KiasuParents - Parenting in Singapore

Hi,
Want to seek advice from other mummies on how to train your kid to sleep without diapers and waking up to use thcan't ilet whenever necessary.
My son aged 5years old is already toilet trtowels under The problem I encounter is he is unable to control his pee and wets the bed almost every night.
In the initial stage when trying to stop letting him wear diapers to sleep, I wake him up every 2 - 3 hours to bring him to the toilet to pee. Subsequently, I realised that if he wears underwear under his PJs, he is able to control and not wet the bed.
But this situation does not last long. Now even if he wears his underwear under his PJs, he will still pee in his pants. I have even tried waking him up almost around midnight to "force" him to pee in the toilet for the last time before he sleeps through the night.
I am really tired trying to make him control his pee in the night. I have also talked to him to wake up and wake me up if he needs to pee in the night. It doesn't work at all.
This problem is also giving me a lot of trouble as he wets the king mattress he is sharing with his brother. My maid can't sun the mattress as it is too heavy for her to carry up. I even put a towel underneath his buttocks but it doesn't help. Really worried about the growth of bedbugs and other bugs too..
I never had this problem with my 2 older kids when they were at his age.

Any advice please..
It's really stressing me out.

Hi dear mummy,

Do you limit the amount of liquids he consume before bedtime? Its possible thats he's not ready to go diaperless during sleeptime, I suggest limit water intake before bedtime, make it a routine to do toileting before bedtime and invest in a waterproof bedcover.

Hi sweetbaby,
He does not drink much before bedtime. And I also make him use the toilet before he goes to sleep.
Where can I get the waterproof bed cover n how much will that cost?

During day time, do you notice if he's going to the toilet more often than usual? If he was able to stay dry overnight, I'm curious why he can't now.

To reduce stress and if your ds does not mind, how abt considering pull-up diaper pants in the meantime?

dear mummy wrote:Hi sweetbaby,
He does not drink much before bedtime. And I also make him use the toilet before he goes to sleep.
Where can I get the waterproof bed cover n how much will that cost?

I used to use a plastic tablecloth under the bedsheet when my kids were young. That way, you only have to wash the sheets when he wets the bed. Have you consulted a doctor? Could there be a physical reason why he can't control during the night?

Does he take naps in the day, and if so, how long are the naps and does he pee when he naps? If he doesn't, then you can try talking to him to tell him it can be done as he doesn't always pee when he sleeps (i.e. during nap).

I think it's psychological, and has to do with his confidence. When we were preparing DS to go off diapers at night, he would want the security of still having diapers on at night even though he would not pee in his sleep. It was the transition period, and after a while we slowly took it off, when he had more confidence.

But I think you need to do something about the mattress if he had wet it a fair bit. It's not hygenic to leave it that way. I don't think washing is an option, so maybe you can use those dettol spray, and also make sure it dries afterwards. If cannot sun, maybe use a hairdryer? After that, it would be useful to put a layer of either plastic or rubber sheet underneath while training him...

I've never tried this but saw on TV, fbreeze, or something like that, suppose to sanitise bed and such. You can chk it out

1st things 1st. No need to stress. There is no hard and fast rule as to when each kid needs to be fully toilet trained.

Every kid is different. I had to put in effort to get DD toilet trained at night. As for DS, it happened on its own. He basically woke up with dry diapers most mornings and we simply took the cue from there.

Your son may just be a deep sleeper so that makes it a bit tougher. My nephew was like that. He was finally off diapers only when he was 7+yrs old.

Instead of removing the diapers totally at night, put him on training pants but still go about the usual of waking him to pee and all. Check if his training pants remains dry in the morning. If it remains dry, then try removing it at night but just in case of accidents, place a rubber mat on his side of the bed plus a towel before putting the bed sheet over it. That will protect the mattress should he wet himself.

You boy doesn't seem to have any problems in the day so I doubt there is anything physically wrong. So may simply be a case of him not being ready to be off diapers at night.

Honestly, I remember wetting the bed when I was younger. It always happened when I would dream about going to the toilet at night. When I realized what made me do it, then at night when I dreamt I woke myself up

Hi ladies,
Thanks for the many advice.
He is not taking naps in the afternoon anymore so can't tell if it is bcos he can't control.
Have been putting towels under him when he goes to sleep but still he wets it every night.
He is a pretty deep sleeper but I have realised that if I have to wake him up every few hours in the night to pee, it has to be within every 3 hours. Once I miss the 3-hour timing, he will wet his bed.
He is ok with not wearing diapers to sleep anymore but yet he just can't wake himself up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.
I use the febreeze spray to "clean" up the mattress whenever he wets the bed. Pretty good product but just concern if it is good enough to clean up as nothing beats the heat of the sun. Normally I told my maid to just open the windows after spraying febreeze n allow the mattress to dry by itself since the weather is terribly hot nowadays.