Nighttime Potty Training - Seattle,WA

What you have heard is correct. Night dryness is not behavioral, it is physiological. When the bladder is mature enough, she will be able to either hold her urine all night, or the urge to go will wake her. This happens usually anytime between the ages of 2 and 5, with some children not developing it until much later, my cousin was 12. To help her along there are only 2 things I can think of. First, limit fluids after dinner, and second, be sure she is actually going while she is asleep and not right after she wakes up. If she is peeing while asleep than physically, she is not ready. One thing that will not work is waking her to go in the middle of the night, all that will do is make everyone tired!

I can tell you what didn't work :) I tried leaving the pull ups off thinking maybe if he felt himself get wet it would have more effect, but it just meant more laundry for me and he won't let me put them back on now.

I wet the bed until I was in my teens, so I have just accepted that he is going to be a bed wetter and we celebrate dry nights and just talk about changing the sheets when he wets the bed. Still he is already feeling shame about it (must be peer pressure) and asks me how he can stop.

So, the last couple of nights I woke him up right before i go to bed and drag him into the toilet while he is half asleep - so far it works, but I still have just as much cleaning to do, it's just in the bathroom now - might be easier with a girl.

I'm curious as to what your answers will be. My kids were 13, 8 and 6 before they were nighttime trained. I now have a 7 year old who still wets. I've tried everything possible. I was also a bedwetter until I was almost 11 years old. UGH! I just pretty much hang in there until they stop their bedwetting, which happens eventually! =) good luck

I believe you'll just need to wait. From everything I've heard from friends with bedwetters and from all the research I've done, it's not really something the child can control. I remember when I was 7 wetting my sleeping bag at summer camp one year. I didn't have any control at all over waking up to pee, I was just wet in the morning. (Talk about embarrassed!)

Adults can't just decide to wake at night to pee, but the full-bladder signals are generally strong enough to get us up. The signals are not yet strong enough in many children, sometimes well into their elementary years. And their bladders are smaller. And the hormones that slow down production of urine during the night haven't kicked in strongly enough.

It will all come together eventually, much to your relief, and your daughter's.

Per our Pediatrician... night time dryness... is not something biologically attained until even 7 years old, and is normal.

My daughter was potty trained from 2 years old. For daytime.
But at night, my daughter, was already 5 years old, and wearing a night time diaper to bed still. She was not dry at night. Then one day, she told us she is fine and wants to wear underwear to bed. So we did. She was fine... but keep in mind, that night time accidents still do occur. That is childhood.

My daughter is 8 now... and just the other night, she had a little pee accident. She sleeps deeply... and once she even had a dream that she WAS on the toilet... until she felt herself wet.
I have waterproof bed pads under my kids... so clean up is way easy. I just replace the bed pad with another one, if they have an accident. No biggie.

We have never woken up our kids at night just to go pee, and have never restricted liquids at night.... just to keep them dry. You figure, a child sleeps at least 10+ hours at night.... and that is a long time... for them to not pee. Even for an adult....

It is hard to make a child, not pee at night... when they are sleeping.... because the flow of pee is not conscious, or involuntary.... when they are sleeping. Until they are older... they will then be able to, biologically and with their body... to awake... when their bladder is full.

My Husband, as a child, was older and still had accidents at night.

all the best,
Susan

My youngest brother wet until he was about 8. My mom used to bring him to the bathroom during the night to help keep dry. Instead of telling him to "go potty," she'd say, "Let's go for a dry walk." Any mention of the bathroom and he'd pee on the spot. I don't know if it helped train him any quicker, but it certainly cut down on middle-of-the-night bedding changes.

My son usually goes in his diaper first thing in the morning when he wakes up because he knows he has one on. The other night my husband forgot to put one on him and first thing he did was ask his dad to take him to the potty because he didn't have a diaper on. He is 3 and half and uses diapers at night. We will still use diapers at night because I'm not about to take a chance yet that this was just a coincidence, plus I would rather him stay in bed an extra hour or half hour then have to get up go to the potty, so perhaps trying the no diaper routine and waking her up and taking her to the potty first thing in the morning might help but be prepared for accidents. Also, no juice in the evening because it is a diuretic. but honestly many many kids wet the bed or wear diapers at night. You are not alone and I'm sure she'll grow out of it eventually.

Night time wetting is not something she can control. There is a chemical in the brain that is not fully developed that helps with this. She will grow out of it when her body/brain are ready. I know it is frustrating & creates a lot of extra laundry, but try to be as matter of fact as possible. I have one 7 yr old (almost 8) that wakes up wet every morning & his 3 1/2 yr old little brother wakes up dry. It is just the luck of the draw... If either you or your husband were bed wetters your are more likely than not also going to produce some bed wetters. GOOD NEWS - it won't last forever! Our pediatrician does not recommend waking kids up once or twice a night to go potty because you don't want to create any sleep issues & it is not a cure anyway.

Just a couple of things to try to reduce the need. Potty before bed (you probably already do this) and no liquids after dinner or like 2 hours before bed.

You don't want to wake them because it can cause growth problems on top of sleep problems. They grow during sleep and if their sleep cycle is messed up, the growth is messed up, too.

Just be patient. If you get ready for bed and then snuggle or read a couple of books, have her go potty again right before lights out. My daughter took awhile to be night trained too, but her little brother was night trained at about a year. Don't know why, just happens.

We've heard the same thing that overnight is a physical development instead of a learned skill.

We put our daughter to bed around 8 each night and then about 3-4 hours later, we get her off her bed, take her to the potty and then take her back to bed. It's a bit tiresome to have to stay up later than we'd like, but she consistently has clean and dry panties in the morning. We think she's had two wet mornings in the past 2 months.

My daughter almost never woke up with a dry diaper, but she asked to wear underwear one night and has woken up dry almost every night since then. I started off saying 'when you are three you will wear underwear to bed', and one day she decided that was the night. (I also had the impression that she was a bit lazy about getting to the potty as long as the diaper was available, so i was willing to take the chance, figuring one washing sheets for a while.) I suppose it COULD work for you, too. We did cut out any drinks post dinner, make sure she peed right before bed, and the first couple of nights i got her up to pee when i checked on her little brother. Those measures quickly became unnecessary as she proved her ability.

i am no expert by any means, but i will tell you that if nighttime potty training is 100% physical and not behavioral, then my son's bladder literally shrank when he had overall potty training regression due to a move and a new school. he was 100% potty trained, daytime and nighttime, at 3 years old. we weren't buying pullups and he hadn't had an accident for probably five or six months. then he regressed and although we got him back on track with daytime (we reverted to square 1 with a sticker chart and everything) he still has not woken up dry one time since he regressed, about 8 months ago. just my experience. (ps, i went thru what susan did - i tried leaving the pullups off, for almost two weeks, after he'd been "back on track" for a couple months and still hadn't stayed dry at night - NOPE! didn't work at all. so i decided right then and there to quit pressuring him about it. we just shut up about it and kept buying pullups. thank goodness we got him back on track during the day - i am happy with that for now...)

It is completely a matter of physical development if she's never woken up dry. There are some training systems that can be used that detect when wetness happens and wake the child up immediately. I don't know what age is appropriate to start using that type of thing. I would think a little older. You could set an alarm to wake yourself up so you can take her to the potty around midnight or so, or have her continue to wear pull ups.