Hey all- my son is about 3 1/2 and was diagnosed a few months ago. He has been potty trained for about a year now, with the exception of the occasional accident at night. We’d been using the night-time pull ups during sleep hours, often with him waking up dry. As we got closer to when he was diagnosed, more and more frequently he was waking up wet.
He’s still fine during the day, other than terribly bad aim 
but is peeing through his heavy duty night-time pull up and soaking his bed at night. We still check his BG about twice a night, and my husband often changes him into a new pull up when he checks him at midnight. He sleeps with a towel under him to make it easier to clean up. We do use a waterproof mattress cover, but hate to have him actually wake up all the way to change sheets at night, since we already bug him so much.
I know the diabetes is affecting the amount of urine, and once we get his BG under control- it should get a bit better, but has anyone else had this issue? I don’t think we need extreme measures like medication or alarms yet, but is there any way to deal with this without having to wake him up to change him all night?
Any help is appreciated- thanks!
Hi, Jessica,
We’ve had this same issue and although my daughter is potty trained during the day, she often wets her pull-up and I have to change at some point through the night. I use a mattress pad under the sheet, plus a sheet protector over the sheet. This way if there is an accident, I can take off the protector and slip on a clean one. You can find them at www.onestepahead.com or other similar stores.
Here’s a link: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/search.jsp?N=0&Nty=1&Ntk=Def&Ntx=mode matchpartialmax&Ntt=sheet%20protector&D=sheet%20protector&Dk=1
This is how I’ve dealt with it thus far, not sure how long this will last or if it’s something I’ll have to deal with due to the diabetes. Often times she’ll be within range through the night and wake up dry. I can usually tell if she’s High by how large her Pull-up is. At some point I know we can wake her up and take her to the restroom before we sleep and this may help until she can wake up dry.
Hope this helps! Keep up the good work. 
Jessica
Not sure if I’ll be any help, sort of a different situation. My son (the one WITHOUT diabetes) still wets the bed through his pull-up. He’ll be 6 next month and has been potty trained since age 3. He’s been to the dr. several times (as recently as 2 weeks ago) and they keep assuring me it’s normal. I’ve taken him to different dr.'s, chiropractors, homeopathic remedies, waking him several times a night… Nothing. I was told that until around the age of 6 is the earliest that you should try alarms or medications. I’m about to get him started with an alarm, only because at his age, he’s feeling bad about himself. Anyways, just know that it’s normal (although very frustrating), even for a child without diabetes. One thing I do is make his bed with waterproof pad, sheet, another waterproof pad and sheet. Sometimes 3 layers. That way, I don’t have to wake him much to change the sheets in the middle of the night. Just pull off a layer and put him back down. Good luck!
I think it may be because he was recently diagnosed. I have a 3 yr old (diagnosed at 12 mos) and she does wet the bed when we need to give her juice because she is low, other than that she remains day most of the nights.
She does use pull-ups but when she wets them they are not even half full.
I take her to pee before taking her to her bed so she empties her bowel right before sleeping.
Unfortunately I don’t know when she will be ready to be without pull ups yet…
Thanks for the replies. The sheet protecter looks like a good idea. I may try that out. Glad to hear we aren’t the only ones. He hasn’t ever got up to pee at night, (unless we woke him to check ketones) so he may just not be aware.
Sarah, I like the idea of waking him up about 30 minutes before he wets. He’s often wet at midnight, even after going right before bed, but I think we’ll watch for a pattern and see if we can’t catch him beforehand. Thanks!
I feel as I could’ve written your post!!! My daughter is 3 1/2 , diagnosed over Labor Day 2009, and still wets, almost every night. She is completely trained during the day, and can hold it even more than she should! But she still wets, and leaks a good portion of the time. I know it is because of the diabetes, but even times she’s in good range, like <180 overnight, she still wets.
Before she was diagnosed (and before she started showing symptoms) she was completely dry at night.
It is frustrating - I know she can’t help it, but I hope she grows out of it soon. She feels bad about wearing a diaper because she feels like a big girl otherwise!
Jessica,
I think the problem will resolve itself. Wetting the bed, out of the blue, at age 10, was the only obvious sign that something was wrong, which in turn caused us to make a doctors appointment, resulting in our son’s diagnosis. Soon after diagnosis, the night time problem resolved itself.
Cheryl
dont mean to be a downer but my son started wetting the bed right before he was diagnosed when he was six and continued to wet the bed up until the time he was 13. It wasnt always due to hi blood sugars. He’s not doing it anymore thank god. Dont miss those days. hopefully you wont have that same problem.
My daughter Grace wet the bed for a long time after she was diagnosed. She wore pull-ups even until she was 4 years old…most mornings she was dry, but if she did wet, we didn’t have to take the bed apart or worry about bathing her because she had been sleeping in urine soaked pjs or bedding.
my son is 5 and was diagnosed last year. he was still wearing pull ups at diagnosis (even though he was potty trained otherwise before age 2). usually he will wake up and take his pull up off in the middle of the night (after it is wet) then be okay after that. for about a week his sugars were up and we were washing sheets every day. so while the sugars will affect it, i think he just doesn’t get the signal to wake up. If we wake him up he is very difficult to wake then very uncooperative, so waking him up to pee isn’t an option. i hope that he grows out of it soon as he is starting to wonder why he has to wear pull ups when his friends do not.
My son is 6 yrs old and still wets the bed. He was diagnosed at age 3. I’ve tried getting him up in the middle of the night but he still continues to wet. I’ve pushed the issue with both the pediatrician and the endo, they just respond that he will grow out of it. Completely changing and washing the sheets everyday is a pain!
My son wet the bed frequently before he was diagnosed - at age 10, came out of the blue - no idea this was one fo the symptoms -not one that is usually listed. if he has high blood sugars, he gets up and knows to test himself, but a little one wouldn’t be able to do that. ALso, I have a daughter that was a chronic bed wetter even though she was potty trained at 20 months and was dry all day - she did not and does not have diabetes. I did the whole waking up to go to the bathroom and the only person I was training was myself. And she still sometimes would be wet even with a trip to the bathroom. She has bad allergies to dust mites, trees, basically everything ! Anyway, we finally used a nose spray - it was expensive and was only good for 30 days, but chronic bedwetters lack a hormone to shut off their bladder and after using it for 6 months when she was 7, she never wet the bed again ! Can’t remember what it was, but it was a miracle - Didn’t have pull ups when she was wetting and I was doing sheets, blankets everyday. My pediatrician told me to make her change her sheets in the middle of the night - she was a zombie and slept through it. Didn’t follow that advice - as if she wanted to wet the bed. It is exhausting but she NEVER woke up even when she was wet ! Just thought I would share my story. It does get better !
Kids do sometimes regress to earlier behaviors when they go through a traumatic experience, and a T1 diagnosis generally qualifies as that. My endo warned me that my son (who was only 18 mos and just started walking and talking when he was Dx’d) might do so, and he did slow down in his talking for a little while. As long as your son’s BG is not very high when this is happening, his peeing at night is probably more of something along those lines than an indicator of diabetes, and he should eventually stop. Even my five-year-old sometimes still does that, and it’s usually just an issue related to a bad dream or going to bed too late. But do keep an eye on his BG levels and ketones.
Do you use those pullups that have the sticky tabs on the sides? Sometimes if you’re very careful you can change them without waking them simply by opening up and closing the tabs rather than pulling on or off.