He’s growing up and it’s time he wets his own bed
My boy will be five in February and every day he is learning something new and doing something to show us that he is growing up. He loves to hear that he is a "big boy" and that he is growing so we encourage him every chance we get. He wants to start Kindergarten so bad next year so he can ride the school bus and be like his friend, Bella. He loves to learn in his Pre-K class so we know he is ready. We have a few more milestones to cross before school starts and we'll be set. He needs to poop in the potty and we need more dry nights. The two are connected (from what we can gather) so we're working on these at the same time.
Final Steps in Potty Training
I have heard from everyone I know that boys are harder to potty train than girls. I don't have a comparison, but I am having a terrible time knowing what to do for my boy. He has bowel issues and it runs in my side of the family. He doesn't go regularly, no matter what we try, and after a couple of days he starts to hold it in despite the need to go. When he is holding it in, he has more wet nights (and sometimes wet naps) than normal. We have seen a doctor about the bowel issues and we are trying all of the nuggets of advice we can gather, but in the meantime, we are washing sheets way too often!
My Big Boy wets the bed
The Boy has been potty trained for over a year and we have long since stopped buying diapers and Pull-ups. I have a few on hand for the nights when I can sense that he is having trouble and might be more likely to wet the bed. He is such a big boy that I ask him if he wants to wear one before just forcing him. Sometimes he is okay with wearing one, but other times he wants to stay in his underpants. Hubby and I have both woken up in a wet area on way too many nights. We don't want him to feel like it is his fault or that he is not a big boy so we change him, clean the bed, change the sheets and go back to bed. We always make him go to the restroom before going to sleep and I try to stay up long enough to take him back to the restroom around midnight to 1:00 am. We need a better solution.
Spending the Night with Family
We have the best family in the same town who want to keep The Boy overnight from time to time, but they are afraid of his bed-wetting on their own beds. My stepmom has an extra bedroom that she uses to sleep with him when he is there. She has a little secret; she has put trash bags under the sheets to protect her mattress. My sister; however, asks that we bring his extra chair bed so he can sleep on it. We need a better solution!
Confidence and Dry Nights with GoodNites Bed Mats
I have found a better solution! I headed to Walmart over the Christmas holiday to pick up the newest (genius) product for dry nights – GoodNites Bed Mats – so we could try them out. The packages of nine mats only cost $9.47 so for a little over $1 per night this is worth a try. I found them at Walmart on the aisle with diapers, Pull-ups, and baby food, but they can also be ordered online at the link above.
New and Improved Bedtime Routine
I decided that this might also be a good time to start working toward this child sleeping in his own bed so I picked up a couple of books and some new jammies and made his bed up with fresh clean sheets and all of his lovies.
The Boy was thrilled with his new books and jammies and curious about the new bed mat on his bed. He wasn't thrilled about the idea of sleeping in his own bed, but that will come eventually.
We stayed in his room for a while with the door closed and read books and talked about his lovies and this will be a new routine. We had fun giggling and being silly and he loved his new Dr. Seuss book about sleeping.
In the meantime, Hubby and I are looking forward to dry nights in our bed with the help of GoodNites Bed Mats. We put the mat between our sheets (and we sleep on top of the top sheet, anyway) so it wouldn't get tangled up between the three of us. The mats do; however, have super sticky corners on them to hold them in place so if we did wake up to a wet mat, we could take off the top sheet, replace the mat, and change the boy…and quickly head back to dreamland. And…the mattress will be saved!
Of course, he hasn't had a wet night since we bought them, but I know it's coming…and we're prepared! He also had bed mats to take with him when he visits Granny and Aunt B and now he is ready to go!
Do you have a big kid who could gain confidence with more dry nights?!!
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Huggies #HuggiesWalmart #CBias #SocialFabric. All stories and opinions are my own.
What a great product! Once we let my grandson go with no diaper thru the night, these mats will really come in handy!
My son is going to be 5 next week and we are still in the process of potty training and still have him on pull ups! He has been doing extremely well overall but night times are the times when he has gotten wet and soiled but we need to start him on undies soon because he starts school next fall! These Goodnites Bed mats seem like the perfect fix and I will be looking into them on my next trip to Wal-mart!
They really do work well. My boy has had a few wet nights lately and layering the pad with the sheets has worked great!
Your story sounds so similar to mine, it’s kinda spooky! My son is 5 and started kindergarten this year. He still wets the bed at night so he still wears Pull-Ups to bed, but I would love to try the bed pads! I will check those out! Thanks for the tip!
My son also has bowel issues and has poop accidents sometimes. He has a condition called involuntary Encopresis, where he gets constipated and then the poop that builds up behind the blockage leaks out and he can’t feel it. It frustrates him a lot because he is a “big boy” and he wants so badly to be completely potty trained. It’s been a hard road in that respect.
Take care, and keep trying!
Tammy
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these would be great to get for my party on next st i am having a potty party
Oh, he’s a cutie and I love your moms idea of using a trash bag under the sheets, I would have never have thought of it
I love the title of your post (very creative). I’m sorry your son has a bladder issue. It sounds like you’re working on solving it (or at the very least, getting it under control). The bed mats remind me of what the hospital uses when you’re in labor (those mats worked miracles during my last labor). I’m glad to hear the mats have made their way from the Maternity Ward to the home. If my kids were younger, I would be using them during potty training.
Boy isn’t that the truth; boys are so much harder to potty train than girls! I have a boy and I had a really hard time with it too. Thank goodness for the wonderful ladies in the daycare he was in because they started him early by making him wear big boy underpants and making him feel it when he went in his pants.. Yes we went through lots of extra clothes but it helped. He STILL likes to hold it as long as he can because he hates taking the time to go…..
we have been very lucky with our 4 year old grandson…he has never wet the bed here or at home….
These are such a great product.. How I wish there was something like this when my 7 were growing up. I can’t tell you how many sheets I had to wash. lol I found too it was harder to train boys then the girls. I have to tell my daughter about these for my 3 year old grandson. Good luck. This was probably the confidence booster he needed.
Happy New Year….
Carol L
i could use this for my son. he has trouble with wetting the bed
My sons are grown up . but I think the bed mats are a great idea for kids who still might have accidents.
Is he sleeping in his own bed now? We haven’t potty trained yet, but he is still sleeping in our bed and I’m just so exhausted!!
Unfortunately, he didn’t take to the “own bed” idea. However, I am happy to report that the Bed Mats totally work!! He had two wet nights in a row and I didn’t have to wash sheets!!
the mat is barely noticeable. nice!
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My son is older, and sometimes still has a problem. I think this is a nice thing to have on hand in case accidents do happen (which they will) Thanks for sharing!
I wish I would’ve known about these 2 yrs ago!! My daughter also sleeps in our bed & it was so frustrating with her wetting it. I never had that problem with my oldest. Washing the mattress pads continuously was such a pain. I hated putting her in a diaper when she was wearing panties. We started taking away liquids about an hr or so before she was going to bed. These are so great to know about though.
I can totally relate! Just as an update, too, they work!!!! He had two wet nights in a row and I haven’t had to wash sheets because the pad worked both times!!!! When he woke me up to tell me that he was wet, we just pulled the top sheet off, changed out the pad and his wet clothes, and back to sleep we went.
It took forever to potty train our daughter! She was afraid of the flushing sound and was also afraid she would fall in the toilet so she would hold it in. We tried everything :
. Her own potty seat with her favorite character
. Having her sit on the toilet(using toilet ring) before bed and first thing in the morning
Finally, hubby said the diapers were a crutch and to just go straight to underwear. I was wary of the accidents and mess which would be left to me to clean up. But… miraculously, she did GREAT with the underwear!
I really wish we had these pads when she was younger! It would have been a Godsend b/c my daughter had a lot of accidents and stomach upsets. We had a cloth pad with plastic backing that served a similar purpose that was really
handy. Unfortunately, it was stolen from our hotel room
Oh my! Who would STEAL someone else’s potty pad?!! That’s kinda ewwww!!
I have not had the bed wetting issue but my neighbors kids are going through it hopefully with time they will grow out of it
I got one to try out but i havent tried it out yet. After reading you review ,Iam looking forward to trying it
Love those. Wish they were around or I knew about them when my kids were little!
Sounds like a great solution! Best of luck!
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The bed mats are awesom, I used them for my grandson and he has only had one accident sincce Ibought them. They will come in handy though if they get sick.
These are such a great idea…I will probably wind up using these while we’re working on potty training. Not quite there yet, but fairly soon
Those mats look like a good thing to know about. Good luck with potty training.
He is such a sweet boy…
Those pads are pretty neat. I might have to let my sister know about these for her little ones.
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It’s funny, actually, because I kinda want him to have a wet night so I can see how they work…but he keeps waking up dry. Maybe it really is the confidence booster that he needed! (or we just have been running low on juice ;))
My grandson started potty training early but then gave up for awhile . If we kept pull ups on him he wouldnt go to the potty. If we put big boy underwear on him he got mad, but he knew he wasnt suppose to pee in them ,so now he goe to the potty all the time on his own.
my sistterr wet tthe bed until she was 12 my son is 1 1/2 hopefully he will be starting to potty train soooon
Oh how I wish there’d been something like this when my oldest was young.
What a great idea!!! My son has been PT’d for awhile now, but he started wetting the bed again when he started preschool. My older brother wet the bed on occasion until he was 8 or so…just because he was a sound sleeper. It happens! Best of luck to you and your little man!!
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