Potty Training at Night - Kirkland,WA

When he wakes up dry consistently for a couple of weeks, you can give up diaper. That might not be for a while. Nothing you can do. Time and patience. What's the rush. It might be years before he is dry. This is something you cannot control.

You don't "potty train" at night, at least not at this age. The body has to secrete hormones that control when the bladder can hold pee while asleep, and/or alert you to wake to pee. It can kick in anywhere from age 4 to age 8-9. There's no point in "training" at night for a few more years. But if you want to get him in the habit of peeing before bed, do that. It's always a good idea.

Pull ups at night, then double sheet. 1 protective sheet/1 regular, and then another protective sheet and another regular. That way, if there is overflow, you just pull off the top sheet and there are clean ones already on the bed.

How much do you learn while you are unconscious?
Night training has nothing to do with actual training.
It happens when his bladder/brain is mature enough to wake him if he needs to go when he's sleeping.
Many kids sleep too deeply to get that signal until they are much older - and they are growing so fast that they NEED to sleep that deeply.
(I've always thought waking a kid up for a bathroom trip was horrible for everyone because everyone ends up exhausted and it doesn't really help.)
Our son was day trained at 3 1/2 yrs old but he was 7 1/2 before he could stay dry through the night - and many kids are 12 or 13 before they can do it.
Stick with pullups until he's dry every morning for 2 weeks straight.

You can introduce the toddler bed, if he isn't particularly invested in his crib. But I wouldn't ditch the night time diapers just yet. Night time potty training isn't really training, in the same sense that daytime training is. Many kids' (boys in particular for some reason) bodies don't send their brain the "I need to pee" signal during the night until much later.

I wouldn't set him up for failure or nighttime wetting ordeals. Just let him stay in diapers for now. Until you see dry ones in the morning on a regular basis.
If you do put him in a toddler bed, then I would switch to pull ups at night, and put a night light in the bathroom, and talk to him about what to do if he wakes up and feels the urge to pee. That it's ok to get up and go. Or to come get you to go with him (won't happen, probably). Some kids are better at rousing themselves during the night than others. Some would rather stay tucked into their nice warm beds, rather than get up and go down the scary hallway alone to the bathroom. (funny how it doesn't seem to bother them when they come to your bedside, though, lol)

But some kids just don't develop the physical signals that wake them up to go until much later. My own son was a very deep sleeper and he struggled with occasional nighttime wetness until, probably the last time he wet the bed was when he was about 8 or 9? He was absolutely reliable during the day, without a doubt, trust him anywhere, from before he was 3 years old. But night time is not about their willingness, so much as their physical development.

Being dry at night is not a learned thing, you can try all the techniques in the world but until his body starts developing the hormone that keeps them dry at night it will do no good. Expecting a child to be dry at night when they don't have this hormone is like expecting them to go through puberty when you tell them to instead of when their body just naturally does it.

Save him and you a lot of heartache, lost sleep and stress and just put a liner inside of his night time diapers.

BTW this was what my daughter's UROLOGIST told us, not just my opinion.

It's a physical maturity thing. My DD didn't get up at night til recently. Some kids just take longer. Put him in a pull up and don't shame him for it or wake him. It will happen. Focus on days.

I don't know how you "potty train at night" - you cannot train a child to wake up from a sound sleep just because the bladder is full. This is a developmental stage, not a skill you teach. He'll let you know when he is ready, because his diaper will be dry every night. He's still so very young - you should be overjoyed that he is dry during the day, and just wait it out.

I don't believe in waking kids up to pee either, just to avoid a diaper. Parents wind up waking their kids out of a sound sleep, interrupting their REM sleep (necessary for brain development), to take them to the bathroom. So I'd even re-think the term "accident" at night - he's not having accidents, he's normal.

I say, let it happen naturally.

So go ahead and switch to the toddler bed if you think it's the right time for that (but I'd leave the crib in the room just for security), but if you've just had a big move, then maybe you are right, don't make any more changes. If you think your child can get up at night on his own, you can put the crib rail down so he doesn't roll out accidentally (it's still a few inches above the top of the mattress), but he can climb out as needed. If he starts to be dry every night for a period of weeks, you can try switching to a pull-up that he can pull down as needed to go pee if he wakes up on his own.

He's only 2.5, I'd let it go until he's dry for a long period or he's 3.

You can't "potty train" a child at night. If he is 13 years old and still wetting the bed there is a pill the doctor can prescribe to stop night time wetting. The fact that he has some dry nights already is a good sign that he will stop wetting at night in the near future though.

He is too young. If you go to underwear at night, he'll just be waking up with a wet bed, you'll be getting up and changing wet sheets, and his sleep patterns will be all messed up.

I'll tell you what my kids' ped explained to me when I asked if my 3 year old who was day trained but had wet diapers in the morning should go straight to underwear. He told me that children cannot be expected to have dry nights because they may not be physically developed enough before 4 years old. He said to wait until he was around 3 1/2, or when he had dry nights at least twice a week. He said that in the morning when I took off his diaper, and if it was dry, to tell him "Sweetie, I know you're so happy you had a dry night!" and nothing more. If he had a wet diaper, say nothing. The doctor told me that after he started having more dry nights and I thought he might be able to do it, get him a calendar page and stickers, and give him a sticker for each night he was dry. The ped told me to say to him "Sweetie, I know you want to have a dry night, and you'd like to be able to wear your big boy pants instead of a diaper to bed. But we have to have 4 stickers in a row to let you have your big boy pants at night." He told me to say this in the mornings with love, but not dwell on it. This was ALL I was supposed to say. When we got 4 stickers in a row, before bedtime, I'd tell him "Look - you have 4 stickers! You don't have to wear your diaper tonight!" As soon as he wet the bed, I told him that we had to go back to the diaper until we have 4 stickers in a row, hugged him, and put on the diaper, without more commentary on it. Between waiting until his body was developed enough, and his brain was able to work it out, and not stressing him emotionally, he was able to sleep through the night without wetting the bed before he was 4. But I understood what the doctor was trying to tell me, and I didn't push it.

And, just to let you know, this was in a regular twin bed. I didn't let night training determine what bed he slept in. I had a good mattress pad that was soft, but for young children, so I didn't have to worry about the mattress getting soaked. And my son just couldn't wake himself up to go to the bathroom, so I didn't worry about a toddler bed.

I would not try to nighttime potty train until your son goes a period without a wet diaper in the morning, especially since he's only 2 1/2. I just let it happen naturally with my daughter and it worked well.

Some children take longer to "train" for nighttime. It takes longer for their bodies to be ready. My oldest was a wetter until almost 10. He was also a VERY deep sleeper. The doc would not medicate him for it because it was not something his bladder was doing, it was his deep sleep that prevented full dry at night. You could pick him up and toss him into bed and he would not wake up. My youngest finally decided to go potty when he was almost 4--missed the school cutoff for pre-k because he was not ready yet. Then one day, he did it and never went back. He did both day and night at once. But he is not a deep sleeper at all. There are many factors related to full dry at night. I would just continue with nighttime diapers or pullups. If you think he is ready for a toddler bed, make the move to it or just introduce it. A crib can hold a child until they are about 80 to 100 pounds and a toddler bed can last until he is 4 or 5. My oldest were in it until 4 1/2.

My boys were a bit older when they were potty trained and they did it all in one go. They just stayed dry at night and that's how I knew. I never trained them.

I agree - see if he's dry for 2 weeks or so, then switch him to underwear. Whether he's in the crib or bed at that point.

If you're concerned - you just use more absorbent bedding and you can put him in those thick underwear that look like waffle type material. Usually once they get through the night dry though you won't really need to.

Good luck :)

once you notice that the child has had a dry diaper overnight for about a week then you know that their body is ready for night training. i did this with both my kids. and both of them were fully trained and diaperless around age 3 (even though ds stopped daytime diapers right after turning 2 and dd till she was 2.5) i just paid attention to my child and knew when their body was ready.
dd used pullups and i could hear her using the potty in the middle of the night, but ds slept thru and so when his diaper was dry i knew his body was able to hold it till morning.

When I potty trained my oldest I got rid of diapers all together..control liquids close to bedtime....always make her go to the bathroom before bed even if she says she doesn't have to make her try..and I would wake her up and make her walk to the bathroom when I was going to bed at like 1 am so she knew to wake up to go..she didn't like it but after a few days she was waking me up if she had to go in the middle of the night..hope this helps and good luck (:

Our kids slept in pull-ups until they were 4ish. Most nights they were dry, but they would still occasionally wet the bed. I think it's perfectly normal.

L., please understand that you can search this topic by clicking in the white bar across the top right side of this page.

There is no such thing as night time potty training. Consider this. While you're asleep can you regulate your heart? Can you make your fingernails grow?

No. Those are biological things that happen while you're sleeping.

Making your kidneys stop producing urine isn't something we have control over. Making your urine stop coming down into the kidneys isn't something that we have control over.

There is this....time when a child's brain kicks in and it sends a signal to the kidneys that the person is asleep and to slow down. Then they don't make urine during the night as much and they don't get a full bladder every couple of hours and it come out.

Your child isn't old enough, for most kids it's older at night, to stay dry all night.

Waking them up during the night only makes them clinch those muscles they use during the day to hold their urine. They wake up and clinch. So urine is left inside. They go back to sleep, relax, and urine comes out. They don't have that muscle control they have during the day.
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They should already be in a regular bed. A toddler bed is for a toddler and your child is a pre-school age child now. They should be moving from a toddler bed to a full size bed.

They are heavy enough that a toddler bed mattress is not supportive enough. Baby beds are for infants and work okay for kids up to a certain weight/age. That mattress isn't build for bigger kids. It just isn't.

Get your child the bed they're going to grow up in and skip the bed that is for younger children. Consider that at some point they'll want to have sleep overs and need a bed that will hold all of them. My niece put both of her kids in queen size beds at 18-20 months. I had all ours out of toddler beds by age 18 months. Most of my friends didn't even have toddler beds. They went straight from the baby beds to a twin or full size.

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So, back to potty training.

You go to Walmart, Penneys, or some other store that has sheets and bedding. You buy a "Put it over the whole mattress and zip it shut at the end where the feet or head is" and you cover the mattress. THEN you get a great mattress pad that is thick and will keep kiddo off the plastic sheet. It's hot and it isn't fun to sleep in a hot bed all night. The mattress pad needs to be washable since you'll be washing it frequently.

Get your child into some overnight pull ups. They are designed to have smaller leg openings so less escapes even when the kiddo moves around while sleeping. They have different substances inside. They hold more.

Get some pee pads if you need to and put one under the sheet so if he has a leak you only have to wash the sheets and not the mattress pad. Or purchase a pad like they use in hospitals to put under people who can't get out of bed.

Your child needs to drink, not having enough to drink will lead to other problems. Drinking too much won't make much difference either. Until that day where their body kicks in and starts sending signals to their brain and back their body will continue to produce urine all night and they'll be asleep and have little muscle control over their bladder. Waking them up only makes you cranky. Let them sleep. YOU need to sleep. It's silly to wake up at all hours to change them and get them up to change the bed. They need their sleep and YOU need your sleep.

Fix the situation so there is little issues and one day they'll wake up dry. They'll still have accidents occasionally but they'll be on the road to being dry.

Hopefully that will happen before they turn 8-10 but having accidents can happen up through puberty too.