Bedtime milk and soaked nappied in morning

[Orissiah]

My DD, 2.5 yrs old, loves milk and still has 8oz before bedtime. However, in recent weeks she has begun to wake up in the morning with a soaking nappy - sometimes she's leaked through to the bed.

I know this question has an obvious answer but I wanted to check other parents' experiences: Does this signal an end to the bedtime milk drink? Currently I give it to her as part of her bedtime routine at 7pm - milk, teeth, books, bed. But either I now reduce the quantity of milk to half that amount or I give her milk earlier in the evening eg 6pm or I give up on the milk altogether... Or give her a bigger night time nappy so it holds more wee (!!!).

What would you do?

Forgot to add that we use Pampers nappies but have bought Huggies to use when Pampers run out in case it's Pampers' absorbency that's the issue...

Try Sainsbury's, Lidl or Tesco nappies. We had the same thing we DS and Pampers/Huggies didn't cut it.

He doesn't have any water after dinner now (though plenty before) and prob about 5oz milk (he just has a cup).

Pampers are rubbish! We use Huggies size 6 for my 2.6yo dd.

Also, could you maybe change her nappy before you go to bed? We did this when dd2's leaked at night. We used to do it with dimmed lights and very quickly.

DS2 is 2.6 and wears Huggies size 6 overnight. He was still waking soaked through with that (he slleps on his front and was saturating the front of his nappy), so we've got a bit of a Robinson Crusoe approach now that works!

We use Kotex night time sanitary towels, peel of the plastic backing bit and put that inside his nappy. The extra absorbancy does the trick by spreading his wee's more evenly through the nappy and he stays dry - magic!

Milk is a food so takes longer to digest and so the 'water' part doesn't come out as wee until later on.

I would cut down on the volume, or offer her usual volume but much earlier.

DS is that age and has a drink in his tippy cup before bed, but after that we get him to sit on the potty and wee out as much as he can. Obv., not sure how far you are with potty training, but this is the only time DS uses his (he likes the stickers, which helps) and it has prevented any more night time floods.

We have pampers easy ups, btw, and he does occasionaly leak during the day, so they are fine nappies. Sounds like your DD is just overwhelming them. A bigger nappy might me the answer.

Alternatively, is she fidgeting in her sleep and loosening them? We had a few days where DS was leaking and we worked out that he was fiddling with himself and ended up aiming out the side - could your DD be tossing and turning in her sleep and loosening her nappy? I don't think she'd be investigating herself at night, but the nightime fidget could be enough to prevent the nappy doing its job.

Your bedtiem routine sounds exactly like ours with DS, 2.3 yrs. I have always used Bambo nappies, and they easily last a night.

www.soorganic.com/brands/bambo-nature.html?gclid=CP-T0KmNxKUCFcxO4QoddT_1Ug.

Bambo nappies

Thanks everyone. I've moved from Pampers to Huggies and gone up a size from 4 to 5; I've also reduced her milk by an ounce. Seems to be doing the trick but she's still a little damps on some mornings so may reduce her milk even further.

We have this problem too. Currently we're using Sainsburys size 6 with a value sanitary towel inside (these don't have plastic backing so nothing to peel off).

Often DS will wake up in the middle of the night wet. He seems to need an enormous volume of milk in the evenings - it's not unusual for him to need three 8oz bottles before he'll go to sleep, and the nappies just can't cope.

Goodness, Cuppa. You need to wean him of his big milk dependency at night - perhaps reduce by a little each day and be firm?

I think I read somewhere that too much milk can cause iron deficiencies so definitely a good idea to reduce your DS's milk asap.

It's actually half milk, half water as he likes it warm, so not as dramatic as it sounds! He seems to go through a few days of needing loads of milk, then a couple of weeks of just one bottle. Then when we think we've cracked it, back to loads of milk again.

I have tried many, many times to reduce it, and it just means he wakes up in the middle of the night......for more milk.

If he wakes in the night for more milk, perhaps you just need to be firm at night too? He'll soon, fingers crossed, get the message that even if he wakes up he gets no milk at night... A few days or weeks (eeek!) of resistance from both of you then hopefully he'll get the message? I guess it's the same as weaning DC from the dummy or other comfort object, or the same as ensuring they stay in their beds all night...

He's gone to sleep with just 8oz tonight, so we'll see how it goes!!