How would you suggest to potty train at bed time. My daughter has been potty trained during the day for 3 years now but she still has to wear a pull up at night. What do you suggest?
Hi K., My 3 year old is completely potty trained except for a few night time accidents when he sleeps hard.
Just start putting absorbant underpants on her at night. Not a pull up and tell her she has big girl pants on and to get up and go to the potty at night. Also put a night light in the bathroom for her to see. She may get you up but this is what we did with out little boy. He does not always wake us up anymore. He just goes.
My fiance wakes his girls(8 and 5) up to go potty after they have slept for about 3 hours. My 3 year old never had that issue, but she didnt potty train till she was almost 3
Jennifer D is right...cold turkey. Another thing that worked for me, I would get up in the middle of the night (once or twice, I had a newborn and was up anyway) and would go get her and take her to the bathroom and sit her on the toilet. She always pee-ed and went right back to sleep. That might not work for everyone though, it's just an idea.
good luck
Of course stop giving her water before bedtime (start at 1 hour and ease up as she get the hang of it). My daughter had this problem and here is what I did. There is a waterproof pad that you get for cribs- I got a couple of those and she slept directly on top of them at first. That way if she had an accedient all I had to do was change the pad and her, not the sheet and bedding. Definatly drop the pullups. If you want get some padded underware that way she can feel wet. After mine got the idea, I put the pad under her bedding and I tell her before she goes to bed that if she needs to go potty at night to get up. So she thinks about it. Good luck!
The best thing I found to do for my two is to not let them drink more than a few ounces of liquid when it's an hour or less before bedtime, if they want a small sip of water, let them have it, but otherwise, nothing else. A small Dixie cup is perfect.
Then, have her use the bathroom an hour before bed, then again right at bedtime after they brush teeth.
If you go to bed much later than she does, then wake her up and have her go potty. Chances are, she will be a little groggy and won't even remember it in the morning.
If, after all of that, she still wets in her overnight pull-up, you will need to start setting your alarm clock for around 2 or 3 am. Get up, get her up and have her go potty again. If you are the type who can go back to sleep quickly, this is a great way to train them to wake up in the middle of the night if they have to use the bathroom.
Trust me, it is worth it to wake up in the middle of the night if it makes your daughter more confident and less wet in the mornings!
I did all of that for my daughter when she was being potty trained. With my son, I never had to set the alarm, doing everything else worked for him. No two children are alike, though, so at least it gives you some ideas of what has worked for me.
Going cold turkey may work for some kids, as I read below, but then you have an additional problem. When my kids had accidents after being trained off of the nighttime pull-ups (and they all will at some point), I couldn't just change the sheets and clothes and be done. I always also gave the child a shower so they wouldn't get into their beds smelling like pee and being uncomfortable.
For one thing, you just put clean sheets on, why would you want your child to get in smelling like pee? For another, it's just kind of yucky! Believe me, I wet the bed as a child until about the age of 11. I was a bedwetter, and I hated it, and no one ever tried to help me with it, and I wasn't allowed to take a shower afterwards or before school in the morning, so I would have to put powder or whatever on to cover the smell.
If you have to give the child a shower, it is likely that it will be more difficult for her to go back to sleep afterwards. At least with a pullup, you can wipe her with a few wipes and she will be freshened up.
Just my thoughts, and no offense to the people who suggested going cold turkey, it may work well for some people, I am just not one of them! <grin>
Good luck!
This probably isn't what you want to hear, but go cold turkey. Just know that she's going to have accidents. I put layers on my daughter's bed in this order: a waterproof pad (like what you would put in a crib or change a baby on), sheet, waterproof mattress pad, sheet. That way, when (not if) she has an accident, we can just rip off the top wet layers and don't have to search for clean sheets, etc in the middle of the night. She gets less upset and can go back to sleep much faster, which means I go back to sleep faster. We talk about it the next day matter-of-factly and that's it.
I understand some kids have a tough time night time training, so be patient.
Good luck!
J.
my 3 yr old was still wearing pull up until i cut out her liquids after 8pm. went potty a few times before bed, and was ok within a couple of weeks. did have a cpl accidents bt nothing major....
What I did with both of my kids. Their bedtime was 8:00 and I didnt get to go to bed until close to midnight. so I would take them to the bathroom right before bed and we would sit in the bathroom and I would tell them a bedtime story with them on the toilet and they would usually go while we were in there. Then I would take them again right before I went to bed, they would still be half asleep but they would usually go then. Then before my husband left for work at 5:30 in the morning he would take them. Then I usually got up at 8:00 so I would take them then too. They still had some accidents but it was rare. Then they got in the habit of going at those times and my daughter hasn't worn a pull up at night in 2 years and my son hasn't in 1 year and they both still get up and go at those times during the night. You can hear them meet in the bathroom and have to take turns. It is really funny because they are half asleep most of the time. But it worked.
