Potty Training at Night Time

Have had three girls...the tricks that we found work...
1. no liquid after 6pm
2. Wake her up before YOU go to bed and take her half asleep to the bathroom. THIS IS KEY! She may not be able to hold from 7pm-6am, but chances are much better she can hold from 7pm-10pm you take her... then she only holds from 10pm-6am. This also helps her to understand she will need to get up herself if she has to pee.
3. Read stories to her while she sits on the potty before nap. She will be relaxed and may get rid of that tiny bit of pee before nap. Let her pick 3-5 books, so she will be there a while.
4. Buy smaller wet pads to throw in the wash, rather than having to do sheets and the full rubber sheet. Then you won't be as bummed out about the accidents.
Hope it helps!
(#2 IS THE MOST IMPORTANT)

Hi,
I am a mommmy to four boys 13, 9, and twins that are 32 months old! So I have done a little potty training in my time. LOL! The best advice that I can give you is cut off her liquids at least one hour before nap time and bed time. If she asks for something to drink after that just give her a little sip of water to wet her whistle. I had my twins fully potty trained by 28 months old. Which is great for boys, my fist two were over 3 before they were completely trained. Another suggestion I learned along the way if she is waking up through the night time because she is wet here is a tip for her bed making to deal with the night time issues. Put her sheet on her mattress then put one of those waterproof mattress covers over that and then another sheet on top of that. So if she wakes up in the middle of the night wet all you have to do is pull the top sheet and the mattress cover off and then you already have her bed made for her. Also, keep an extra set of clothes sitting out and a blanket. Trust me it takes a lot less time to change a bed and a child in the middle of the night if you do that. And letting her know it is okay that she has an accident is great! Your doing the right thing there, some people scold their children for that and then that makes them disinteresed in potty training. I hope this has helped you a little, good luck.

The biggest problem with night/nap-time training is whether they sense the need to go while sleeping. Some develop this later than others. If she's doing well during the day then the best thing you can do is use a "big girl" pull-up prior to sleeping and wait for her to figure it out. 2 1/2 yrs is pretty good for training so you shouldn't be concerned about any development issues. I hope this helps :}

Many children aen't ready for nighttime dryness until much later than 2+1/2. It's a lot harder for them to control their bladder at night then it is during the day when they're awake. Why don't you just put her in pull ups until you notice they're dry when she wakes up? I had a friend who would take her kids to the bathroom (waking them up to do so) before she went to bed. You do whatever works for you - just be patient.

I also agree, J.. My son was potty trained about 2, but I still kept a diaper on him for another 6 months after during naps and night time. One thng to really pay attention to is like with my son, it wasn't that he was wetting during the night, it was as soon as he woke up. So as soon as she wakes up, even if you have to wake her up just a little bit early to make sure that she doesn't spend any time alone as soon as she wakes up, put her on the potty. It will only take a little while longer.

I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you may just have to let your daughter wear pull ups at night for a little while longer. Some children have small bladders and nothing gets them thru the night. If you feel it is a problem, talk with your pediatrician about it, but there are alot of children that have night time accidents up into the elementary school years. It's a very common thing.

I can tell you that I asked my pediatrician this same thing when my son was about same age - he told me that if I had him night time trained before he was 6 or so, I would be lucky. He told me not to worry because they were still developing in the bladder area and since he is such a heavy sleeper that it would be fine. I have also had some of my friends that have older children tell me the same thing. It will come - as my pediatrician says. Good luck.

What I did was got my daughter up at least once during the night and took her to the bathroom. I sat her on the potty,since she was still pretty much asleep,and she went pee-pee. I kept a diaper on at nighttime only. After several nights with no accidents I would try going without a diaper again. Once she got used to wearing no diaper at night and going potty at least once during the night she learned to wake herself up when she felt the urge to go potty. It only lasted a couple of weeks,at most,before she stopped wetting at night. She was around 26 months old when she was night potty trained. My doctor had told me if you make it a routine, before bed sit her on the potty, wake her up at least once during the night, and as soon as she wakes up get her to the bathroom, she will get used to it. It worked great. Every once in awhile she may still have an accident but it is because she waited to long before deciding to go potty. She is almost 4yrs. old now and I am fixing to have to start training another one. This one I hope goes as well. Best of luck.

It sounds like you are doing everything right. It's just that at her age, it can a little extra time to fully train (maybe until she is at or near 3 yrs. old). This is very normal. Try just using a diaper at night and when it's staying dry for days at a time, you'll know it's time to stop. Definitely get her to use the bathroom before bed. Sometimes at that age they say they don't need to go so I would ask them to sit on the pottie and then I would start to wash my hands or something just so I could start the water running in the bathroom and act calmly. Within just a minute, they usually pee-pee. Good luck!

Wow! You guys are doing great. All this at 2 1/2!

I don't know the methods, but I do know of a device she can wear that beeps. You can find it at onesteapahead.com. They seem ok, though they just took nearly a week to ship all of our babyproofing order!

Anyway, I do now remember reading about this in the Sears Discipline Book (they cover all of the usual infancy, toddlerhood and young childhood issues, not just discipline). You might wnat to check out a copy from the library or just get it at amazon.com.

Happy Sunday! Even if it's an hour later than you think ;)

L.

There really is not much you can do except make sure she goes right before she goes to bed. She will start waking up dry in time. She is still very young. :)

Why is it so important to be dry at night. MANY kids aren't dry at night until 3, 4, or 5 years old. MANY kids sleep in a pull-up at night. I have found it is very little about "training" and that it just happens when the body is ready. It has much to do with how soundly they sleep, bladder size, and bladder control muscles - things kids have NO control over. She should not feel badly if she wets in her sleep. You just need to tell her "sometimes that happens, soon your body will be ready to wait all night" Put her panties on and start the day.

What I did with my daughter's is I put pull-ups on them when they laid down for a nap or for the night. I told them the pull-ups were their nighttime panties in case they had an accident. I also took them to the potty everytime right before they fell asleep. If I seen them start nodding off I just simply said "Let's go potty real quick so you don't have an accident." Every child is different though from their personality to the eating and potty training. My three year old still has accident every so often. I just let her know that its okay that everyone has accidents once in a while, even me. I hope that helped a little bit. Good luck and God bless.

Elizabeth was right - it really is all about their own physiological development. My son was pt'd at 2 1/2. However, he just couldn't sleep through the night or through naps without an accident. Yet he has never had not one accident while he was awake. No biggee. We kept regular pull-ups during naps and night-time at night and just told him it was in case he was having a super great dream and didn't want to wake up. Sometimes he was dry after sleeping, sometimes he wasn't, and it never really mattered how late or early he was allowed to drink.

It was almost 8 months later until he was completely pull-up free, before he would actually wake himself up, go potty by himself, and go back to bed. It was no big deal, and I'm glad we didn't stress over it. About 3 or 4 weeks with dry pull-ups was when we knew he was good to go.

Congratulations on such successful training thus far! You're doing great. Now the bad news: The fact is, no matter what you do, everything depends on the child and her own physiology. A child will night train when she is ready and not a moment before, regardless of the many things you're doing to speed the process. This milestone is affected by, of all things, you, her parents. If one (or both) of you night trained late then you can bet she's going to as well. We are still trying to night train my 33 month old. This comes several years after my oldest child night trained - I kid you not - at 2 months old! So, it was quite an unpleasant switch. We've tried everything: no liquids two hours before bed. Potty time before bed. Waking her up when we go to bed to potty. Setting an alarm for ourselves so we'd wake up and take her to the potty in the middle of the night. Taking her to the potty as soon as we woke up. We were literally taking her to the bathroom 4 times between 8:30p.m. and 5:00 a.m. -- All to no avail! I was washing her sheets every single day. The simple fact is, my husband has a small-ish bladder and unfortunately so does my daughter. He trained between 4 and 5 and most likely so will she.

The best things you can do are this: invest in a plastic bed sheet if you have not already. Buy night time pull-ups. Continue to limit liquids before bed. Continue to take her to the potty regularly. And, above all, do not get upset with her if she has an accident.

You're doing a fantastic job, keep up the good work!

I just got finished "training" my daughter at night time. It's a pain!-haha!! This is what I did... Just put her in panties. She will have accidents... every night... for about 2 weeks. Just change the sheets, take her to the bathroom, reitterate that if she needs to tee-tee to call for you and you will come and help her to the bathroom. Don't get upset b/c she's probably aready upset about it. After about 2 weeks of that... no more!!- YEY! Good luck!

I agree with Brenda L. My daughter was night trained at the same time she was day trained, around 2 years...but for my son, it was a little past 4 years. I never restricted their nighttime drinking. In fact, my DS is thirsty a lot, and he often keeps a bottle of water by his bed and drinks some DURING the night. Still no wetting the bed, once he was ready.

~A.