Potty training megathread

[cosywolf]

i'm having trouble getting my 5 year old to be dry at night. (during the day he tends to be a bit lazy and quite often wets his pants, we've been doing sticker rewards for dry pants, but doesn't seem to be getting anywhere) so i'm afraid we put bedtime nappy type pants on a bedtime, and they're always soaked first thing. any suggestions?

 

Have you tried:

*cutting back on drinks, especially in the last hour before bed (so no hot milk before bedtime, I'm afraid)

*getting him up just before you go to bed and taking him to the loo (you'd do the taking the pants down, possibly holding his bits, whispering in his ear to have a wee...as much as you could to keep him mostly asleep but just awake enough to pee)

*Bizarrely, my son was wetting the bed, but I put a potty in his room with him and remind him it's there every night. He very rarely uses it - but nor does he wet the bed anymore, like its very presence is enough, lol

*Stickers sometimes just don't cut it - a friend of mine didn't succeed in the potty training until she upped the stakes to her daughter's favourite thing - chocolate fudge cake.

 

Good luck!

[Zebra]

I'm sure I've heard about a bed alarm you can get.

You put them to bed without a nappy and after a trip to the loo, take them to the loo before you go to bed and then leave them to sleep.

If they wee in the night the alarm goes off and then you have to deal with it but apparently it takes less than a week to bring about fantastic results.

It's a bit 'Pavlov's Dogs' but if it works and you are happy with it.....

[Corbyn]

What about still using the stickers but say when he has got a certain amount e.g. 5 he gets a small reward. That might give him the incentive to build up his stickers. I'm only going on what can work with children's behaviour in Primary schools though, I don't have any experience of potty training. I am dreading it though!

[monstermummy]

Ever wondered whether there might be another reason why the wetting at night is still going on? Either physical or psychological?

 

My cousin used to wet the bed for quite a long time up to quite an "old" age but there was a really good reason behind this (sorry, but won't elaborate on this futher). All these "fantastic" training methods would have made the whole situation worse and would have been counter- poductive.

They did end up waking him twice in the night in order to get him to the loo, so he would not wet the bed.

Now he is a handsome young man and all is sorted but it took a long time, a lot of love and understanding and above all: a lot of patience.

[SamMT]

The wetting at night is really not that unusual for chilldren this age (& older) though very frustrating I know. Try all the good ideas suggested and if they dont work and you are really struggling as he gets older speak to your GP about a referral to get some support. Lots of children get referred for help with this sort of thing. Normally medical & practical approach first, and then psychological components (as suggested by monstermummy) if required.

 

Re the initial post I know its grim but we do see children like this, and sometimes there are reasons why it has remained a problem, and normally services are aware and involved, particularly with older children. Really hoping my DD is out of nappies by that age

[Zebra]

I think the original article was about kids in mainstream schools with no issues.

One of the focus elements was a family with 3 kids transferring into a school, age 5, 6 and 7 and all in nappies

I perfectly understand some kids have to wear nappies for a long time, I worked with plenty of them in childcare but parental and child lazyness.... there's no excusing it IMO.

 

Can you imagine the cost? Eeeek.

 

Twingle 2 was desperate to have a poo today and in true 'we ARE potty training' fashion I was encouraging her to go on the toilet or potty . In true twingle 2 fashion she utterly refused and begged for a nappy to poo in:gag:

We refused, we coerced, we bribed and still she would not use the loo.

Eventually when we were going out I put a nappy on her for the duration of the car journey and she pooped in it. Gutted!

[Aleks]

I just do not understand some people..... why have kids if you are not going to look after them properly ??

 

Child benefit, tax credits, council house, maternity allowance, governemnt grants, etc the list goes on! Unfortunately there are a minority of people who don't have kids for the same genuine reasons as the rest of us:(

[mbunting]

I forgot about those reasons since we do not qualify for most of them...... you are right of course Zebra, I knew when I was writing that post that they were some of the reasons, however coming from one of those families myself makes me even more astounded that someone would bring a child into the world for those reasons. The child has no choice.........

[mbunting]

Sorry, I meant Aleks not Zebra !!

[cal3549]

It's terrible if a child isn't trained by age 7 because of a parent's laziness or lack of care, but many children who train late have additional needs, or general developmental delay. Ok to comment if like Savbaby you know for sure it's down to dubious parenting, but I wouldn't like to cast aspersions on other children. My little boy trained relatively late because he has a language impairment, and it was just so difficult communicating our wishes & his needs. Having said this, once he got the idea, he was dry at night almost instantly! Hurrah!!!