2 Years Old- Milk before bed= Leaky diapers

MuckDiva · July 2011

DD has been peeing through her 12+ hour diapers. She is wearing a size 6. I even put a plastic trainer over her diaper to help at night.

I am starting to wonder if we need to stop giving her milk or water before bed. We always did it to help fill up her tummy before bed but now that she is 2 I am wondering if we need to do the milk part at all. I know I need to experiment but I was wondering how you put your child down for the night.

Thanks!

niknak1128 · July 2011

Aww.. she must have a full tummy. My son is 2 and a half. I never give him anything but water after he's brushed his teeth but he HAS to have a sippy cup of water.. he absolutely refuses to go to bed without one. He doesn't leak.. he's in 5's. Although, he doesn't drink the whole thing either. He probably drinks half of it while we read stories.

mrsolsenk12 · July 2011

We did a sippy of milk before bed starting at 12 months when we dropped bottles. We stopped milk sippies at 19 months. He cried for a few nights but was ok. ( I think he cried more out of the habit or lack there of then hunger).

anna7602 · July 2011

How much times passes between dinner and bedtime?

For DD, we used to bathe her after dinner, then have some quiet play time while we put her pj's on, put her dolls to bed, etc., so by the time she was actually close to bedtime, she'd be hungry again and would drink some yogurt as we read stories. It really was a hunger thing, not a comfort thing. (We stopped milk before bed when I stopped nursing her to sleep at 18 months).

However, once we switched things up a bit- doing bath before dinner, cutting out the quiet play time and going right from dinner to tooth brushing to stories to bed, she didn't need anything else "fill her tummy" before going to bed. She was still pretty full from dinner.

That said, she always has a sippy cup of water next to her bed, which is sometimes empty by the time I go in there in the morning. (Not really related to your issue since she's not in diapers at all anymore, but just saying you don't need to take all liquids away).

ldcoffel · July 2011

DD has still has a sippy cup. Sometimes she still has leaky diapers because she drinks alot. I have tried to change her right before she goes to sleep again.

For example- do the regular bedtime routine. Bath, pjs, books, whatever. and then right before she goes to sleep I check to see if she is wet, or needs to go potty. This has helped some.

jbl126 · July 2011

Once the girls finish their milk at dinner, they usually dont have anything else to drink. But there is only another hour between dinner and bed. We stopped nighttime drinks right when we dropped the bottles at a year. They didnt even notice.

We do our bedtime routine and it does not include any drinks (other than the water from brushing teeth).

Logansmommie · July 2011

This is going to sound awful but I am amazed at all the parents out there that complain about their children leaking through diapers or wetting the bed overnight but still give them a full cup of milk or water at bedtime! We do not give our kids anything to drink after dinner except maybe a few sips of water. We also do not give them anything to eat after dinner is over. They never ask and we never offer.

Drinking at bedtime or sleeping with a sippy cup is a habit, NOT a necessity. It is pretty simple, you want your child to stop leaking through/wetting the bed, then stop giving fluids at least one hour before bed time. If you drink alot right before you go to bed, you would probably have to pee in the middle of the night too! Plus giving milk after you brush their teeth totally defeats the purpose of brushing their teeth!!!

Mjmksb04 · July 2011

I would definitely cut back on the milk before bed, especially given that you will probably start potty training in the next year. We started giving him a sippy of milk with dinner and that is it for the night.

Emcat1980@yahoo.com · July 2011

DS1 is 2y4m and we still give him a cup of milk before bed too (about 6 oz). He pees like crazy during the night and surely this contributes. We eat dinner pretty early though - almost always by 6 - and he doesn't go to bed until 8, so we always wanted to 'tank him up' a bit before bed. We will definitely have to stop this/give the milk right after dinner when we're gung ho potty training though.

And Hmm to everybody who is talking about milk ruining their teeth. Brushing teeth is the last thing in our bedtime routine. He gets a milk cup while we read books, then we brush teeth and go to sleep. I don't know why everyone is assuming the OP gives milk after brushing teeth? (Unless I read too fast and missed that part....)

MuckDiva · July 2011

Thanks, ladies. For sure we need to cut back on milk before bed.

Our rountine looks like this- 6:30 dinner, 7pm bath, 7:30/8:00- read books while she had her milk. This is what we need to cut back on. I agree that at this point it is a habit.

regenab · July 2011

At 2, I moved the milk to right after dinner. They usually have their milk around 6 or 6:30 and bedtime is 9pm. If they are running around a lot outside after dinner, I will give them a little water, but not a lot. They wake up most mornings dry or a little bit of pee in the pull up. I think it would be good to push the milk a little earlier in the night and then limit how much she gets in the last hour before bed.

kvwoodard · July 2011

We too give DS a sippy of milk before bed (yes it's definitely a habit). I've known I need to cut it out for a while so I started giving him less and less so he's not drinking very much. We're starting to potty train now so now's the time we're going to cut out all together. DS LOVVESSS milk so this has been sorta hard for us but hasn't been an issue so I've never seen it as a big deal. And teeth brushing is always after the milk : )

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