Q&A: Peeing through a diaper at night

The title is a lie, because I don't actually have the answer. Michelle writes:

"I have a 21-month-old son who wakes up every morning SOAKING wet. Usually soaked through his diaper (a Pull-Ups overnight, I might add) to his pjs and his sheets.  In addition to feeling bad for my son who has to feel wet and yucky, I feel bad for my husband and I, since the wakings are getting earlier and earlier – he is now waking up between 5:45am and 6:00am (we have a 5 month old too, so sleep is a valuable commodity around here).  I know he would sleep later if he wasn’t swimming in his own pee.

He does drink a lot of fluids, usually two 8 oz. bottles of milk a day plus however much water he wants from his cup.  He loves water, so he gets a lot of refills on that.  I have tried not letting him have the water after dinner (5:30pm) lately, but that hasn’t seemed to make much of a difference.  He does get a bottle of milk at bedtime (I know, the horror!  It’s on my list of things to fix but with two under two I am doing good to maintain relative sanity and order around here – its my new year’s resolution to get him off the baba completely).  Surely it couldn’t be the milk causing him to pee like a race horse all night, could it?

I am just looking for some ideas on how to prevent leaks.  Should I limit the water?  Should I try to get him to pee on the potty before bed, even though he hasn’t really shown any potty training readiness signs? Should I just grin and bear it?  Will it ever stop?

He goes down around 7:30pm, usually falls asleep around 8:00pm (doesn’t sleep with bottle in mouth) and before the soaking through started he would sleep until 7am on the dot everyday.  As much as I love the fact that he is such a  good sleeper the lack of night wakings also means I can’t change a diaper in the middle of the night (*I have tried and we ended up watching his favorite dvd for an hour because he wouldn’t go back down).

He only weighs 30 pounds so the bigger Pull-Ups, Goodnights, etc just swallow him.  I am out of ideas – please help!"

You know, both my kids went through a phase of peeing through their diapers right at around that age. It lasted around 6 weeks to two months for each of them.

When my older son went through it, we were still using cloth diapers at night. We were using pocket diapers, and I kept increasing the stuffing until he was all puffed up like a marshmallow. I tried hemp, I tried microfiber, and nothing seemed to make much difference. Then one morning I just realized he hadn't peed through his diaper in a few days.

Flash forward to my second child. We were in disposable diapers by then (I use Seventh Generation, because I figure if I'm using disposable I'd rather give my money to a company with some interest in the environment, instead of a mega-conglomerate, and they're just as absorbent as the national brands). Same leaking through problem. So I tried three or four other brands of diapers in the same size and a size bigger. No change. He leaked through them all (but out the side with the bigger sizes. Then one day he just didn't leak anymore.

So basically, I have nothing, except that it'll probably stop on its own.

Anyone have anything that actually stopped the leaking? Or did you just try things and then it stopped on its own. Any idea why this happens at this age?

Comments

[sue]

Regaarding baby bottle teeth - here's what I know

When a baby (or toddler) has a bottle with milk, juice, or any other sugary beverage in it, and drinks it either frequently during the day (carries around the bottle or sippy cup) or sleeps with it at night, the enamel on the two front top teeth starts to decay. If left unchecke,d it can progress VERY quickly - and the child can easily lose the teeth if you aren't careful. The dentist said that sleeping with a bottle of milk can easily cause them (that was our problem. we couldn't give up the bottle of milk) as can walking around all day with a sippy cup of juice. Actually, if you have an older child who breastfeeds all night, that can cause it, too. My pediatrician's 2 year old daughter got baby bottle teeth from too much night nursing.

In the beginning, the signs of decay are pretty subtle. My daughter's teeth have a pretty small gray area on the inside edges of her top front teeth. They aren't brown and icky and oyu'd never know unless you look really closely. With teeth that are like hers, the treatment is a topical flouride application and flouride supplements (we live in an area without flouride in the water). Hopefully, it's resolve on it's own - it's possible for the enamel to repair itself. If it doesn't, she'll need caps. IF it had gotten raelly bad, they have to pull the teeth. yikes!

There's a large genetic component to this as well. My husband had baby bottle teeth bad enough that he had silver caps on his teeth until the baby teeth fell out. My oldest neice (my husband's side) also has baby bottle teeth. She's now 6 and they've been able to manage it with flouride application since she was two. The first one fell out the other day, so it looks like she's in the clear :-)

So that's what I know about baby bottle teeth. Just keep checking your child's teeth to make sure they look nice and even and white, like teeth should. But get rid of the bottle of milk. It's *really* embarrassing (and guilt-causing) to have to take your child to the dentist for this - it's completely preventable.

[Claire]

I haven't noticed anyone else mentioning this so I thought it was worth commenting on......

Apart from all the other contributing factors, kids will urinate more when they are sleeping slightly too cold.

If they are cool (but not cold enought to fully wake up), less fluid is used by the body as sweat, and the kids end up wetting through. Adding a thin cotton blanket or similar can be just the thing when all else has failed.

Good Luck

[Jessica]

I have not read through all the comments, but I have dealt with this exact problem. My son, who is 23 months, went through this several months ago. We tried almost everything. What finally worked was puttng on his Huggies nighttime diaper with the plastic/rubber pants (used for potty training) over the diaper. He still wets through his diaper at night, but the plastic/rubber pants keep the moisture away from his jammies and skin. We no longer have to change the sheets every morning or feel bad that our baby is sitting in his room soaked. Good luck! :)

[Lisa Nicklin]

My son was 4 and still soaking through and we used Huggies Supremes. For some reason, they just fit his 30 pound body better and he didn't leak. Also try Huggies overnights...a worthy option.

[Jamie]

GOODNIGHTS!!! They are a miracle. Although they seem huge when they are on they do the trick (unlike any other pull-up, overnights included-- they ALL leak). My son never leaked in a goodnight, and he was about 30 lbs. when he wore them.

[Dee]

We used Diaper Doublers with regular diapers for each of our girls and it nipped the leakage problem in the bud every time.

Now, to avoid leaks altogether, the 10-month old gets one in her diaper every night at bedtime and the 30-month old gets one in her pull up every night at bedtime. Goodbye pee leaks! And the big girl has a sippy cup of water that she takes to bed with her just about every night, still no leaks though :-)

I get the Doublers at my local Publ!x grocery store at $2.99 for a big pack that lasts me several weeks. They save our sanity, not to mention sheets and pjs, on many an occasion.

[Dee]

We used Diaper Doublers with regular diapers for each of our girls and it nipped the leakage problem in the bud every time.

Now, to avoid leaks altogether, the 10-month old gets one in her diaper every night at bedtime and the 30-month old gets one in her pull up every night at bedtime. Goodbye pee leaks! And the big girl has a sippy cup of water that she takes to bed with her just about every night, still no leaks though :-)

I get the Doublers at my local Publ!x grocery store at $2.99 for a big pack that lasts me several weeks. They save our sanity, not to mention sheets and pjs, on many an occasion.

[KimMae]

These may have already been posted but may help:

make sure the penis is pointed down not up
try tucking a maxi pad in the diaper front
try to get him to pee in potty before you go to bed (though sounds like he might wake up)
we do well with the Goodnights
we don't limit drinks
good luck this stage lasted through to 5yo for us

[liz]

We used Doublers inside Overnights. And, of course, the lasagne bed (waterproof mattress cover, sheet, wp mc, sheet, wp mc, sheet)

[midlife mommy]

I have NO experience with this, but left to my own devices, I would try doubling with the next larger size over the top, plus a pair of plastic pants over that.

[Jen]

Had same prob w/ 3 y/o from 6mos-2 1/2 & now a 4 mos old...I LOVE & live for Huggies Overnight diapers NOT pullups BIG BIG difference!!!

[Meg]

You could try putting an actual Maxi pad in the diaper. I don't know if it would fit comfortably on a boy, but on our girl, we put an overnight maxi inside an overnight pullup and it was enough to contain everything.

[molly]

I did not even get the diaper doublers - just got incontinence pads in whatever was the most absorbent.

My daughter had this even though she drank no milk, only water, and even removing the nighttime water did not fix this (only woke her up more often with a dry throat).

[k]

You mentioned that your child really likes water. Is he drinking so much that he isn't growing well? If so, you might want to ask your pediatrician about diabetes insipidus.

[Alice]

My daughter (20 months old) had the same problem. We started using Huggies Overnight one size larger with a diaper doubler we get at Babies R Us.

[tish]

same problem here. double diapering with smaller size on bottom, pulling the larger size as high up in front as possible. make sure penis is pointing down. he was taking an 8 oz bottle right before bedtime. now trying to give 4oz earlier in the night and 4oz right before bed in a bottle with low flow nipple (so he has to work harder, it takes longer, making him more sleepy). just started this so we'll see how it works!

[Julia]

My daughter is 17 months old and she is going through a stage(I HOPE)where she has been biting, hitting, pinching, and even pulling my hair. It is almost always directed at me. I have never spanked her, or displayed any violence towards her whatsoever. I am confused as to how she picked up these behaivores and am wondering if it is instictual. She usually bites when she is frustrated and I can see in her facial expressions that she wants to say somethine, but she cant. She only says the first syllabyl of several everyday words like, dog, ball, bath, baby, eye nose, and a few more. Is this normal? It is breaking my heart because I know that I shouldnt spank her, my mother never spanked me or my sister. My mother keeps encouraging me to brush it off and keep using time outs to disapline her and that it will get better, but it seems to be getting worse! One thing that bothers me is that my friends who spank their kids all get immediate results from it so when we are all together with the kids I feel they will all tell me that I need to spank her so that she wont misbehave. I never spanked my daughter and she goes around biting and hitting other children, and children who recieve corapal punishment are playing so nice. What does this all mean? I worry that her aggressive behaivor might be an indicator of something more serious. Please help!

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Ringo, I like reading naps'. That is when I am crleud up in my lounge chair with a fleece blanket and a good book. If I close my eyes to rest them sometimes I fall asleep for a little while, then wake up and read some more.Guess what! Tell Flash I have now read EVERY SINGLE ONE of the books he and his friends have recommended. I just finished Villain School , and will return it to the library tomorrow or Wednesday. I was not sure whether I liked those villains or not. Sometimes some of them seemed almost nice. I did like the ending. It surprised me, and I like for books to surprise me.