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I try not to talk about it too much, but any parent knows that at a certain point in your toddler’s life, potty training becomes a big deal. Competitive parents keep an eye out to make sure some other kid in the same age group doesn’t give up diapers first. Other parents go crazy on Pinterest and decorate the bathroom to encourage their little one to use it.
Our potty training experience was a lot lower key. We never put any pressure on the Bit to take off the diaper, and potty training such as it was happened pretty naturally and quickly once she said she was ready (a little after 2.5, if I recall correctly).
That was fine for daytime, but at night she still wears diapers and she’s been having some accidents at naptime, which is frustrating because of course you have to wash all the sheets.
GoodNites Bed Mats to the Rescue
I should say it was frustrating, because I just got my hands on a great new product that makes nighttime and naptime accidents a lot easier to deal with. GoodNites Disposable Bed Mats are a thin, soft pad with a super-absorbent core and sticky-backed corners so you can stick the pad right down on the fitted sheet. It measures 2.6 feet by 2.9 feet, so it covers most of the width of a toddler or twin bed but not all of the length.
They’re soft and don’t make noise when you roll around on them (the Bit tested that out, for sure) and they hold the liquid when your child has an accident so all you have to do is peel it off and throw it away and the bed is still fresh. Awesome, huh?
GoodNites at Walmart
What’s extra awesome is that you can order these direct from Walmart.com and either have them shipped to you or do like I did and choose the Site to Store option. I so dislike going to Walmart at this time of year because it’s so crowded, but doing Site to Store meant I only had to go to the customer service desk with a copy of an e-mail they sent when my order was ready (you can also get alerts sent via text message).
Show your ID and you can pick up your stuff and go. I was in and out in about five minutes, which is awesome.
Testing the Bed Mats
Because we’re not quite ready to give up the diaper at bedtime (I’m going to try over the holidays, I promise!) we’re only using the bed pads at naptime right now. So husband and the Bit devised an experiment to test the absorbancy of the pads, since we can’t exactly make her have an accident on command.
Husband installed the mat on the Bit’s bed with paper towels underneath, just in case. He prepared a cup of water (dyed with washable paint so it’s easy to see in the pictures) and poured it on.
The blue water quickly spread across the surface and began to soak in. It took about a minute for all of the water to be absorbed into the mat, but it was still wet to the touch a few minutes later.
After about five minutes he picked the mat off the bed and the paper towel beneath were still dry. It’s still possible your top sheet would get wet in the case of a bad accident depending on the position of the child when the accident happened, but this would still make it a lot easier to clean up a middle-of-the-night mess.
Another thing that’s worth noting is the paper backing on the adhesive portions is very thin and prone to tearing, so just be careful when you remove it. Removal of the pad from the bed is easy and it doesn’t leave any residue on the sheet.
Potty Training Help
I’m so glad to have these (and some new nighttime books I bought along with them including Llama Llama Red Pajama and Stellaluna) all ready to go when we do decide we’re ready for nighttime potty training. These pads will at least allow me to rest easier because I’ll know there won’t be a huge mess waiting for me when the inevitable accidents happen.
These would also be great for kids who still have occasional accidents, especially when you’re away from home. You can check them out for yourself at Walmart.com, where you’ll find a bedwetting quiz you can take for a $2 off coupon for GoodNites Bed Mats.
And if you’re like me and need some ideas and education about nighttime potty training, check out these articles at Potty Training Concepts and Bedwetting Store.
I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Huggies. #HuggiesWalmart #CBias #SocialFabric. They don’t pay me to have specific opinions, or to do science experiments.
Sounds like a great way to have peace of mind during naptime! Best of luck with the nighttime training after the holidays!
These are a great idea! I love that the actually stick to the bed. I’ll have to check them out when we get to the night time training =]
You make some valid points… You making me rethink what I was confident about… good job!
The cups were used by a large number of people to avoid infections. It was mainly used to promote public hygiene.
If you compare the disposable cups to the plastic and Styrofoam cups, these cups are safe to use either for hot beverages or for cold beverages.