Night Time Potty Training - La Conner,WA

Updated on June 22, 2011
T.G. asks from La Conner, WA
17 answers

My daughter is two and a half years old and has been potty trained during the day for quite some time now. We have another baby due in Sept. and would love it if we were only buying diapers for one child, but my two year old still wets the bed. We tried cutting her off from drinking anything a couple hours before bed time and even waking her up in the middle of the night to take her potty but she still seems to pee the bed. My oldest daughter pretty much trained herself at night as soon as we had her trained during the day. Does anyone have any suggestions or are we just trying to push this too soon?

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S.H.

answers from Honolulu on

Night time dryness... is not something that is BIOLOGICALLY attained, until even 7 years old. And this is normal.
For naps as well, a diaper is still needed.

Night time dryness, is SEPARATE from day time pottying. It is 2 different things.
And each kid is different.

My daughter was 5 and still in night time diapers.
My daughter even at 7 years old, had night time accidents and was wet.
Normal.

My son is 4, and he is in diapers for naps and bedtime.
A child does NOT get confused. I simply explain to my son that his body is not ready to be dry at night. No biggie.

I also use, waterproof bed pads under my kids, for bedtime.
It makes clean up real easy. The sheets do not get soiled.
If they leak or have an accident, so what. No biggie.
My daughter even had a dream once that she WAS on the toilet, until she felt herself wet. We laughed about it, she changed into new jammies, I changed out the bed-pad, and she went back to sleep.

You cannot train a kid for night time.
You don't wake them just to pee. They need their sleep.

Kids WILL have accidents. It is childhood. No biggie.
No kid, is 100% free of accidents. Day or night.

I never limit drinks at night. If my kids are thirsty they are thirsty. They can eat or drink.

It has to do with the physiological/biological development of a child's brain/bladder/and nerve development.

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J.K.

answers from Phoenix on

My kids wet until ages 12, 8 and 6. My 8 year old still wets. We tried everything. We just have to wait it out. Once they stop, they stop for good. Hang in there. Most children stop sooner than mine did but I was a bedwetter until I was 10 so I guess I passed it on to them. =/

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G.B.

answers from Oklahoma City on

Oh sweetie, this is not going to happen for years. She is not old enough to be dry at night and might not until some time in elementary school.

Buy some night time pull ups so she can pull them up and down like big girl panties when she goes to pee before bedtime and then just let her wear them so you don't have tons of extra work in the laundry room.

It's really hard to have to wash bedding every day. It's also a very high addition to your bills seeing you use extra detergent, extra dryer sheets, extra wash and dry cycles which use lots more water, electricity, and maybe even natural gas. Plus the wear and tear on the bedding, they wear out so much sooner.

Some kids are ready and others are not. I does NO good to wake them up, as soon as they fall asleep and relax they start wetting again because there is no brain connection telling their muscles to clench and hold it. It is not something you can make her do.

Plus, with a new sibling even if you succeeded this week she'd most likely regress after the baby is born and you'd have to do it all over again.

Be kind to your self, let her tell you when she's ready by being dry every night for a couple of months then move up to panties.

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S.W.

answers from Minneapolis on

You can't train kids to sleep dry. My daughter was out of diapers during the day soon after she turned two. She wet the bed, with less and less frequency, until she was eight. The research I've done shows that a percentage of kids will wet the bed at all ages up to about 11 or 12. Restricting fluids in the evenings does not work. Their bodies are just not ready to sleep through the night dry.

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K.A.

answers from San Diego on

It all has to do with the physical maturity of their bladder and related body parts and nothing to do with "training" or "tricks". Their bladder will be able to hold it through the night when it's ready. Waking them in the middle of the night does nothing either, except for make for sleep deprivation.
There is nothing you can do to speed it along, sorry :(

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D.M.

answers from Denver on

My daughter is 4.5. She was trained during the day at 2. She still wears a pull up and has had ONE dry night in her entire life. The Dr. says not to worry, and you don't train at night. It's different. There is a part of your brain/body that has to develop to recognize you have to "go" and will wake you. Until that develops, you can't do much. I'd check with your dr., but likely will just be investing in some night time diapers/pullups. Good luck and congratulations on your new little one!

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P.M.

answers from Portland on

The body, not the child or the parent, trains itself not to wet at night. Cutting off liquids simply isn't up to the job.

There are chemicals the body eventually produces at night that slow down the production of urine, the bladder matures and increases capacity, the sphincter becomes able to lock down better, and sometimes the sleep cycles become lighter so that a full bladder signal can actually wake the child.

For a majority of kids, all this comes together somewhere between 2 and 4, no training required. For an unlucky percentage, they won't get there until as late as adolescence, no matter how badly they wish otherwise.

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R.S.

answers from Dallas on

We just had my son's 3 year checkup and we discussed this; his pediatrician assured me that daytime trained is all we can hope for for a while. She said nighttime dryness is purely a matter of bladder size and NOT training. She also said it tends to be genetic so if you or your husband were 5 or 6 before you were reliably dry all night every night, expect the same from your kids. You didn't say whether your daughter wakes from naps dry or wet still...with my son that really helped me see the difference. He started waking from his nap dry but still wakes in the morning very wet so its clear that he is "trained" because he wants to pee right after he gets up from his nap, but at night the length of time is too long. I thank my lucky stars he sleeps through, pees in his diaper, and doesn't wake me up to pee at night!

One other note in terms of cost...I really don't get pull-ups for nighttime. At 3 my son was just as capable of learning how to unhook the tabs of the diaper in the morning when he wants the wet off him as he was learning to pull a pull-up down. I think pull-ups have their place for daytime training, outings, etc, when you want a little security but still want them to have the ability to use them as underwear if they do make it to the potty. But at night, just keep her diapers I say. They're like 1/3 the cost of pull-ups.

Good luck!

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K.L.

answers from Washington DC on

SH said everything I was going to say. My oldest daughter was in pull-ups until she was almost 8. We tried EVERYTHING. And once I talked to my pediatrician I felt better - she said that for some kids it is just NOT possible to stay dry at night. Something about a hormone they don't produce enough of, which condenses urine at night. Whatever, I finally relaxed about it. One day, about 3 months before her 8th birthday, my daughter said "I'm done with pull-ups" and amazingly, she was! I am not kidding when I say she just simply stopped wearing them. She'll be 10 in August and hasn't had a single accident since that moment. So I guess my advice is this - your daughter will stay dry at night when she is able to. Actually, you said it very well yourself when you said "My oldest daughter TRAINED HERSELF..." Exactly Mama!

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A.W.

answers from Seattle on

Each child is different. When she is ready, she will wake herself up to go to the bathroom and will be dry for at least 30days in the morning. Unless she is doing both of these things, there is no use to try and push this on her as it will not be successful and may backfire. She could revert even daytime training skills. Most kids aren't night time trained until somewhere between 3 and 5. My daughter was fully daytime trained at about 26 months and not night time trained until just after she was 3, and it just naturally occurred, no work on my part. I have heard about other kids that are night time trained early, I know a few and for them it was also natural, no trying on the parents behalf. But that isn't the norm.
Wish I had other advice than saying to not push it....sorry. But it will happen eventually. :-)

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A.L.

answers from Washington DC on

I read the other responses and honestly, I find all that hard to believe.
Now, I know every kid is different. But to set yourself up for six more years of diapers just seems unbelievable to me.
My daughter was potty trained just after 2. She had just turned 3 when she informed me one night (we'd gotten home late) that she didn't want to wear a diaper. I took a deep breath and let her go to bed without one. She had a waterproof mattress cover so I wasn't too worried. She woke up dry. With the exception of a handful of times she has slept dry (she's 4 now). I'd get her up about midnight to go pee for awhile until I realized she'd wake up and do it on her own.
So, the moral to the story (at least from where I stand) is that, yes, biologically some things need to happen, but to automatically assume that your kid is going to be in diapers for nearly the first decade of life seems a little much to me. Wait for some ques from her. I realize not every child will let you know quite as clearly as my child did, but not every child is going to wet the bed until they're 8, either. Every kid is different.
Please also note that on my husband's side of the family they all wet the bed until the 4th grade or so. Genetics is not always going to dominate.

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N.I.

answers from Portland on

Every child is different. You are pushing to hard. Let it happen naturally.

N.

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K.L.

answers from Bellingham on

My 2 and a half year old is at the same point. She hates wearing a diaper and sometimes I let her sleep without one, and sometimes she wakes up dry. Other times not. I tried this experiment for a while but it really seemed random and the hassle wasn't worth it so now she is back in "nighttime diapers" although she wakes up with a dry diaper about half the time. So it really isn't too expensive since I can re-use a lot of the diapers. Also I have some cloth diapers that I also use. You wouldn't need that many and you can find nice covers at consignment stores.

I have three girls and all were out of nighttime diapers by around 3 so I am not worried. I remember with my older two that the dry diapers finally were consistent enough to ditch them.... I don't know if "nighttime training" would work, at least not for all children. One child takes after her father and is a super heavy sleeper. She had night terrors well after she was "night trained" that turned out to be her needing to pee at night and not fully waking up or knowing what was wrong. That was really strange, she would be thrashing and crying with her eyes open but very unresponsive, I would carry her to the toilet and she would pee and then fall immediately back to sleep. Weird! She grew out of that eventually but I still make sure she pees before bed!

Good luck!

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J.D.

answers from Seattle on

Two and a half is way too early for nighttime potty training. Many children are not able to go all night without peeing until age 5. Just buy nighttime pull-ups for her and don't stress about it.

L.G.

answers from Eugene on

Now you know no two children are alike. Don't make a big deal of it. Most girls train themselves not to wet at night by the age of 3 +. You have to have control of the sphincter muscle so as not to wet at night. She does not have it yet.

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

You can't really potty train a child at night. They just start waking up dry one day. It's a good idea to limit fluid intake after dinner because that can help. But you really just have to wait for her body to develop more control before she stops bed wetting. I have a 5 year old that's still in night time diapers and while I WOULD LOVE for him to be diaper free it's just not possible for him. I understand your pain! On the other hand my 2 year old wakes up dry about half the time and doesn't need diapers for nap time anymore. I think he will be out of night time diapers within a few more months. Don't rush it. It's nothing your doing or she's not doing it's purely physiological.

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A.B.

answers from Topeka on

My daughter will be in 4 in July. She has been "daytime" potty trained since right around when she turned 3. It took a little longer for her to stay dry at night, but now she stays dry 99% of the time. So, I don't think it's unreasonable for you to want to work on nighttime potty training. I don't think it's necessarily to be expected that she will wet the bed for several years yet as some moms suggested. Every kid is definitely different. Maybe you could try using cloth diapers or cloth training pants on your two-year old at night for two reasons: First, it will save on the cost of buying regular diapers; Second, she might not like the feeling of a wet, soggy diaper, thus prompting her to get up to go to the bathroom. Good luck, I know potty training can be frustrating and sometimes you just have to let them figure it out in their own time!

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