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 Ask Dr. Jana
Pulling Off The Pull-ups On A 4 Year Old | | | QUESTION | | | | My 4 year old daughter is potty trained during the day (and has been for over a year), but she sometimes has accidents at night, so I put pull-ups on her at bedtime. How will I know when it's time to take the pull-ups off for the night? — Jennifer in San Jose, California | | | ANSWER |
May 21, 2000 | | | Your daughter is not alone in her need to wear pull-ups at night. Many children simply do not have the ability to hold their urine during a 10 or 12 hour night until they are at least 5 years old. When your daughter begins to consistently wake up dry, you can go ahead and get rid of the pull-ups.
Do not, however, let an occasional accident get you upset. Instead, put a protective covering over the mattress, let your daughter participate in changing the bed with you, and most importantly, reassure your daughter that she is doing a good job and praise her on the mornings when she does wake up dry.
To help increase your daughter's odds of staying dry at night, you can encourage her to drink less after dinnertime, have her make a routine trip to the potty before bedtime, and make sure she has easy (and well-lit) access to the bathroom or a potty seat during the night.
Some children who try hard during the day to "do the right thing" become very worried about wetting the bed. Their anxiety can even cause them to have difficulty getting to sleep, or to fight bedtime. In these cases, when pull-ups provide security and comfort, I think it is best to let the child tell you when she is ready to give them up. Suggest to your daughter that "When you feel you're ready to sleep in big-girl underpants, just let me know."
Until then, play down any pressure to stay dry; it will only make her more anxious, and more hesitant to "risk it." On the other hand, if she is eager to get started, she might like to pick out a pair of really great underpants that she can wear to sleep in. One girl, I remember, was especially motivated to stay dry, because she didn't want to get the Little Mermaid (on her underpants) wet.— by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. |
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