Daytime vs Night Time Potty Training

There is no such thing as night time potty training. They're dry at night when their bodies are developed enough to hold it all night. No training involved--it's physiology.

Night time/sleep time dryness, is an entirely different, process... than day time pottying.
And it takes up until even 7 years old. And is normal.
Night time/sleep time dryness, has to do with a body's PHYSIOLOGICAL maturity of the organs. The brain/bladder/myelin nerve sheath development.
Not according to the age of the child.
Each child is different.
And you cannot make the child be dry, at night or during naps.

My daughter was 5 when she began, to be dry at night and per naps.
And she still had sleep time accidents even at 7 years old. No biggie.
My son is 5, and he is still wet at night and during naps.
And this is normal.
My kids wore/wear night time diapers. Pull-ups, don't hold as much and leaks.

GET a waterproof bed pad to put under your child when sleeping. This prevents the sheets from getting soiled.
I have 4 of them I got from Amazon.

Your child is very young.
I would not expect her to be dry at night yet nor at naps.

Next: know that kids have accidents. It is childhood. No child is 100% perfect about it. No matter, how long or at what age they got potty trained.

ALL of my daughter's Teachers, from Preschool to Kindergarten to 1st Grade, ALL unanimously said, that kids these ages have accidents. AND they wear night diapers at night and are not totally dry yet, at night.
Even our Pediatrician said so.

Punishing and/or rewarding a child per night time accidents, do not help. It just causes stress for the child, then the parent.
Because their body is not yet, physiologically, developed yet.

And contrary to popular belief, a child does NOT get "confused" about wearing underwear during the day and diapers at night. My kids never did. BECAUSE, I simply explained to them.... that their body is not ready yet, to be dry at night. Simple. They understood.

I'm still going through the potty training with my kids, but my pediatrician told us that night time training will just happen when they are ready. She said some get it right away and others don't.

She also pointed out that if you think about it, it's amazing that any one learns to hold it all night. After all, we are sleeping and relaxed and our body is supposed to keep us from peeing while we are in this relaxed state. :-)

As you have already guessed, daytime and night time training are not the same thing. In my experience, her body just has to be ready, and there are a number of physical reasons she may not be staying dry at night, none of them being under her control. For example, the brain makes an enzyme that signals the kidneys to stop producing urine at night. Her brain may not make that enzyme yet, or in sufficient quantity. Her bladder may not have grown as fast as the rest of her. She may sleep very deeply. Withholding water before bedtime does not help, and may just make the child dehydrated.

That said, I found it best to simply reassure the child that it is not her fault that she is waking up wet, and that when her body is ready, it will begin waking her up in order to go potty at night. Put her in pull-ups and don't make a big deal of it.

My older daughter was daytime trained before 2 years old, yet she didn't stay dry at night until she was almost 5 (which irritated the heck out of her, let me tell you). Her cousin didn't stay dry at night until he was almost 8. My husband remembers wetting the bed until he was 8. It can be genetic sometimes. Oddly, my other daughter took after me and was daytime and night time trained at the same time, at 2 years old. You never can tell, and it's not for lack of trying on the child's part.

My 8 year old granddaughter was potty trained at about 2. She has been dry 1 morning out of her whole life. She is devastated each morning when her pull up is wet. She works very hard to wake up, not drink late, all that we have helped her find out that might keep them wetting. BUT she is still wet every morning.

Her body does not stop producing urine she she goes to sleep and until her brain kicks that in she will continue to be wet each and every single morning.

My 13 year old grandson is wet each and every morning when he wakes up. He is a teenager and is wet every day. He had decided that it will happen when it will happen. He has been to multiple docs and they all say it is not biological. He was molested and this in just one thing he will have to live with until it stops.

The rest of my grand children, ages, 11, 5, 4, 3 are all pretty much dry each morning. The toddler that is 18 months is just starting on being introduced to the potty.

It is completely biological at the age of 26 months and no matter how much you do your child will not be dry overnight for sometime. I would expect a year if she is a normal child. If she does not develop the ability to stop producing urine while sleeping it will be longer.

Get some trainers with covers. While some of it is dependent on genetics and basic biology, you can help them develop awareness by making accidents at night uncomfortable. Taking them to the potty before bath and right before bed also helps.

To answer your question, both of my kids were in trainers at 18-19 months, and both night trained at 21 months. They night trained and poop trained within the same week. I don't know if it was me or them, but they both, boy and girl, had a very similar timeline.

In my current experience, they need to reach a certain level of physical maturity. My DD is great during the day, but we've been trying panties at night and...not going so well. I'm going to keep trying but I think she might just need to wait a little longer. If she's consistently wet after sleep, I'd not worry about night just yet.

S.H. makes excellent points.

You can help this process along a bit by getting them into the habit of going potty before naps and bedtime, and then hussling them to the potty immediately upon waking. I found that both of my boys were often dry when I woke them up for pre-school...so I'd simply immediately take them in to the potty and sit them down.

They both still had accidents...it's just because they're still growing. Be patient.

Very common question on here lately. It totally depends on the child. Mine was potty trained day and night by 3 yo and has never had an accident in bed. As others have mentioned below, nighttime is totally different than daytime.

My guy was 26 months, he did the dry nights on his own, using the potty in his bedroom, even though i wasn't in any hurry, I expected that it would be some time before he stayed dry at night. He pleasantly surprised me : ) My daughter at 18 months, 100% on her own, she pee trained herself, she shocked me!! Some kids don't stay dry at night for years, doctors aren't concerned until they are 7 or 8.

The bottom line is, you don't work on nap/night training, there isn't any such thing. When she is dry after waking up from her nap several days in a row you can try leaving off the pull-up. Nights are longer so it may be awhile, years even as I mentioned, before she goes all night without accidents. It will happen when her body is ready to hold it, or wake up and go to the bathroom during the night. One of my granddaughters has a smaller bladder and sleeps like a rock, she just began staying dry through the night at 9 years.

Also, pull-ups feel like diapers and are actually diapers so when wearing them the familiarity of going in a diaper is there so you may want to use cloth trainers with plastic pants over them so she feels the wet. I honestly believe this is what worked for my little guy, we got rid of the diapers, never used pull-ups, and I believe he did not want to be wet in the bed.

My 5 year old daughter finally started staying dry in December. We stopped using pull ups for her after she woke up dry for 2 or 3 weeks straight. She now either holds it all night or wakes herself up to go during the night. Not one accident yet.

Now my 7 year old daughter still wears a pull up and wakes up wet just about every morning. She has yet to wake up dry more than 3 days in a row. I'm not worried about it, my Dr's not worried about it and it's no big deal in our house. It will happen when it happens.

My nieces and nephews were also all late at night time dryness, so we know it runs in the family.

my daughter (at 27 months) was not dry at night when we started training. she was day trained in 1 week, and night trained about the same time. we used diapers for about 2-3 weeks after just in case until one night we forgot and didn't do them anymore. she wakes when she has to go, and let's us know or goes to the bathroom. some kids are heavier sleepers. i'm not sure there's anything you can do to "train" her. just make sure she knows that even though she is wearing a pull up, she should get up to go potty if she needs to. and, try to cut back liquids after dinner. it is normal to need a diaper at night until 3, 4, or 5 years even.

Every body is different. My son was day trained at 25 months and night at 27 months, but he was never much of a sleep wetter to begin with. Day training is a matter of will and skill. Night training is just nature and habit. It doesn't matter how much you want to stay dry or how well you know how to hold it, when you're sleeping, you're sleeping.

You can help her by limiting liquid before bed and having her go potty just before bed, but that's kind of it.

Other than that you just have to wait.

There's no such thing as night time potty training. As long as you limit fluids for an hour or so before bed, at some point she will just start waking up dry. Help her out by making sure she goes potty right before bed, but don't pressure her or expect her to wake up dry.

I have identical twins that were fully potty trained (day) at 27 months old. One of them stopped wearing diapers to bed at 36 months old and the other is still waking up wet every single morning even though they're just about to turn five.