Tips for Bed Wetting

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Last night my almost 3 year old had a pee in the night.

It’s been a little more common lately.

In response I have two tricks and a nickel’s worth of free advice.

Always have a extra pair of clean jammies close by.

By closeby I mean somewhere you can get them easily. In the dark. Without having to rummage. If they’re not in your little one’s dresser or closet, lay them out on a rocker or somewhere else accessible. It’s never fun waking up out of a dead sleep and having to root around in the dark for clean pyjamas.

It’s also never fun waking up out of a dead sleep and having to find clean pyjamas that FIT. If you’re anything like us, with two boys that are growing like weeds and have either interchangeable or indistinguishable clothes, it’s key to have one or two sets of jams on hand that are current: i.e. that fit right now.

If you’re also anything like us, and have a toddler who has VERY strong and highly mercurial preferences, especially in the middle of the night, it might behoove you to have 2-3 pairs of pyjamas ready. Just in case you run into “I DON’T WANT THOOOOOOOOOOSE!” followed by a screaming, middle-of-the-night tantrum because he wants dino PJs, not whatever you went and got him. And any type of logical reasoning chestnuts like, “But it’s dark, you can’t even see what you’re wearing”, or “But you just need something dry and clean”, or “Jesus Christ come on, just put these on!” doesn’t work and only makes him scream more. Which happens to us more than you’d expect.

Put TWO crib or bed sheets on the mattress

A big save both for time and not losing the sleep state after a pee wake up, is putting two sheets on your crib or bed mattress.

Option 1

Put on a first sheet, like normal. Lay down a mattress protector mat over that. Then wrap another sheet on top. So you’ll have a top sheet, protector, and undersheet. In the event of a late night pee accident, you can rip off the top wet sheet, take off the mattress protector, and have a clean, dry fresh sheet all ready to go.

The caveat with this one is mattress protectors don’t often cover the ENTIRE mattress. If your darling child happens to roll to a corner and lets it rip in an uncovered area of the mattress, you’ll be SOL and have to do a traditional sheet change (or just let em sleep the rest of the night on the bare mattress).

Option 2

Put on a standard sheet, as usual. Then, flip the mattress over and put on another clean sheet. In the event of a late night pee accident, you can rip off the top wet sheet, flip the mattress over in case it’s wet (which it often is), and voila, dry, fresh sheet, dry fresh mattress. No fuss no muss. This variation has worked on numerous occasions for me.

Pro tips

Reduce water intake before bed

This one is a little tricky to actually monitor and implement.

Kids need to be hydrated, and it’s never intuitive to say “Stop drinking water!”. And often after dinner in the grey zone before bed, it’s hard to have eyes on what kids are doing/watching/eating/drinking. And often during bedtime or in the nebulous before-falling-asleep-and-he’s-silly-and-overactive-but-obviously-very-tired-but-not-going-to-sleep phase, it’s hard to say no to water.

But there is method to limiting how much your kids drink right before bed. Obviously the more they drink, the greater the chance they’ll have to pee.

Limit salty and sugary foods before bed

You can also limit salty foods, sugary foods, or drinks with caffeine. For us, the latter isn’t an issue as we don’t feed coffee to our 3 and 5 year olds. But salt and sugar is another matter. My oldest LOVES chips, and my youngest LOVES goldfish. Both are highly salty. And salt, as we know, increases thirst. Which begets drinking. Which begets peeing. So, no salty stuff before bed.

Another fave of ours is popsicles, ice cream, and fruit/pedialite freezies. Sugar like salt also triggers thirst. So again, try to limit sugary stuff before bed.

No salt. No sugar. Not too much to drink. Doesn’t sound like fun. But it doesn’t sound like no peeing in the night. Which on balance, is an acceptable outcome.

Habitual bathroom tries before bedtime

You can also make a habit out of doing bathroom tries right before bed to curb the chances of late night accidents.

Habitual bathroom tries before Mom and Dad’s bedtime

This is a trick from my brother-in-law. After he put his kids to bed, did his end of day routine of work/TV/internetting, and just before he’d go to bed himself, he’d go wake up the kids, and take them to the bathroom for a pee. For him it was gold. Worked every time. Avoided the late night pees. I tend to feel this wouldn’t work for us and it’d be tricky to execute, but anything that avoids nightime pees is worth trying.

Teach that it’s ok

Make sure to encourage your little ones to call for Daddy of Mommy in the night to go to the bathroom. It’s always ok to call out, and if they’re old enough, it’s always ok to go to the bathroom on their own.

It’s also ok to have accidental pees in the bed. If it’s happening every night then something else might be up. But on occasion, kids need to know there’s no fault or shame or wrongdoing. And that they always have the support of their parents.

https://www.realsimple.com/foods-that-dehydrate-you-7501710 https://www.whattoexpect.com/toddler/behavior/bed-wetting.aspx