Huggies, Pampers, Pull-Ups and Bedwetting

For the past week or two (or three), I have been up several times at night to take my boy to the washroom. My sleep patterns have been severely impacted as a result, and I've been getting sick off and on, since I'm sure my immune system is shot. My wife, being around 5 months pregnant, probably needs the rest more than I do, so I don't mind doing the night chores. Besides, in a few months time, I'll be getting up all night again, so it's just as well, I suppose. I figure I may as well use the awake time to write blog entries, answer emails and play a round of golf on the PSP.

My boy is 4 1/2 years old, and we have him in pull-ups. During the day, he does not need pull-ups or diapers, as he knows when to use the washroom. It is at night, however, that he seems to completely soak his pull-up occasionally, and when this happens - very often, it leaks out and gets all over his bed, waking him up, and as a result, waking me up to wipe him down, change his clothes, and oftentimes, change his sheets. Not terribly fun in a cold house in the middle of the night when you are feeling very groggy from a perpetual lack of sleep.

We have tried to limit his liquid intake to dinnertime only. He goes to bed around 8PM, and at around 11PM, I always haul him out of bed half-asleep and take him to the washroom where he will empty out his bladder. Lately, on instinct, I've been waking up at 2-4AM to take him once more. On nights like tonight when I totally forget to do it (I actually was sleeping for a change), he will soak his pull-up and then call me and I'll wake up and do the change routine.

This evening, it made me think of whether the pull-up brand needs to be changed. I don't believe any one brand has a monopoly for effectiveness at all stages of a child's development. We started using Pampers when my kid was an infant and they leaked, so we switched to Huggies, which was excellent...until he turned around 1.5 or 2 years old, and they started leaking. We then switched to Pampers size 3 and it was awesome for the next year or so. We've since been using Kirkland brand (CostCo) diapers until earlier this year, when we decided to switch him to pull-ups. Now, perhaps I am doing something wrong here with using pull-ups rather than putting him in underwear and bearing with the soakage that will initially come with it. But based on how much urine he is producing, putting him in underwear is insomnia suicide for us. We can't NOT give him liquids at dinner, but I'm amazed by how long the human body retains these liquids. Even if I empty him out at 11PM and 1AM, he still can soak his pull-up by the magical hour of 4AM.

I'm open to any suggestions here. You can email me (see my profile and contact info) or post a comment here. I am a bit puzzled at this conundrum. Ironically, months ago, I used to give him a half-glass of water right before he went to bed every night, and he managed (about 40% of the time) to remain dry, and have a massive pee first thing in the morning. Not sure what happened with all-of-the-sudden soakage (I sincerely hope that he's not deliberately doing it to get us to come see him in the middle of the night) - I'm not sure if taking him for washroom relief a couple of times a night is helping any or making things worse.