Conquering Bedwetting with a 3 year old

This post is sponsored by Acorn and Pampers UnderJams. But as always, everything written is 100% honest and my own opinions. #ConquerBedWetting
 Gracie

Gracie has been potty trained for over a year now. She was very anxious as a young 2 year old to be as big as her brother and use the toilet. She caught on very quick and she was definitely easier to day train than William. I could’ve swore that Will never would get it. Although he wanted it so bad, he had accidents a bunch. But not Gracie. She caught on and stuck with it….except night time. Man, I say all the time that getting her “fully potty trained” was gonna be the death of me. It was a constant fight. We started to not like one another. Life of being a mom and being a 2 year old was not fun. I finally decided to stop trying to night train her and just put her in a diaper for bed time. Well as time went on and she got older we still had nightly accidents and as she grew so did her bladder. She quickly started to pee out of what she had on and she would wake me up regularly at 4 am soaked from head to toe and her bed soaked as well.

I can’t even tell you how many times I would strip her down, put another diaper on and then lay a towel down and put her back to bed. How horrible I felt but there are just so many times you can do a bath, full outfit change, bedding change and then put back to bed all in the middle of your already sleepless night.

Pampers Under Jams

Because Will was immediately night trained I really had no idea that there was a difference between day time diapers and ones made for night. Imagine my HAPPINESS when I discovered Pampers UnderJams (available at Walmart!!!). Seriously you guys, even though she is now almost 4, we can wake up in the mornings with dry clothes and dry bedding. IT WAS A MIRACLE. They have leakage protection that features a NightLock ultra-absorbent core

Tips for Conquering bed wetting

We are still currently trying to stop all night time accidents. We are eliminating them one night at a time (with about 6 accidents in between!) but most of all we are waking up with less and less in her UnderJams!!!

4 tips for conquering bedwetting with a 3 year old

A few things we have done:

Eliminate drinks an hour before bed. This has been the HARDEST, because both of my kids have always gone to bed with a sippy of water. It has helped them fall asleep right away and bedtime has been a breeze. It’s hard to struggle with them falling asleep to hopefully beat the night time accidents. 

Waking Gracie up 2-3 hours after bedtime to go sit on the potty. It’s a hard one for me to remember, and a bunch of the time she still asleep on the toilet, but she can still eliminate and empty her bladder. We are hoping this will get her in the habit of getting up during the night.

During the day, I ask Gracie how she feels when she knows that she needs to go potty. We talk about how she can try to recognize those same feelings at night time.

One of my favorite things has been reading this book with Gracie. She asks for the “‘accident book on your computer” and reading thru it helps her realize that what happens at night is a normal thing, that she’s not alone.

There are also some fun coloring pages to go along with the book. You can download them here here and here.

One of the hardest parts of bed wetting at this age is that Gracie now realizes that not everyone has accidents at night. She has friends and neighbor kids who have found out that Gracie wears her UnderJams to bed and she has been teased from it. Kids can be cruel, but without realizing what they are doing. We’ve talked about the fact that others Gracie knows have the same night time accidents. That it’s not her fault and as long as she does what she can, that’s all we can ask of her. 

We love that Gracie can wear UnderJams and still feel like a real “grown up kid” even when she’s around friends and cousins at night time. They fit like a cloth-like material with a low waist so others don’t even need to know she has them on.

 

What have YOU done to help your older children who have night time accidents?

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Comments

  1. Stine Hansen says

    Hi Vanessa,

    Was searching the web to find some advices towards bedwetting – my daughter is 6 (7 in oct.) Found your post and was really inspired about it 🙂

    How is your daughter doing? Hope she is doing well 🙂

    You write that you help her to the potty after bedtime… I’ve been told that having the go potty after bedtime is a bad idea, because it tricks the brain to think that it’s morning, and therefore the body will start producing urine again.
    We tried taking our daughter to the potty, but it didn’t help, and then I was told this, so I wount do it Again…

    We have also tried to limit drinking, but also with no results, so I do allow her to drink – some nights.

    The doctor wount do anything before she is atleast 7, he recommended 8.

    Any suggestions to, what to do Next?

    Or should we just stick to UnderJams (nighttime diapers) until… she doesn’t mind the “diaper” 🙂

    Best regards
    Stine

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