Potty Training - Laconia,NH

It really really just depends on the child. My nephew was dry during the night at 2 and a half. He is now 6 and sleeps through the night without going to the bathroom. My other nephew wore diapers until he was 3 and half. Some kids wet the bed until they are 7 or 8. Every kid is different. I think you are doing a great job, especially if you have the patience and energy to wake him up to pee in the middle of the night. Take cues from your son. If he is dry, he is dry. I say keep it up. I was a twin and we wet the bed until we were probably almost four. There wasn't anyone waking us up in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom. So, just keep doing what you are doing. Occasionally you may have a set back or accident, but no worries. Use a sheet protector and have a change of sheets handy. Good luck!!

I have three boys (8,9,12) and the two youngest just got out of nighttime pull-ups this summer. We tried every so often during the past year but if I had to wash both sets of sheets three nights in a row, we went back to the pull-ups. We stop liquids with dinner and they need reminding to use the bathroom before getting into bed- we have about two accidents a week now. If your son is ready then go for it, otherwise why stress yourself out about it. I know they can be expensive and are bad for the environment but in the big picture it is not that important. Do whatever works for you and your son.

You and your husband are both right. It is true that children can still still pee at night until the age of 6, and even longer in boys if it runs in his family. But as for you trying, it seems that your method was successful, so I don't see the harm in trying. You will need to understand though if he does have accidents. My daughter didn't even want to try to potty train during the day until she was past her 3rd birthday and I still have her in pull-ups at night (she's 4 1/2). My problem with her is that I can't really waker her in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. If I did, she would want to stay up. I would have waited a little longer until he had showed signs of keeping dry on his own, but as long as you feel you can keep up the routine of waking him then go for it.

Hi M.,

I think you're doing it the right way. There's no reason not to give it a try. We started putting my son in underwear at night at 2 1/2 because he had been fully trained during the day for 6 months. I typically would wake him up to go before I went to bed (but whenever he stayed over my inlaws, they didn't and he was apparently fine). Sometimes if he had accidents several nights in a row, I wouldn't make a big deal about it but I would put him back in a pull-up or diaper. But I still continued with the routine of waking him at night. After wearing underwear, he didn't like the pull-up so it would just be a day or two before we'd go back to underwear. He had no problem going back to sleep after I woke him - I don't think he was even fully awake. Now my son is 4 and it's not an issue and I do notice that he still often gets up to go on his own at night and it's generally around midnight, just like when I used to wake him to have him go!

I'd just recommend that you get a two waterproof mattress pads. Keep one on the bed (obviously) but the other I'd keep handy with clean sheets so in case he did have an accident at night, I could easily swap everything out and clean him up in just a couple of minutes.

As for your husband...I'd discuss the issue with him and tell him that you'd like to try and encourage but you won't push. His issue with it may be more subconscious about not liking to see his kids grow up too quickly. I know that I have little battles like that with myself all of the time! On one hand, I'm was happy to see the diapers go but there was that part of me that was sad (same was true for switching to a bed, not breastfeeding, losing the bottle, sippy cups, certain baby toys, etc.).

Some kids take much longer and that's natural too but maybe your son is ready now. The only way to find out is to try.

Hi M.. I've read 3 or maybe 4 bedwetting books because my oldest wet for a long time but that turned out to be caused by a medication he was on for asthma. Every book said the same thing. It does not teach your child anything if you have to wake them up and take them. It doesn't teach their bodies to hold it or teach their bodies to recognize the signal to the brain that their bladders are full. I say continue w/ stopping liquids 2 or three hours before bed but let his body learn that he needs to wake up or hold it. Get a good mattress protector and also get a water proof liner thats unfitted put that sandwiched between two sheets so if he does wake up wet you don't have to change the entire bed during the middle of the night and I would only do this after he stays dry in a pullup for awhile.

hi M.,
I have two daughters ages 6 and 3 both are potty trained during the day and both are in pull ups at night. Our pediatrician said it not uncommon for kids to have accidents until 8-11. Its a medical problem, their bladders havent caught up with the rest of their bodys. I with hold fluids after dinner and make them both go to the bathroom before bed, and most mornings both wake up wet. But we dont make a big deal about it. Its better than changing them and the sheets every night.
We have even tried bribery with our 6 year old, she just isnt able to do it.
Dont worry about it, it will happen when his body is ready. But DONT wake him up, it will mess with his sleep habits and the amount of sleep he needs.

That is wonderful that you son is potty trained before 3 yo! Congrats :) My son is turned 3 in march and just potty trained about 2-3 months ago. I have him use the potty right before bed and have him go when he wakes up. He does go to bed with water. I'd say my son is dry more than 90% of the time overnight. I personally feel that he is doing so well during the day and I don't want to pressure him for the night as well. I take notice of his diaper in the morning "Another dry diaper-great job!" but that's it for now. My son is also sleeping so well through though the night that I don't want to disturb his sleep and risk messing with his schedule. (Especially since he shares a room with his younger sister).

It boils down to what you and the family are ready for. What about buying one or 2 cloth diapers for this overnight transition period? Good luck :)

Hi - My son will be 4 i n October and stopped wearing pull-ups at night maybe a month or 2 ago. I told him when he could go a whole week waking up dry (in a pull-up) than we could try NOT wearing them anymore. So far he's only had 2 accidents which I think is great! This was an issue we didn't push at all; he requested that he stop wearing pull-ups at bedtime, so my suggestion was making it through a whole week first. Each kid is different, so whatever works for you guys... I know several kids who stillw ear pull-ups at night & are older than my son. One thing however, I have read multiple times (& feel strongly myself) that you really shouldn't interrupt your child's sleep to put them on the potty, especially at such a young age. If he were 10 and having bed wetting issues, maybe a different story, but not even 3 yet, let the kids sleep. Their quality sleep is so much more important at this stage than sleeping through the night dry. Good luck!

I am not a big believer in waking children to go potty -- it disturbs their sleep tremendously and they really need an uninterrupted period of rest. It doesn't really "train" them to be dry all night. Same thing with those crazy alarms that go off when the underwear gets wet. They don't work. That is a developmental issue and many kids, especially boys, take a while to get that "bladder to brain" signal. My son was very late in this regard. Now there are all kinds of nighttime products to keep bigger kids dry so you know that there are many many kids in that situation. Your husband might be wanting to keep your son young in many ways, but I think he is right on the "age 6" thing. My kid was much later than that and, after consultations with the pediatrician and a pediatric urologist out of Children's Hospital, we opted to put him on medication, which he took until he was 11. I'm not saying that will happen with you, and I'm actually not a big believer in medication if it can be avoided. By age 7, our child needed to have and go to sleep-overs, and he needed to not be in diapers (he's now 20, and there were no products for kids his size/age back then). He was able to go to overnight camp and get plenty of sleep for many years by just taking one little pill at night that had no side effects. Anyway, if your child wears diapers for a few more years, that's just the way it is. I know you want to get rid of them, but until he wakes up on his own or can "hold it" all night, I really believe you will create more problems for him by not letting him sleep. Good luck!

I agree that every kid is different, but you certainly should see whether your son is ready to make it through the night. If it turns out he's wetting the bed every night and getting discouraged, or you are getting tired of changing the sheets, then stop your efforts for now and try again in a few months. But it's definitely not out of the question that he could be ready to make it through the night. My 3-1/2-year-old was potty trained a few months after his third birthday. Once he was dry consistently during the day, we tried letting him wear underwear at night, mostly because he was waiting until he got a diaper on to poop. We feared we'd have a lot of mess to clean up in the morning, but amazingly, he was dry and began pooping on the toilet as well. He does sometimes have accidents during the night, but he usually makes it through. We don't even wake him up. We just make sure he uses the toilet right before he goes to bed and then that we take him to the toilet as soon as he wakes up. If he wakes up on his own in the middle of the night, we take him to the toilet. We also leave a potty in his room, and once he got up and used it on his own.

I'm not sure what to do about your husband. Perhaps you will get lots of responses from people whose children also were making it through the night at 3, and then your accumulated evidence will be enough to convince him to see how your son does.

Hi M.,
Boy, I didn't realize how discrepant opinions can be about night-time potty training! One thing I haven't read in your responses that you should know is that night-time dryness is actually controlled by a hormone produced in the brain that typically develops well after day-time training has happened. The hormone tels the kidneys to produce less urine at night. When you start to see your child wake up repeatedly with dry diapers you know you're OK to go ahead and remove them from the routine. Witholding liquids before bed and making sure the child goes potty right before bedtime are great ideas, but PLEASE don't wake your child during the night. As others have stated here it is disruptive to the child's rest and ineffective for training purposes. Do expect lots of accidents but it certainly sounds like you and your son are ready to give it a go if you let him go the whole night and his diaper is dry by morning. Good luck!

If he is keeping the diaper dry at night then he's more than ready to be night trained. Just because some kids aren't trained until 6 doesn't mean that your child is one of them and you do have to encourage the signs of readiness. With my two oldest (now 10 and 7) as soon as they were potty trained during the day and were having no more accidents I stopped putting diapers on them at night. My oldest was much more frustrating with the night time training. I knew she could do it because during the day she could hold it for long periods of time. But she was completely potty trained before she turned 4. I'm not sure why your husband would object to getting rid of diapers. I mean think of the money you'll save. I suppose if he's not the one changing it in the morning though maybe that is a reason it doesn't bother him so much. If he really objects to it you could always just say then you deal with all potty issues including diaper changing.

It really depends on the kid. My son potty trained pretty suddenly a few weeks before turning three, both day and night. We had been working on it for months, and one day I ran out of pullups and put him in undies. He peed in them once, didn't like it, and from then on was potty trained. A few weeks later we realized he was consistently dry through the night as well and went to undies at night as well.

My daughter is currently 4, and definitely not trained yet. She makes it through if we wake her up and potty her when we go to bed, usually. She insists on water at night. I have to think about what someone said about that not teaching them though. Perhaps back to pullups at night for a bit more.

My 6 year old still wets at night. Probably if I kept your routine we cold keep him dry, but he's such a solid sleeper it'd be all up to us. I know at least one of his cousins wet at night until 7, and pediatrician said it's okay (sleep problem, not a urininary problem) for now - only concern is that it'd embarass him with his peers.

So, he's 6, and not yet night trained.

Hi M.,
I just potty trained my 28 month old son Day & night. The book I read did a 3 day potty training. She said to get rid of all diapers( even at night- just confuses the child). My son is doing great- we have accidents every once in a while But so do I -haha. Be consistant. if you are putting him to bed one night with a diaper & the nexy without how will he learn. There will be accidents. but you just gotta go for it. My book said after 22 months a child should be able to go through the night. Your husband is right that some childern will still wet the bed on occation up to 6 but that doesn't mean you should keep him in a diaper till then. I just bought several easy remove waterproof pads for his bed so if he does have an accident it is an easy clean. good luck.

Potty training at night is a whole different ballgame. It can take them more than a year after successful daytime toilet training to stay dry at night. To save you frustration and laundry, put him in pull-ups only at night. When he has stayed dry for three or more nights in a row, then try going without the pull-up. Just be sure to change him into undies as soon as he gets up in the morning.