Is My Daughter Ready for No Diapers at Nighttime?

I told my daughter she needed to wake up dry 5 nights in a row before I'd let her wear her undies to bed. She was night trained at 23 months. When she had an accident, we'd go back to her cloth diapers, till she was dry for 5 more nights. It didn't take long at all.

My daughter rarely, if ever, wakes to go in the middle of the night. It's a bladder control issue, not a need issue. So, I think you need to get her to focus on NOT going at night. My daughter goes potty twice before bed, btw, usually within 30minutes of each other.

Personally, I just didn't want to deal with wet sheets and blankets all the time.
My son is a deep sleeper and he didn't stay dry at night till he was about 7 yrs old. Some girls train earlier, but many have accidents till they are 6.

Night-time "dryness" is biological based, and can take until even 7 years old. This is normal. This is per Pediatricians.

Night time dryness is not the same as day time toileting.

It is good you are understanding that she still is fine to wear diapers at night. Even at 5 years old, my daughter was wearing night diapers.
And I have like 4 waterproof bedpads, that I put under her, in case of accidents. Not all 4, but of course just one. Easier clean up that way.
The waterproof bed-pads I got from Amazon. They have all kinds.

My daughter, when she was already 5 years old... just one day said she was "ready" to just wear panties at night. And indeed she was. By then, she was developed enough mentally and biologically... to wake herself and go to the bathroom by herself. To know... she had to pee. Even if sleeping.

Your daughter is still wet at night... which is normal. She is only 3. My son is 3.5 years old and he is wet too, at night and for naps. He wears diapers for sleep.

Maybe... put on her underwear... and then she will see, that she still wets. or, put on her underwear over her diaper. Or put her underwear on under her diaper. I have heard of some that do that.

all the best,
Susan

I didn't night train my daughter. I really wanted to not have to get up during the night to clean her and change her sheets, etc. When she expressed interest at not wearing a diaper at night, I told her that she has to be able to use the potty during the night. Soon after that, she started to use the potty! about that time, she was waking up with dry pull-ups, either because she went potty during the night or was able to hold it while she slept. I then told her if she went a full week with dry diapers in the morning, then she could ditch the pull-up. She did, and we said good bye to the pull-ups! It was very easy! I feel you should wait until she's ready biologically!

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Since your daughter wakes up with very wet diapers, I'd say she is not ready yet. I waited until my kids stayed dry consistently on their own before letting them wear underwear to bed. I didn't cut back the fluids before bed or wake them in the night. I just made sure they used the bathroom right before they got into bed. It's much easier to wait until their bodies are capable of staying dry all night. Both of my daughters were able to stay dry all night about the age of 4 or a few months after.

Why not let her try i?. My oldest daughter was always wet at night, but right before three she said she wanted to wear panties at night also. So she did and was dry. The youngest, though was a bed wetter for many years. It all depends on the child.. I would definitely follow her request and try it for a couple of weeks and see what happens. You might be pleasantly surprised.

she had nothing to drink after 8 and went potty right before getting in bed and if she had to pee my daughter would let out a scream i would go get her put her on the potty and she peed and we went back to bed as nothing ever happened

My daughter wasn't dry when i started her. My thoughts are she needs to feel like a big girl to act like one. I went to sears ( tried walmart but they were junk and ripped up the first time i washed them) and bought water proof sheets. They look and feel like reg. sheets but are water proof. I personally put a towel under her to catch any pee. But i just dealt with the wet sheets. I bought two of them so i could quick switch at night. I filled her up with water before bed time. So she would get the feeling she had to go pee when she did. I think most limit water but the prob. with that is they kind of feel like they have to go and pee on themselves in stead of REALLY having to go and it waking them up.. Did not turn back, do do this and than decide it's too much work. Good luck.

I don't limit my son's liquid intake before bed, but I do make sure that I wake him up and take him to the potty before *I* go to bed. He gets a "special treat" (an M&M or a gummy snack) sometimes when he wakes up dry, as an extra incentive. (We did the treat every time for a week or two, and now it's a random reward. That's supposed to make it a reward rather than an expected consequence.)

It took him nine or ten months to be dry through the night. I think part of that was because I had him in Pull-ups and that confused him; it sort of gave him "permission" to wet the bed because he wasn't in big-boy skivvies. Once I switched him to just skivvies at night, he was dry A LOT more often.

In order to cut down on the laundry and bed changes, I put a cloth diaper insert inside his skivvies. That way he knew it wasn't a Pull-up, but it did absorb a good bit of the wet in case of accidents. I put a rubber mattress pad under his sheet, and had him help me change his sheets out when they were wet. He doesn't like to do it, so he has lots of incentive to stay dry. When he was dry for almost a month with the inserts, we took those out too.

I didn't read any of your answers, so I apologize if I'm redundant! This probably isn't your situation b/c your daughter is only 3, but my oldest was potty trained during the day at 2, but had to wear pull-ups at night until she was 7 1/2. I was obviously concerned so I talked to the pediatrician. She said we make a hormone that condenses our urine at night, and some kids just don't produce this hormone until they are older. She told me it wouldn't be a concern until my daughter was 9! Her pull-ups were completely soaked every morning. One day when she was 7 1/2 she announced "I'm done with pull-ups" and she was. I'm not kidding, it's been exactly one year and she has not had one single accident. Anyway, I just wanted to point this out just in case you try everything (like withholding liquids at night, getting her up to pee at 11pm) because these were all things we tried too (MANY times). Just something to consider if another year or two go by and she's still not dry at night :)

With my daughter we switched to panties day and night at the same time (at 27 months) we had many accidents during the day, but she has only wet the bed 4 times. (Prior to switching, she also woke up soaked. After switching she would come and tell me she had to go.)
My son on the other hand, pushed us into undies for him at 22 months (he wanted to be like big sister). The night training is taking longer - although he does wake up at night.
I think it varies by kid. :)
That said, if they have a diaper on, then they will use it. If you decide that it is time to switch, I would do what some of the other posters mentioned... Liquid management. :) Cut off the liquids close to bedtime, otherwise you are setting them up for failure.
My vote is that she is interested.. Why not? (Accidents are part of the learning...) Good luck!

I had my daughter go right before she went to bed and I put a little potty in her room with a night light for during the night. Still, even though she wanted to be ready, she wasn't until her 4th birthday. You could put a diaper on under her underpants so she gets to wear them but still has some protection. We did this for a while.

Usually if you don't allow them to drink anything past dinnertime (or maybe just a little if dinner is a while before bedtime) then have her go right before bed then they'll be able to go all night without having to go again. My daughter never wore pullups or diapers to bed once she was pottytrained but we didn't let her have a drink after around 7. That's what my pediatrician says anyway... :o)
P.S. I used to nanny for a family and I pottytrained their son but even a year and a half later he was still wearing pullups to bed but anytime I had them for the weekend or week he wore underwear and did just fine! The only difference was I didn't let him take his sippy cup to bed with him but he did at home!
Hope this helps!

If she is asking for diaper free then let her. What might help is not putting bottoms on her at all. My son is 28mo and has not had an accident since I started doing this for him. I can now put him in a jumpsuit and he is still dry. He wakes up through the night now if he needs to go but when wearing nappies he soaks them something cronic. I think it is because there is "permission" if a diaper is on whereas if it is not there then they will actually wet themselves which they do not want to do so they don't :)

I waited too long to do it with my son. We were approaching four before I bit the bullet. We started out him wearing the diapers. I promised him a candy after breakfast if he had a dry diaper. He did a couple of times. We bit the bullet. Surprise. He did great. He only wet the bed once. That's been over six months ago. Bottom line, if he had a diaper on, he would use it, even if he was awake.

My plan to get through the rough spots was to put a fitted sheet down, something absorbant and not leak through on top, another fitted sheet on top of that, and then another mattress pad (just a small 4 x 4 one, not fitted) on top of that. Never got to that.

The only way I knew he had wet the bed that one time was because he was in different pajamas than I put him in the night before. He just got up and changed himself.

I didn't see anyone else mention this and it worked like a charm for me (oops - just noticed that Jodi did. I take it back :)
My daughter also just turned three and has been potty trained since two. 1.Get a waterproof fitted sheet just in case. Those shouldn't be hard to find. 2.Limit her intake of fluids a couple hours before bed. 3. Before YOU go to bed (I make midnight the regular time) get her out of bed and put her on the potty. She won't really even completely be awake, but she'll be awake enough to pee. My daughter announced two weeks ago that she didn't want to wear diapers to bed anymore and, following this system she hasn't had a single accident yet.

Have you tried limiting fluids a few hours before bed time to see if it makes a difference in the morning? I know every child is different...and many children wet at night normally for many years...but I only used diapers at night for the first week of potty training (she was 2.5).

We are around 10 months trained now and I can count on one hand how many night time accidents she's had--I can attribute those to a change in schedule or having taken Benadryl for her allergies.

I also found that in the early weeks she was staying dry ALL night...until 15-30 minutes of waking. I would put her on the toilet (still pretty sleepy) and she would just go out of reflex.

Readiness is a physiological response, but my pediatrician said that if you can send the right signals to the body you can sometimes speed the development of the nerves and the hormones.

My daughter is almost 3 and has been night trained for 3 months. Here's what I did.

1. buy a package of poise pads... The pads that incontinent adults wear. Each night put one of these in her panties.

2. buy 3 sets of fitted sheets and 3 sheet savers and 2 waterproof fitted sheets. Put one waterproof fitted sheet on and all the fitted sheets layering the sheet savers under each sheet. This is so when she does have an accident, you can just remove the sheets she wet through and not traumatize her too much. Keep one of the waterproof fitted sheets in the drawer in case she does wet through all sets.

3. no juice or water at least 2 hours before bedtime. I let my daughter have milk with meals and she knows she can't have liquids after dinner except for a small drink of water when she brushes her teeth.

4. have her pee right before bed. Take her to the potty at midnight to try again. The waking her up actually helps her system to understand it is ok to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and that she needs to wake up to go pee.

5. I don't know if you still use a monitor, but you may need to use one again to make sure you can hear her if she starts stirring in the middle of the night. Children will stir a little before they pee the bed. You just have to listen for it.

Once she has woke up for 2 weeks straight without peeing in her pad, let her go without it.

I still wake my daughter up to go pee when I go to bed to give her that second chance to empty her bladder. I hope this helps!

You can try it for a night or two. It just depends on the child. My first (boy) was dry at night long before he was potty trained, so it was never an issue with him. My second (girl) wasn't dry at night until age 5 or so. (She was daytime trained at 2.5). She was not in diapers at night so I did ALOT of laundry and got really tired of her smelling stinky in the mornings. My third (girl) was in pull-ups at night for about 6 months after daytime trained at just over 3. My rule was "keep one package of pull-ups dry" and then we didn't buy any more. My 4th (boy) is still in pull-ups at night almost 2 years after being daytime trained. He is dry most nights, but is wet about once a week. He tried not wearing a pull-up last week but drenched the bed. I don't mind letting them try, but if she consistently wets, I find the pull-ups at night easier in the long run. It all depends how soundly they sleep and how big their bladder is.

I think your life will be easier if you wait until she has several dry nights in a row before switching to underwear. Otherwise, you are going to be doing a lot of changing of sheets. Both our kids were in pull ups at night for close to a year, but then we had no accidents after the switch.

If she asks, give it a try! My daughter is 2.5 and over the last month has been practicing daytime toileting - and since has put up a bit of a drama every night when we put on her diaper. Since this is a long weekend and I don't have to worry about lost sleep, I just put a watertight layer on her mattress and a towel under her and we are taking a leap of faith.

With my daughter, I know that she usually wakes up dry, but then soaks her diaper right after waking. She is slow to wake up in the morning and when ther is no need to use the potty, she won't.

I think if you are ok with a potential accident at night and won't freak out over some soiled sheets, just give it a try when she asks next time and see how it goes. If it doesn't go well, just don't make a big deal about going back for a while - as someone else wrote, nighttime dryness has nothing to do with "training", it's a physiological thing.

BTW, I haven't gotten any yet, but I am planning on buying a few puppy pads to put under her for a little while... just in case.
Good luck.

IMHO your daughter could be ready but you may not know because she hasn't been given an opportunity to show you. You ask if there is anything you should be doing to help her along. To this, I'd say yes. Make sure you are restricting her fluid intake at bedtime. By this I mean nothing to drink for at least 2 hours prior to her bedtime and try to make her last drink water which makes less work for your kidneys to do thus less urine production at night. Let her know that this is in preparation for wearing panties to bed if you haven't already been doing this so she is less likely to take it as punishment or fight you on it. Once fluids are restricted tell her she has to wake up dry at least 4 days in a row in order to get her big girl panties at night and see what happens. I would also make sure to get a matress cover before switching unless hers is vinyl.

Hope this helps some.