]

He sounds pretty close to being ready if he's having lots of dry pullups and waking when he wets. Make sure he has a wee before bed and try in a couple of months when the Pullups are always dry.