This may or may not work for someone else, but here is a tip for night time training. When my kids started ruining their mattresses with night time accidents, I switched to sturdy air mattresses. If they have an accident, it doesn't ruin the mattress. I just wipe up the mess and wash the sheets. This worked much better than the plastic sheets, which were ripped within a month. Hope this helps someone else. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), October 12, 2000

Answers

What a great idea! I'm not planning on having more kids but I have friends who would love to hear this.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), October 12, 2000.

Two comments: one is that there appear to be two grades of plastic sheet - very flimsy, planned obsolescence, do just what you said; and another, more or less hospital grade, more like rubberised, not that much more expensive, last MUCH longer (ten or twenty times). Not every shop will stock the good ones, because not every store buyer understands the realitites (or is apparently willing to think about what their customers need.) If you find a shop that stocks the good ones, it's usually indicative of their attitude to their customers in general.

An aside here - you can just use sheet plastic - particularly if you get caught unexpectedly with a guest whose problems you didn't know about. It's cold and clammy under ordinary sheets, but OK under flannelette sheets.

Second comment - air mattresses can be incredibly comfortable, provided you don't blow them up hard. Just over half-inflated, and they're better than water-mattresses. Blow them up hard, and they're - guess what - hard and uncomfortable.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), October 13, 2000.

The thing that cured me from bedwetting when I was young , was realizing that I was such a hard sleeper, and when I dreamed about going to the bathroom I needed to wake up and go to the bathroom awake. Just getting that into the subconcoious why you're wetting the bed.

-- Joan Murray (alandjoan@juno.com), October 13, 2000.

What I did when we had a young houseguest who I knew was still wetting the bed (at twelve!) and didn't still have plastic sheets from my own girls, was to cut a large garbage bag open and lay it under the sheets. Another possibility for something that would last is the plastic shower curtain liners. I usually get them for only three or four dollars. They aren't fitted, but the fitted sheet on top ought to hold them in place. I'm wondering how long even a good air mattress would last in steady use in a child's bedroom!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 13, 2000.

It depends upon the child. If I keep my son out of my daughters room, the mattress should last a while. It is only when they get together in there that damage occurs. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), October 13, 2000.

HELP I just got a foster child in who will be 4 in march and is in diapers. He has no intrest in useing the potty. I have offerd sweets, money, ect. I have potty trained more children then I can remember. But this one is not ready yet. Any sugestions to help him want to use the potty? Thanks Lisa

-- Lisa Hopple (hopplehomestead@safezone.net), October 15, 2000.

Lisa, any chance you know a kindergarten or preschool teacher that you can let him visit the class. Telling him that only big boys that are potty trained can go to school, is great insentive. Worked great on my middle daughter, when sister went to school! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 16, 2000.

Whenever I suggested going potty to my 3 yr old he would obstinately say "No! No potty! Diaper!". Sometimes its a security issue. Anyways, one day I just said "thats it! No more day time diapers!" and after the first day he no longer insisted on diapers. He wears them for bed time and for naps (rare) since he wets too heavily for those Pull Up things. He wears big boy underwear because those disposible training pants were just like a diaper to him and the cloth training pants were too hard for him to get up and down. The regular briefs are stretchier and he rarely has accidents during the day (this is just since this summer! I'm so happy!). We just were careful not to make it all a power struggle so he didn't resist all the time. Sometimes making going in the potty or toilet fun encourages them too. Good luck!

-- Alison in NS (aproteau@istar.ca), October 18, 2000.

I had an eight year old kind-of-foster child for a short while five years ago....and it did worse than wet his pants! It was definately a security issue with him. His mama didn't want him, his dad turned out to be a complete nut, and the boy poor had had no upbringing at all. His dad wound up going to jail several more times and the boy is in a group home in California now. We finally just gave up and let him weat those pull up disposable training pants that large toddlers wear. At least then he wasn't alwasy embarrased. I hope that now that he as a little stability in his life that the problem has gotten better.

I read to him as much as possible and tried to love him as much as I could during the six months I was with him but six months is not enough in the life of a child, do undo all that had been done to him.

With my own kids, the second daughter learned to go potty simply because her sister, 2 years older than her, did. The son, who came along eight years later, was harder to train. But my mama would give him a shiney new quarter to hold in each hand while he sat on the potty and if he did anything, he got to keep the money. He wound up with a jelly jar of shiney quarters and was trained.

-- suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), October 18, 2000.

Mother, step-mother, & foster mother & now Grandma, I had trouble with some & others it was a breeze! When I told my Dad I was haveing trouble with one child, he told me to check my almanac for when it was the sign of the moom to break a habbit & during that sign of the moon to set my alarm for about every 3 or 4 hours & get the child up to go to the bathroom---ya know it worked with in a few days the child was getting up at night at the time I had set the alarm, & going to the bathroom. Once in awhile if they were really tired & off of our normal routine they would have an accident but it was rare! I hope this helps someone else! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), October 19, 2000.

Feed your child a spoonful of honey before bedtime and they should stop wetting the bed. The native people did this years ago so that their papoose won't be soaked. We tried it with our children and found it works.

Hope this helps.

-- country gal (countrygatherings@hotmail.com), July 09, 2001.

What I have done for incontinent young overnight visitors, ws to open a large plastic bag over the mattress, spread a thin towel over then and safety-pin the corners thru the plastic to the mattress. sheet over that and its very comfy.

I always used rewards, such as decorating a paper christmas tree with star stickers, for getting something into the potty. Never let it become a control issue. Fighting over this always complicates things. Any child with a stong enough will to fight you over this will someday make up his mind that he is big enough to go potty. At least he will if it never was a control issue.

After all, you CANT control that sphincter muscle down there! It is totally HIS possession, and only HE can decide to control it! Knock heads over this one, and guess who loses?

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 09, 2001.