Potty Training in the Night

Well, I think most kids day train well before night training is complete. Lots of kids just don't have the physical ability to hold it all night til they are 5, 6 even 7.
My plan was use a Pull Up until we had O. full week of dry mornings.

I got lucky though and my son told me he wanted undies at night before that & he never had an accident. :-)

You can use a waterproof pad under the sheet and you can layer them: pad, sheet, pad, sheet, for quick changes, just in case!

You do not train kids at night, it is a matter of their bladder maturing enough to hold it while they sleep. This happens at different times for different kids. Usually it is between 2 and 6, but for some kids can take longer. My cousin was 12. There are things you can do to help a bed wetter, like cutting down on liquids after dinner, but do not push it or make them feel bad, it is a physiological thing, not a learning issue. Allow the child to stay in some type of pull up or night pants until they have gone several nights (like a month straight) dry.

You can't "train" kids to be dry at night. Some kids don't develop the ability to stay dry all night as early as others. Some kids just take longer to develop the physiological maturity to hold their pee all night, or the be aware enough of the sensation of a full bladder until later in childhood. I wet the bed well into my early childhood years, maybe to age 7 or 8 even? Not always, of course, but on occasion. And I assure you, I had no control of it whatsoever. My son is 4 1/2, and he can be dry for weeks, then have a random night where he'll pee in his sleep. We use pull-ups to avoid night time hassles changing bedding. He is TOTALLY day trained, has been for almost 2 years. But he still has occasional night wetting, and we do limit fluids at night, and he does pee before he goes to sleep. We don't make an issue of his night wetting, I have told him that he can't help it if he pees in his sleep. I am thinking of switching to layering sheets with protective pads, and allowing him to sleep in his undies, simply to cut cost of buying pull-ups, even though we do reuse dry ones for a night or two. In any case, I'd say to ease up on 'trying' to night train. It will happen when your child is physiologically mature enough to wake to pee in the night.

Daytime pottying is a SEPARATE thing from night-time dryness, or nap time dryness.

Night time dryness... is not even attained until even 7 years old. This is normal and per Pediatricians.

It has to do with the child's biological development/bladder maturity/nerve connections/brain connections.

Kids... WILL have accidents at night. That is childhood. It happens. Unconsciously. They cannot always control it.
I had accidents too as a child.
My daughter is 7... and every once in awhile, she will have an accident. no biggie. I use waterproof bed pads DIRECTLY under her.
She was 5, when she then used underwear at night. Before that it was night time diapers. Normal.
My son recently made 4, and he still wears night time diapers for naps and bedtime. Normal.

If you expect NO accidents at night, at all... then that will not happen. Because, a child will have accidents. They are not perfect. And some kids sleep very deeply and don't realize it.
My daughter even had a dream once, that she WAS on the toilet... until she felt herself wet. We laughed about it, I changed the bed pad, she changed her pj's and she went back to bed. No biggie.

Punishments/scolding/rewards and waking them at night just to pee... does not help. It just creates more stress... for something they or their body cannot yet control. Perfectly.

Pull-ups at night, is useless. Because it does not hold much and it leaks. Thus, use a night-time diaper at night.

all the best,
Susan

If your child is over 7, talk to him/her about it and see how important it is to him/her. You can always have your child be involved in stripping the wet sheets off the bed, washing them, and putting clean sheets back on. Limit drinks after dinner. They say most people wet the bed an hour or two after they go to sleep or an hour or so before they wake up. You can try waking your child before you go to sleep and have him/her go to the bathroom, and/or waking him/her an hour earlier in the morning (and hopefully he/she will go back to sleep!). Mention all this to the pediatrician at your next appointment.

Hi There, I can tell you that I am now teaching the 2nd generation and it has worked so far. As the mother of 4 that needed help and the grandmother of several, we just tke the child to the bathroom in the middle of the night before we went to bed. If I got up later for the bathroom myself then I also took the child--- who generally was still asleep but went anyway. It takes time and alot of patience and thank goodness for pull ups to keep the bed dry! Good Luck

Hi, I’m D. M. from the GoodNites NiteLite Panel. Mamapedia is partnering with GoodNites through September and your question is definitely relevant to what I talk about with the NiteLite Panel, so I wanted to offer my advice. As a mom of six kids, I don't really think there's any special step-by-step procedure for potty training kids at night. Children develop the physical maturity to stay dry through the night at different ages. Some children may be able to stay dry at age three. Others will wet the bed until age ten or beyond. Instead, focus on a consistent bedtime routine that calms your child and gets them ready for sleep. Have a snack, brush teeth, go potty, use disposable underpants if the child wets the bed, read a story, and turn the lights out. Include whatever elements you'd like in your child's bedtime routine, but do the same things every night. Talk to your children, cuddle with them, enjoy this quiet time before going to bed. Staying dry throughout the night will come with time.

Everything I read says night time potty trained is biological and cannot be trained, when the body is ready it will hold it and stay dry at night, that being said, help the process by not giving beverages too close to bed time and using the potty right before bedtime
Good luck

Here's what worked for my daughter- I would restrict her fluids about 1.5 hours before bedtime. Make her go pee pee before bed. Because at that age their bladder is small I would set an alarm for myself for 4 hours later to carry her to the bathroom to go pee pee. She would go back to sleep immediately after that. Once I started work and the lack of sleep started affecting me, I gave up the middle of night routine and just put her bed with a diaper. I would wake up early and take her to the bathroom then. Once she started having dry diapers throughout the night, I switched her to her cotton panties at night as well. The switch happened around 3.5 years. She did have accidents occasionally, but I had put a plastic sheet over her mattress so the bed was okay. Basically once I started going to work, I decided not to stress out much over her potty training. Just my thoughts. Hope it helps. Best luck.