Making the bed for a bedwetter

[RidgewayLass]

My 27-month-old DD would love to give up nappies at night. Sometimes she won't put one on, takes it off and throws it away. Other times I can talk her into it on the basis that her bedclothes are still wet having been washed from the night before.

Obviously I could insist she wear a nappy, but I'm thinking ahead and wondering what would I do if she was 4, 5, 6? How do you deal with the laundry?

When dd was going through the potty training stage, I made her bed in layers
Mattress
Sheet
Shower curtain
Sheet
Child

In the middle of the night I could then just strip off the top (wet) sheet and the shower curtain, and pop her straight back in on the nice dry sheet.

I also used towels rather than sheets as I had lots of them so getting them washed and dried in time wasn't an issue.

yy I was going to suggest layering the bed

When my ds went through the bedwetting stage (just didn't have any control at night until well into age 4) we did the following:

1. fitted rubber sheet (nice ones from John Lewis, rubbery underneath and soft on top, though they take ages to dry indoors)
2. couple of Pampers Change Mats in relevant area (to catch small incidents without involving the rubber sheet)
3. fitted cotton sheet (quite thin, dries quickly)
4. repeat all above

This way, an "incident" only requires removal of the top "set" and back to bed. Of course I'd usually then go and put them in the wash right away, to accelerate the process of washing/drying in case of more trouble!

Sometimes the duvet was also involved... we bought one of those duvets in two pieces: a 4 tog and 9 tog which can be poppered together. That way we could use either and if the duvet & cover got wet, just swap over as with the sheets.

In fact I still do this for dd who isn't without nappies yet but very sweaty at night and it works well for sickness too (with pampers mats strategically placed!

On a different tack, at this age I'd be inclined to tempt her to stay in the nappies by buying the novelty ones eg. pull-ups or with disney characters on. You won't be using many so cost not such an issue. Don't worry about as she gets older - it's likely she'll get dry at night spontaneously some time.

With both of mine we've made a habit of putting them on the potty/toilet when we go to bed - initially because they were just overflowing normal nappies, but later it gave us a better chance of getting past 4am without being woken for a wet bed.

Good luck!

PS my DD is 30 months now and no way ready to go without a nappy, but we have similar irrational behaviour on various subjects!

I put a normal fitted sheet on first then a waterproof sheet over the top then if she wets in the night i just take off the waterproof one

Thanks, layers is the way to go, and the shower curtain idea is great - all the waterproof mats I've seen have a lovely cotton top which is great in theory but in practice something I can wipe and dry and put back would be fantastic.

Today we went and bought a month's supply of lovely nappies with pretty pictures on, and told her that when she can keep these dry, she won't have to wear them anymore, and that that will happen one day and it's all okay. She said "yes mummy, I know." in a yeah, sure, whatever teenage kind of tone.