bed protection at night ??? getting 4 year old dry at night, and any tips for a lazy 5 year old boy

[JillMLD]

We're thinking of taking our 4 year old daughter out of pullups at night as they are mostly dry in the morning anyway. (Also have a 5 1/2 year old son still in pullups at night but he is saturdated every morning so thats another story ...)

Anyway what do I need to do protection wise on the bed ? We also have a baby so I already have a ton of washing and dont want any middle of the night panics.

I was thinking of this:

• mattress
• then waterproof mattress cover so nothing ever gets to the mattress
• then a normal sheet
• then a washable bedpad thingy
• then another sheet

so if she wets in the night we wheech off the top sheet and pad, and hopefully the underneath sheet is still ok, minimum fuss, back to sleep.
Does that sound ok ?
Is it overkill ?
Have I missed anything ?
Does the duvet suffer too ? I kow you can get protectors but they seem pricey.

If anyone has any tips I would love to hear them.

Also if anyone has any tips for my 5 1/2 year old son I am all ears too! He is very lazy in the day and we constantly have to remind him, he comes home damp from school most days, and towards the end of the half of a term he comes home proper wet every day, he seems so much worse when tired.
As I said his pullups are sopping wet in the morning. One night he took his pullup off deliberately and the bed was drenched in the morning. Should I even go there ? Leave i for a while ? Force the issue ?

Sorry if all this has been asked before but I can't face trawling through tons of old threads on the off chance and then not finding anything specific to us ......

Thanks
Jill

perfect, not overkill at all.as for yuor son , take him to the docs for a wee check up! he might just have a chill or a weak bladder, theres lots that can be done! have you thought of one of those "bed wetting" alarms for the kids.fab things! good luck

A visit to the doctors is a good idea to make sure there isn't anything wrong physically with your DS.

If everything is fine then does the school have regular bathroom breaks? At my DC's school the teachers take them to the bathroom at regular intervals to avoid accidents. Not wanting to leave playing to go to the bathroom sounds about normal at this age. Can you take him to the toilet at regular intervals during the day to get him into a routine, such as before and after a meal, around snack time and as soon as he gets in from school? If he has to stop what he is doing and go to the bathroom he may use the toilet as he is there anyway and so cut down on accidents.

Children under the age of 8 do sleep very deeply. Mine slept through all the smoke alarms in the house going off during a cake disaster a couple of years ago. He might genuinely not realize he needs to go when he is asleep. The wet bed alarm might help with this.

Does he have a night light and can he get to the bathroom easily at night? Maybe he is scared of getting out of bed in case a monster under it will grab him or there is something lurking in the hallway.

Can you explain in a helpful not angry way how his clothes can get smelly if he wets them at school? He might not know that urine does smell after a while and he probably wouldn't like his friends knowing he has accidents.

Not sure, but here's what I did.

Equipment - tbh I borrowed 2 waterproof covers from friends and relatives, then just had a mattress, covered with a waterproof cover, and an ordinary sheet - any accident, just cover and sheet off.

In our case, the second waterproof cover was actually best put on our bed as ds is usually in ours by the morning anyway.

I'd second taking ds to the doctor, but assuming nothing physical is wrong, would simply get a bit strict about reminding to use the loo. would also ensure that he has dry clothes at school and is encouraged to change into them by teacher? I am not brilliant on bladder control myself so need to make myself go whenever I have the chance - maybe it's just that.

Then perhaps I would put your ds into pants and pyjama trousers, and start/restart lifting your ds as you go to bed? - i.e. lift out of bed and (in our case) get ds to pee into a bucket (easier than a potty). Another mn'er assured me this was doing no good at all, and at the beginning I'm sure she was right, but as time went on he began to wake up a bit as he was doing it, and soon I was able to just wake him up and sort of guide him upright, and he would climb back into bed himself. Shortly after this we started taking the risk of leaving him to it, and after 1 accident, he began noticing his pants getting wet and waking up before he had done a real wee.

Sorry about long post but I found the whole thing mystifying at first so wondered if the info might be useful.

Thanks to all. The whole thing is competely mystifying. I cant see how they learn to not wet the bed, its all a black magic isnt it.

We have had DS checked, sorry I thought Id put that, think my post was waaaay longer and I deleted half of it LOL. He had a scan last year, everything is fine, I think he is just busy/lazy/complex!!
I will stock up on sheets etc and might think about going for the night swith DD.

Thanks
Jill

I've just bought my ds (4 in March) a waterproof sheet as we're going to attempt getting him dry at night. Usually his pull ups are dry in the morning & I hussle him to the loo & into pants before he soaks his pull up which seems to me a good sign he's ready. Having said that every now & then he wakes us up in the night because he's soaked through his pull up. I'm going to wait until he's settled back into nursery after the Christmas break but am concerned about how to get him from dry during the day to dry at night. We've explained what's going to happen & he seems happy enough so just have to play it by ear I guess. Good luck JillMLD.