Our little girl Shayla is now 2yrs., 4mos. She is on her way to potty training. Mostly, she informs us after she has gone. She doesn't look forward to the diaper changing exp.
My question is: Is it advisable to allow a child this age to take a water bottle to bed w/ him or her? Will it not possibly hamper the forward progress of potty/bladder training? Let me say that we have not heretofore given her a bottle to take to bed (teeth concerns, malformation due to 'nippled' cups). This is no longer a concern as she is beyond those. Her mother is concerned not to have one in her room b/c she frequently gets up and plays a little in her room b4 I come and get her in the morning. I think we are better off not having one in the room as I feel it will somehow inevitably wind up in her bed, and she may be inclined to drink during the night if that is the case. I must say that we always let her have her fill of water right b4 we put her down 4 the night. We have monitors in the bed rm. Our child is Very Vocal and communicative. I feel secure that if she was 'dying' of thirst in the early morn. that she would let me know. The basic question is still the same: Does the habit of taking a bottle to bed everynight hamper a 2+ yr. old's potty/ bladder training process?
My advice would be, if you haven't had one in her bed before don't start now. You will be regressing. She doesn't need it! Good luck!
hmmmmmm...soo many things...
yes it will hamper her progress. at this age children are just learning their body signals and if she wakes up do to a spill versus actually beign wet she may teach herself to ignore the wetness...especially as it's water and not likely to cause too many problems in the summer with sleep.
a bottle can STILL cause problems with developing teeth. the more the use the tongue thrust motion needed for getting liquid out of a bottle the more it can pushe the still developing upper teeth and soft pallette forward causing an overbite scenario that can need to be corrected through orthodonture later...
because she has lots of good sharp teeth now she can chew through the nipple and choke on a piece of the rubber. You have a good monitor system in place and can hear her..but it can sound like a gentle cough and you may not realize right away that she is in danger.
Are these the absolute worst case scenarios involved?? absolutely...you could also give her a bottle each night as your wife suggests and not one thing comes of it and she deveolps through potty training just fine...
you asked, i answered...i hope for the best...make the right decision for your family and stick by it regardless of what others think...
good luck.... ;-)
If I'm reading this correctly, your daughter has given no indication that she needs water at night or in the morning, it's just that her mother is concerned that she might get thirsty in the morning while playing? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" If things are going along fine without the water don't add a potential problem to your routine.
If your daughter was complaining of being thirsty at night or was needing you earlier in the morning to get her something to drink then I might consider bringing one into her room after she falls asleep for the night so that she can find it in the morning. Since she doesn't seem to need it, why go there?
Good luck,
K.
Both our kids 4 and 2 years old have a sippy cup of water in their rooms for nighttime drinks.
This only started to cut down the stalling at bedtime because of "I need a drink!!" and if the 4 yr old does it the 2 yr old will follow with the same request.
I would say...bottle NO, sippy maybe...but I tend to fall in the if it ain't broke don't fix it camp.
Oh, it didn't hender night potty training but my son was dry all night way before the was daytime dry.
Good luck!!
I am not a fan of bottles in bed at any age: they leak ( i don't care how good the valve is), baby drinks too much in the night (how often do YOU need a drink of water in your sleep?) and it can actually reduce the quality of their sleep. if baby falls asleep w/ bottle in hand, then it rolls away, or out of bed, baby rouses to find it, just like a pacifier, and can get quite upset if it is not there, waking her more. You guys wake up frantically trying to find a bottle in a dark room, waking her more and now everyone is in a panic and you have to re-settle her. NOT the best thing to do at 2am. you create a dependence on the object NOT for thirst, but as a security object. you are creating another habit that will have to break later.
that said, i think it DOES hamper potty training. if she drinks in the night it will be out of connection to the bottle not out of thirst. she will over-consume water and pee in her sleep. this can make for a messy morning, and hold her back in the day. if she knows all day that she's a big girl and staying dry, she may sense something is "wrong" to her at night when she is wet in the morning.
Go Daddy Go!
Good Luck, it's nice to see daddies in the trenches :)
K.
Personally, I think it is a matter of whether or not you want to go to her to give her water in the middle of the night. We always had a glass of water on my son's dresser and he would still call out for us to give him a drink rather than get out of bed (which is not allowed). He has been potty trained since 2.5 years and we have never limited his liquid intake. He will wake up and tell us if he needs to go potty in the middle of the night. He has the rare accident but I don't find any correlation to extra drinks before bedtime. It seems to be more exhaustion, when he is so tired that he doesn't wake himself up. If you don't mind going to her and giving her water, I would just stick with that but I don't think it has much to do with potty training unless she just doesn't have great bladder control yet.
Uh, I don't understand why it isn't presented to the child as an expectation that she drinks when people are up BUT when she's in her room for quiet time (if awake) or sleepytime (naptime or bedtime) then the water doesn't go in there. Not too hard. It sounds like you and your wife disagree on this and that's the issue. I think whatever is presented to the child will need to be followed except in certain circumstances like if the room is getting overly hot or the kid is ill. NOT if mom can't stand the thought of the kid not being able to drink anytime anywhere. Are there health issues like straining on the toilet? If so, the kid needs more water. Good luck, and hats of to you!
Personally, I would not go down that road if you haven't already. She doesn't need water during the night and you are most likely right in your assumption that it will, at some point, interrupt the potty training process (at least nighttime training). We gave my daughter a sippy with some water in it at night for a little while (something Daddy started and I didn't agree with) and it was pretty hard to break her of it. I would also slow down on the "having her fill of water before bed" when you do begin training her at nighttime (which is usually sometime after daytime training has been established). We try not to let our daughter have much to drink after dinner unless she specifically asks for it. She gets a few sips of milk before we brush teeth (she has a baby brother and she sees him getting milk before bed, so she wants some too) and a small cup of water if she needs something before she gets into bed. She has had only a handful of nighttime accidents since she started potty training. She was staying dry at night, so we switched to underwear when she was around 2 1/2 and she has done great ever since. Like you said, if your daughter is very verbal and can communicate well, she will let you know if she needs something. Good luck!
Hi S..
Kudos to you for being a SAHD! First, a question: Are you talking about a bottle of water or a baby bottle with water in it? Your daughter should definitely be off the baby bottle by now. Second: While potty training and probably until the age of at least 4, it is a good idea to stop liquid intake at the last meal before bedtime. If she is going to bed with a full bladder, it will be very difficult to hold her bladder during the night which will result in accidents. It sounds like you are good about giving her plenty of liquids so you don't have to worry about dehydration. She will let you know in the morning if she is thirsty and in the morning she should have milk.
If you are "really" working on potty training, the morning is a great time to reinforce the morning urgency-to the bathroom routine. You should get up as soon as you hear her making noise and take her to the bathroom. Then you can let her have her playtime in her room. Children, as well as adults, need to empty their bladder as soon as they wake and this is a great time begin training.
You are doing a great job!
Hi S.,
Bless you- I would suggest not to have the water bottle in the room at all- and I would also suggest that you only let her have a little to drink before bedtime. Little ones do not need to have water available all times of the nite- especially if you are potty training. If your little one shows excessive thirst you might want to have her checked to see if something is going on there.
good luck and blessings
I have a 2 and 3 year old I send them both to bed with a sippy cup of water. my 3 yr old is potty trained but I still put pull ups on him at night because no matter what they will have accidents at night and I prefer not to have to wash sheets more than once a week if possible... I really plan to continue the pull ups till the age of 5!
It sounds like to me that Mom is being tender-hearted and concerned about not being there to comfort her in the mornings. Maybe there is something else that Mom can do for her to ease her concern, like a special toy she can play with in the mornings? A sippy cup with a straw will not spill and it won't harm teeth and can be set up on a table in the room. But, it sounds more to me like Mom just needs some reassurance from you - or she just needs to have some involvement at this point and I would do it for her sake even if the child doesn't really need it. Mom needs it.
I take a cup of ice water to bed with me everynight myself, as do both of my kids. The kids have sports bottles or sippy cups and they place them on the night tables. They don't take them to bed. The kids do, quite often, drink the water during the night. I have never awakened my kids to potty in the middle of the night. I kept them in pull-ups (only at night) until they awoke consistently dry. For my daughter, it was very soon after the daytime potty-training success. For my son, it was a little longer but I didn't take issue with it and it wasn't long before, he too, woke up dry. If the baby isn't taking a bottle/cup to bed with her now, I would probably wait until she requests it or it becomes obvious to you she needs a drink during the night. But, I see nothing wrong with a cup on the bedside table either.
As a mom who made the water bottle in the bed mistake, DON'T DO IT! It does not hamper the potty training process, however it is a very bad habit and ever harder to break! Getting rid of the water bottle was the hardest thing I have had to do as a mom, yet...and I have 3 kids, 4 and under.
My children had the need for water during the night and we had them stop taking a sippy cup to bed as soon as they started potty training. It was a pretty easy habit to break once they were that age. My children only needed the water during the night to deal with not co-sleeping and nursing because they didn't use pacifiers. The water soothed them. Once they were beyond the age of needing soothing, they didn't need the water. I wouldn't give water during the night or right before bed (more than a sip) if you are working on night training.
