Dream Pee

Ha ha, don't you love the title of this? I bet you're wondering what this post is about!

Do you remember the dream feed? You know, the feed that you give baby before you go to bed at night, usually between 10-11? Well, instead of feeding baby before you go to bed, with the dream pee
(name courtesy of blogginaboutbabies) you are taking him to the bathroom right before you go to bed. You get him up, put him on the toilet, and quickly put him back to bed. If he's anything like my son Joshua's he won't even open up his eyes.

Now why in the world would you do this? Well, if you have a recently potty trained child (or maybe even a child who has been potty trained for years) you know that not only is bedwetting sometimes a problem, but having to wake up to go pee in the middle of the night or early in the morning often happens. And this means less sleep for your child which means less sleep for you! So if he is going to wake up anyway to go pee, then you might as well wake him up and take him before you go to sleep, especially if bed wetting is an issue.

What has worked for us:
We do the dream pee only occasionally with Joshua. He has been amazingly good at going around 12 hours at night without waking to go pee since he was potty trained (gosh, I'm saying pee a lot in this. What kind of google audience is this going to attract?).  But he does often wake up a little earlier than his diaper days to use the bathroom and doesn't fall back asleep since it is so close to his morning wake time. So If I know he is going to miss a nap the next day or something special is going on, I will often do a dream pee so that he'll sleep in a bit later in the morning.

Another time I do it is when Joshua drinks a lot before bed. I don't usually let him drink loads before going to sleep (for obvious reasons), but sometimes he is crazy thirsty so I let him drink his cup or two before bed. Obviously that amount isn't going to make it sitting in the bladder of a 4 year old until morning!

The dream pee has never be effective with Jacob. Whenever he wakes up at night, whether we wake him or he wakes on his own, he's pretty delirious and upset. So waking him to go to the bathroom has never been worth it.

What might work for you:
Do the dream pee if it makes sense for you. Certainly don't introduce a night waking for your child if it isn't needed (or if the bedwetting won't be solved by this), but if it is, I don't see any harm in it. Plus, having to wake up night after night to take a child to the bathroom or change wet sheets, along with other night wakings that may happen with other children (especially newborns!), is really wearing on you. You need your sleep (and sanity) too.

Just like the dream feed, some times may work better than others to wake up your child. This will likely have something to do with his bedtime hour. Try out some times and see how they go and adjust as needed.

One last thought I have concerns a dream pee vs having your child in diapers/pull ups at night. Diapers/pull ups at night aren't the end of the world to me, but I know some parents and kids really don't like using them. If you take away the diapers and introduce this waking to use the bathroom, you will be hurting your child's sleep continuity, or hours of uninterrupted sleep. You'll have to evaluate your own situation to see which option is best for you and your child.


Have you ever done the dream pee? Please share your experience!