Lifting for wee at night

[jollygreenmama]

Who's for and against this method and why please?

DD 5.6.

Thank you

Having read the ERIC website, it seems like it's ok if combined with extra drinks in the day, no nappy etc.

And frankly, after the first 10 wet nights (and sometimes twice) if this works, them I'm doing it. Better than buying expensive pull-ups or being woken up to change a bed at 2am.

It does nothing to help and possibly slows development. The benefit is for the parents because it saves a nappy or washing.
Children need to receive a clear message from their bladder that wakes them up to get them to go for a wee. Being lifted, means they don't get that message.
It also teaches them to wee whilst half asleep.

DS was seeing continence nurse (he is 8 and never had a dry night until a year ago!) she and her colleague told me it was generally pointless. I think perhaps if you don't have a child with any sort of wetting problems other than normal occasional accidents it might seem to help. It certainly made no difference with DS1

Lifting might avoid wet beds, it doesn't help a child get dry though.

Someone I know did this, and so their son was never learning to wake up and take himself to the loo when his bladder was full. They saw an bedwetting expert who told them they must wake him fully. There was also some alarm they could get that would help wake him. Obviously there were a few nights where there were still wet sheets, and he cried a bit on being woken, but it did work. It was a few years ago now, though.

(As an adult, I feel the ability to make my way along the hall to the upstairs loo and use it and get back to bed without fully waking up is a skill to be cherished... But I am old enough to be able to make the decision about not interrupting my sleep.)

Thank you everyone, I think I'd best remove the pull up from tmrw night, restrict drinks & be ready with bedding....

You can still lift him - you just need to make sure he wakes up fully to go to the loo. Lifting while asleep or leaving him to wet the bed - neither of those is teaching him to wake when his bladder is full.

I wake dd up to lift - couldn't get her down from a top bunk asleep! It works well for us - but double layer the bed in case of accidents. A waterproof duvet cover is also very handy...

Thanks EB and Google, I'm going to try no pull up tonight and a lift if she hasn't woken before I go to bed I think eeeeK

I didn't realise that this wasn't recommended. We've been doing it with our DD (now 2.9) ever since she was toilet trained at 2.2. TBH we just do it before we go to bed to get a longer stretch of sleep for ourselves. She wakes up and comes up the hall to the baby gate if she needs to go again before morning (which she often does). It doesn't seem to be an issue for her, but I can see the logic of the arguments against.

Tried not lifting last night but she really did wee at 10 ish & was a bit upset. Going for lift and take to the loo tonight at 10 & see what happens at 3.

Greenstone, if your DD is waking up when she needs a wee, why are you lifting her at all? She seems to already be dry at night. All that she needs now, is to increase her bladder capacity so she can last all night, and the best way to do that is to stretch it by holding more wee.

We're lifting purely for selfish reasons I guess, Wine - it seems easier to get her to wee before we go to sleep (at 11ish) rather than go to sleep and be woken 2 hours later when she wakes for one herself. And since she usually needs another small early morning wee around 6am whether she goes at 11pm or 1am, it just seems easier to lift at 11.

It's a good point that we should be trying to get her to stretch to increase her bladder capacity though.

wine and greenstone she wakes after she's had a wee in her pull up & last night on a bed mat. I've just lifted her she went for a wee & is already back to sleep. I'm tired myself & couldn't wait any longer. I don't get how her bladder will get more capacity ....? She goes to the loo often during the day, I guess the bladder grows as she does. Nite nite

We have always lifted dd (now 4) but she wakes up for it eg. Chats while on the loo. It has never stopped her calling for us if she needs another wee or poo but it means she doesn't wake extra early in the morning because she needs the loo. It has never been a problem for us and she has has had maybe three accidents in the last 18 months.

I never wanted to do this with DD but she was still not dry at just over 5 with massive cannon ball pull ups in the morning. We got one of those alarms (not terribly successful because it kept going off when she wasn't wet). It did, however, show us that she was doing a wee at about 9.30pm to 10pm and sleeping through it.

We decided to get her up just before that for a few nights to see what would happen. The first couple of nights she went to the toilet and then just went back to bed and was dry in the morning. Despite having walked to the toilet she had no memory of getting up the next day. Each night she got slightly more alert when she was woken and then one night she just said she didn't want a wee and that was it - completely dry.