Night training a 4yo

[OhCobblers]

Potty trained DC1 at 2.6 and all went well - seemed to work for him leaving it a little later than his peers.
About 6 months later i tried no night nappies as he was waking with dry pull ups, however, it ended up with him constantly wetting the bed; sometimes shouting for us and sometimes sleeping in it!!

Although i always made the bed up twice it was still fairly unsuccessful so we left it, tried again 6 months later and the same result. Now at 4 i really want to give it another go - he has on and off dry mornings/non-dry but most of the time i think he's doing the wee as he wakes up. He seems a bit too old to have a potty in his room - would rather he went straight to the loo (next door to his room) which he's more than capable of doing.

Any tips on how to make the 3rd attempt more successful? I was thinking about getting the Reward Chart back out and giving a present when he's had a week of success??

TIA

I would rather have the potty in his room if he will use it, rather than running to the toilet and not making it in time, especially if he wakes as he starts to wet, and then has to stop himself. If you think he is waking and just using the pullup instead, it will be easier if he has nothing on his bottom half and can get on the potty by his bed quickly (without a trail of wee to the loo) When he gets more reliable and all the wees are in the potty, you can give it up in favour of the loo. I think some sort of reward scheme could work, as long as you reward successes and don't make a big deal of lapses. Remember that you can show him what to do, but being dry at night is a developmental thing, and until he can wake himself up and go to the loo, no amount of training will help.

HI,

I have just gone through this with DD2. In fact I posted a couple of weeks ago about what to do if a child wet the bed at night but didn't wake up, thoughts were not ready and back into pullups. She was keen to stop wearing pullups so I decided to give it a week and see where we were. Like you we had tried it twice before. She will be 4 in October.

First few nights she wet the bed which was when I posted but then a night or so later she had a bad coughing fit as I was going to bed and I took her to the bathroom to get her a drink of water and try and break the cycle of coughing (she didn't have a cough normally). Whilst there I got her to sit on the toilet, she did a wee, had some water and went back to sleep - no wet bed in the morning. So for the next week I lifted her as I was going to bed and sat her on the toilet, had told her I was doing this. For the first 4 nights she did a wee but the next 3 just said nothing was coming but she did get up at 6am 2 mornings and go to the toilet then back to bed and sleep. Out of the 7 nights she only wet the bed once.

After a few nights of a dry bed in the morning I said if she kept getting up and doing the first wee in the morning (the one I suspected she was being lazy with and doing in the pullup) I would get her a die-cast Chuggington train. Had used these as an incentive for day training at one stage when she was regular accidents.

I was fearing a long process but it has actually resolved itself much quicker than I had thought.

I will watch this with interest as I am a week in to attempting this with my ds who just turned 4. So far it has been totally mixed, he has been totally dry 3 nights, wet the bed in the evening 2 nights but then dry through until morning, and 2 nights he wet the bed in the night.
I have tried lifting him before I go to bed every night but he never does a wee then! Drinks have been restricted before bed but this hasn't made a difference.
I am giving it another week and then if no joy he will have to go back in to pull-ups as we are off on holiday for 2 weeks. Previous to me trying this, he always had a wet pull-up in the morning, so I have been surprised that we have any success at all tbh.
OP it sounds like it's definately worth a try, maybe try lifting before you go to bed or maybe even at 6am if you thing she's weeing then? You could then get 5 mins later each morning so you aren't getting up so early!

oops I was mixing the op with another poster, definately don't start getting up at 6am if you don't have to!

thanks v much for the latest posts.

we're on hols soon too so will wait 'til we're back and then begin again in earnest.
for those of you that "lift" them before going to bed yourselves, do they pretty much do it (wee) in their sleep or do they wake up fully? If the latter, do they go back to sleep pretty quickly?

DC1 has never been a problem in going to bed and sleeping 12 hours but would hesitate to break that lovely routine!!

DD2 has pretty much done a wee half asleep the nights she did do it. I lifted her in darkness, carried her both to the loo and back, but had the lights dimmed in our bedroom (our ensuite is nearest so girls use it overnight) so she stirred slightly but not fully awake. She kinda sat on the loo leaning against my legs so not awake enough to sit upright herself.

The nights she didn't wee she just muttered "nothing coming" and I just put her back to bed. She is a child who won't go till she needs to by day no amount of persuading : )

Like you I was scared of breaking a nice 12 hour sleep but she went straight back over to sleep.

DD1 was completely dry overnight in under 3 weeks with most of the wet beds being in the first week and since then never had an accident - touch wood!

I am really stuck on this one. DD1 will be 5 in Spetember and is starting school in August. She has been dry through the day since she was under 3.

I started trying to get her dry through the night last summer - lifting her before I went to bed, restricting drinks - with mixed results. Then we went on holiday and she was wet every night. Didn't improve when we came home and I decided to put the pull ups back on her and try again at another time.

DD2 was born in January and I wanted to let DD1 settle into being a big sister before trying again. However, we have about 7 weeks till she starts school and I really feel she should be dry at night but her pull ups are always wet in the morning.

Is it a physiological thing or can she control it at this age?? I am still feeding the baby in the night and tired enough without changing sheets inbetween feeds! Can anyone give advice?

Back again!
We've started lifting DC1 before going to bed, and more often than not he does a wee. He'll also get up in the morning and take himself off to the loo at 6.30am/7am before getting ready for school.

My question is, how long should we "lift" him for before taking the risk of leaving him all night?